For better or worse, RIA is the law. The plaintiff regional centers are trying to preserve as much of the pre-RIA status quo as possible, while DHS is fighting for time and leeway to ensure RIA compliance. (Note that the table below only reflects my interpretation/suggestion to USCIS. Visas issued in 2022 reduced those queues by 6,125 visas to China, 1,381 visas to India, and 815 visas to Vietnam. Congress About to Pass a Reformed Version of EB-5 Re-authorization I have noted no IPO adjudicator job announcements yet this year at USAjobs.gov (only five openings for management staff) UPDATE: but a reader informs me that there was an IPO adjudicator job announcement that closed recently. The word back has become extremely popular, but the regional center program is not back in the sense of back to the way it was before. Regional centers are moving forward and finding their feet on a new footing: a law with new requirements and restrictions. Country cap removal keeps being pushed in Congress because Employment-Based visas have a live issue painful backlogs. Apparently applicable on an on-going basis to EB-5 investor funds that must be maintained at risk. The orders content has been misrepresented in the PR Ive seen about it so far, so caution is needed. Based on processing trends and factors observable so far, I expect that a significant number of non-Chinese who filed I-526 in 2019-2022 will not have received a visa yet by October 2024 due to slow processing, and thus impacted by country cap removal. Its not like stakeholder meeting comments, which can disappear into the void. I hope for more transparency from USCIS in 2023! Fiscal Year 2022 ended with a total of 590 I-526 approvals and 825 denials/withdrawals; in other words, $295+ million in EB-5 investment yielded a chance to pursue a visa while $423.5+ million was invested without resulting in any chance to immigrate. June 30th, 2023 8:48 am. Pay attention to volume trends, and to the distribution of filing dates being adjudicated. My best guess is that if Congress acts soon to eliminate country caps, and if the country cap elimination takes effect in FY2025 as proposed, then it will have the following EB-5 effects. Prodded by litigation, USCIS has made limited adjustments to the EB-5 pages on the USCIS website. EB-5 visa can help international students save more than $35,000 per year on tuition fees. IPO is not quite the hospital with 300 busy administrative staff and no doctors or medical service as described in Yes Minister, but its on the spectrum. However, the specific content of the annual report is specific to the basis of regional center designation. Escrow protection will be possible. This post comments on highlights, followed by data tables summarized from the reports. Its dreadful that this question remains open. Discussed IPO communications team staffing and responsibilities. Just 188 I-526/I-526E were filed in July to September 2022. FY2022 Q3 Performance Data Report Excerpt. Could I at least have the hope of believing that todays non-engagement was an act of intentional malice by people who know what theyre doing? Without country caps, the wait times for China-born EB-5 applicants with pre-2022 priority dates will at least have a predictable ceiling, instead of being potentially nearly infinite as is the sad case under country caps plus reserve visas. As noted above and with reference to the Behring Settlement Agreement, a previously-approved regional center is only required to amend its designation under subparagraph (E) for the purposes of sponsoring new projects and new investors under the Integrity Act.. There is obviously no on-going need to certify compliance for activities in which an RC does not engage. (USCIS justified the announcement with the interpretation that RIA cancelled all pre-RIA regional center designations.) Read More. Here is a copy of an email I received yesterday from USCIS, inviting people who have filed a form with USCIS in the past 12 months (or their advocates) to apply for participation in a focus group. EB-5 Regional Center Program Reauthorization Efforts - National Law Review (For future reference, Im also adding this engagement to my Meeting Log of USCIS EB-5 engagement reports going back to 2009. July 2023 Visa Bulletin: Overview and Predictions 2. Also, pointing out which applicants the visa office accounts for in setting monthly visa bulletin dates, which applicants (by contrast) we need to account for in estimating visa wait times, and what all that means for predicting future action dates. May 16th, 2023 H-1B and other visa holders are turning to EB-5 More foreign workers and other valid visa holders are considering the EB-5 route.. Read more EB5Investors.com Staff May 15th, 2023 Show All Free Evaluation Please fill out the form to get started Current location EPL 2023, Tottenham, James Maddison opens up on Ange Postecoglou Consular processing numbers were also depressed overall compared with FY2019, reflecting on-going struggles with post-COVID backlogs. (I used to assume that the 7% applied to categories as