State Department Projects FY 2014 Backlogs for Chinese EB-5 Investor Visas

Legal Alerts

1.13.14

The U.S. Department of State has tentatively projected backlogs developing in the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa category for FY2014 for applicants from China.

The EB-5 visa is available to foreign nationals who invest $500,000.00 or $1 Million in a U.S. business or USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services)-approved regional center. If approved, it provides the investor with a two-year conditional permanent resident (“green card”) status. Near the end of two years, the investor is required to submit an application to remove the conditional status by demonstrating, among other things, the investment remains in place and, if made directly into a U.S. business, the investment has created at least 10 jobs for U.S. workers.

The State Department recently advised the American Immigration Lawyers Association that approximately 80% of all EB-5 applications come from Chinese nationals and provided its evaluation of current application information which showed:

  1. The establishment of a cut-off date is possible for Chinese EB-5 applicants;
  2. Nationals of all other countries would not be affected by a cut-off date;
  3. The State Department predicted the earliest a cut-off date would be established would be July, 2014; and
  4. It is