a whole, not subcategories, but Charles Oppenheim recently set me straight. EB5 Latest News 2023 Visa Bulletin March 2023: Additional Delays for India, Progress in Chinese EB-5 Backlog. EB-5 issuers will be constrained to make offerings that can and do bear scrutiny as investments. Meanwhile, new investors in reserved categories have to sweat over limited availability (with just 20%, 10% or 2% of visas available in each new lane, further restricted under the 7% country cap) and guessing the time for I-526 filings to invisibly build and max out that limited availability. This significant increase in the backlog of pending EB-5 petitions will be detrimental to Indian EB-5 investors who filed their EB-5 petitions before March 2022. (For example, if USCIS truly holds the untenable standard that that each investors eligibility is contingent on the lawful source of funds for each other investor in the NCE, then the Form I-526 should reflect that standard, and request lawful source of funds documentation for NCE investors other than the petitioner. I do not know what policy USCIS will create or how USCIS will interpret and apply RIA. At the EB-5 listening session on April 29, 2022, USCIS Director Jaddou recognized that The EB-5 investor program allows individuals to become vital and contributing members of the United States. USCIS to Start Collecting Fee for EB-5 Integrity Fund. 2022 was naturally confusing for the Visa Office, which had to deal with a mid-year law change and leadership change. Amidst the flux on the USCIS website, litigation disputes, questionable new forms, and guidance thats here today and may be gone tomorrow, this reliable foundation remains: RIA is law. But how could anyone have guessed? Needless to say, USCIS did not intend to share such granular and timely data. And heres the Settlement Agreement. LCR Analysis of SEF Statistics | April 2023 . Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos I was surprised mainly by the number of Canadians on this years list (why, Canada?) But generally, the advertised job openings are not obviously specific to new processes or requirements associated with RIA. See also U.S. Over the last five years, there have very few EB-5 updates from USCIS, and only three events that could be considered engagements in the sense of involving any dialogue between USCIS and EB-5 stakeholders. Since May 2022, the Investor Program Office has stabilized into a new stride of 100-140 decisions per month each for I-526 and I-829, with decisions spanning a wide range of filing dates. Or did many Indians get lucky just because they happened to be in the US, unlike most Chinese and Vietnamese EB-5 applicants with earlier priority dates? Immigrant visas are authorized under the Regional Center Program through Sept. 30, 2027. If IPO thinks that May 2022 was anywhere near back to normal, were in trouble. We will have policy for regional center compliance. Regional Center Operations: We will discuss issues related to regional center operations, in particular those who wish to withdraw from the program and terminate their status and those who do not wish to solicit investments for new projects under the RIA. As per program regulations, the investment needs to create 10 new jobs in America for a period of few years. The bright side is that consular problems affect not only EB-5 but also family-based visa issuance, and EB-5 benefits in 2023 from a share in FB visas that went un-issued in 2022 (as reflected in 2023s unusually high EB visa limit). A closer look at the data reveals other details of interest. In the most recent officially-reported quarter (January to March 2022), IPO completed 24x fewer I-526 than in the same period in 2018. Despite what the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act said, the published FY2023 annual limit for EB-5 visas is exactly and only 7.1% of the EB limit. (I wish that policy could be litigated on behalf of the over 18,000 EB-5 visas lost during the expiration.) (Personally I would not file I-526 relying on an I-924 exemplar approval without I-956F, since I-924 had half the content required for an exemplar under the new law plus different approval standards, and any material change cancels exemplar deference according to the new law.) Report of the Visa Office 2022 does segregate EB-5 visas into 5th Unreserved and 5th Set-Aside categories, reflecting changes to visa availability made by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act enacted March 15, 2022. As clarified by the Settlement Agreement in the Behring litigation, the requirement to apply for regional center designation with I-956 is specifically for the purposes of sponsoring new projects and new investors under the Integrity Act.. The graphic illustrates that, from new project starts to project completions, loan repayment, jobs creation, school openings and student enrollment, even in a challenging year, GreenAccess' project quality and process efficiency deliver safely and predictably. 1153(b)(5)(A)(i). Previous Post. EB5 Visa Cost & Requirements Revealed | EB5 News 2022 - YouTube USCIS has not determined what will happen to regional centers that choose not to file Form I-956. I saw this update on Christmas Eve and thought about leaving the nieces and nephews to report on it, but why? Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Citizenship and Immigration Services: Actions Needed to Address Pending Caseload, RIA Implementation Update (website, forms, litigation,processing), IIUSA Notice of Motion for Summary Judgment, Approved EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Centers, EB-5 Questions and Answers (updated April 2022), USCIS Policy Manual Volume G Part G Investors, Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Standalone Investor, Form I-526E, Immigrant Petition by Regional Center Investor, Behring injunction shifts compliancerisks, Order Granting Plaintiffs Motion for a Preliminary Injunction, Regional Center reporting and NCE approval formsreleased, Comments on the new Form I-956 Application for RegionalCenter, 4/29 USCIS Q&A and Listening SessionReport, FY2021 EB-5 visas issued by country, and analysis of constraints on visaissuance, May 2022 Visa Bulletin with ReserveVisas, USCIS alert on regional centerdesignation, Impact of Reserved Visas in the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (analogy, law, data, application, Oppenheimcomments), Text of EB-5 law enacted as of March 15,2022, Looking to March 11, 2022 (legislation andlitigation), FY2021 Q4 update on I-526 and I-829Processing, How and why RC program law affects RC petitionprocessing, Many vacancies posted March 2023 and May 2023, Adjudication: Grant or deny regional center applications, Adjudication support: Review adjudicative decisions, Adjudication support: Conduct and apply economic research, Adjudication support: Supervise adjudicators, Adjudication Officer (Inquiry Management), Customer service: Oversee and resolve case inquiries, Customer service: Handle FOIA request response. Questions for consideration:If you would like to submit a question in advance on one of the three topics we will be covering during this engagement (direct and third party promoters, sustainment, or regional center operations), please send your question to the Public Engagement mailbox at [email protected] with the subject line Question: EB-5 Engagement March 20, 2023 by 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10. Join US Immigration Fund and DM Consultants for a free seminar on the EB-5 Visa Programme. EB-5 What's New | USCIS Home Working in the United States Permanent Workers Employment-Based Immigration: Fifth Preference EB-5 EB-5 What's New EB-5 What's New This page provides the latest information on the EB-5 program. But even with the most optimistic assumptions on future visa availability, Chinese who filed I-526 from October 2016-March 2022 and Indians who filed I-526 from November 2019-March 2022 could face five or more years of waiting just for conditional permanent residence. 45 Comments. These forms have material that RIA unambiguously requires USCIS to collect and review for all regional centers, including those designated prior to RIA, and RCs should benefit from getting that submission and review done as soon as possible. Not applicable, since this section calls for a fee to be collected from each regional center designated under subparagraph (E). It does not reference regional centers designated in Section 610 of the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1993. Ill write more about unreserved and reserved visa availability and wait time issues in separate articles. ); 1:08 David Morris (encouragement to engage, focus specific issues, suggest ANPRM); 1:12:13 Rohit Kapuria (does previously-approved RC without immediate new projects need to file both I-956 and I-956G this year? They describe activities that the organization plans to undertake, reflect priorities, and provide insight into internal processes. Perhaps, after engaging in a reasoned decisionmaking process and considering the competing policy factors, the agency could conclude that Behring and the other previously authorized regional centers can no longer operate until they have successfully reapplied by submitting new I-956 petitions. Hot. People in government and industry who want to pave the way for future EB-5 investment and more I-526 (I-526E) filings must look at processing factors as of today. EB-5 Visa Latest News & Insights by Carolyn Lee PLLC Both the government and stakeholders will put stock in what happens after investors make investments and file petitions. See the base of this page for links to accepted channels of communication for submitting feedback. (Click on the View More Documents button to see what youre commenting on.) Recent job postings provide hope that a larger staff and process improvements will eventually result in improved outcomes. USCIS has not yet decided whether it will take the position that RIA requirements, such as fund administrators and audits, apply to pre-RIA projects. Close All Open All Alerts News Close All Open All Im also watching the USCIS website EB-5 page, to see if/when USCIS exercises their power to choose another basis for making regional center sponsors undergo some kind of review process before new regional center petitions can be accepted. In response to a followup question, Acting Compliance Division Chief Andrew Driscoll Black indicated that a previously-approved regional center must file both I-956 and I-956G this year or be subject to termination, but then admitted that he hadnt thought about the scenario where a previously-approved RC simply doesnt have immediate plans to sponsor new projects, and thus no occasion to apply right away to sponsor new projects. In a situation where I-526 filing numbers turn into future priority dates for visa issuance, why might anyone possibly want to ask about filing numbers? New job postings likewise offer plenty of non-adjudicative work. Thursday, February 10, 2022. The unusually high AOS numbers reflect the fact that USCIS got political pressure and made herculean efforts at the end of FY2022 to step up work on employment-based status adjustments, even as consular processing continued to struggle post-COVID. Administrative support: Analyze processes to improve productivity and increase quality. Ive carefully assembled below a table highlighting data to help ground thinking about these factors. On April 11 and April 29, the USCIS website posted announcements to the effect that regional centers needed to wait for USCIS to approve new designation applications before sponsoring EB-5 investment. USCIS Announces New EB-5 Regional Center Program On March 15, President Biden signed a law that includes authority for an EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Center Program and various implementation effective dates for the program. The visas available to India back when you filed I-526 must still be available to you now, right? Policy: Oversee the development of policies for regional center compliance. We need more predictability at the time of investment/I-526 filing about the availability and even existence of the visa that incentivized the investment. The new EB-5 set-aside categories remain enticingly Current in the Visa Bulletin, which means nothing for planning because the Visa Bulletin cannot see and does not flag crowds, if any, when they start at the I-526 stage. Based on the latest statistics published by USCIS, the average processing times for I-526 petitions, I-829 petitions and I-924 applications all exhibit improvement in the last week of November 2020, encouraging news for the EB-5 community.. To better illustrate the recent EB-5 processing times updates, IIUSA prepared this data report with analyses and visualizations for I-526, I-829 and I-924 . As an aside, note that USCIS is making what might be a good faith effort to improve case processing reporting, and solicits public input. The exemplar process will only be effective if IPO can process NCE approval requests quickly enough to provide a reliable basis for approvable investor petitions. Here is the report that we need to have USCIS start publishing, at minimum quarterly and at minimum with data no less than three months old. See minute 19:08 and 1:00:00 of my recording. If anyone would like to leak reasons to me, please reach out on email, phone, or Telegram. Who bears the burden of waiting for USCIS to ensure regional center compliance under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA)? With country caps, on the other hand, new petitioners from some countries other than China and India might be advised to invest outside a TEA to qualify for an unreserved visa, since 7% of 68% is a lot more visas available than 7% of 20%, 7% of 10%, or 7% of 2%. In practice, IPO processing output has been very low for an office with 200+ employees mostly earning $100,000+ per year each. Visa operations generally are improving, though not back to normal. EB-5: Investors Don't miss the next Visa Bulletin changes! and Iranians (considering the often arduous source of funds path). My document lists all open positions during the past year, with duties and qualifications for each, and links to the original job postings (as saved in my files, since most are no longer live at USAjobs.gov). USCIS data reports show the total size of the EB-5 form workload, and the rate at which USCIS is working on it. But whoever drafted todays USCIS fee policy did not recognize a grey area. February 10, 2023 When the U.S. government offers an investor visa incentive, at the same time making it impossible for the investor or issuers to estimate visa availability at the time of investment, Id call that fraud by the government. Last week, USCIS updated the Immigration and Citizenship Data page with reports for FY2022 Q3 (April to June 2022). Struggling to avoid RIA compliance can only lead to failure, for industry and investors. Not applicable, since RCs not soliciting investment are not engaged in offers, purchases, or sales of securities, or in providing investment advice the activities subject to securities law compliance. Citizenship and Immigration Services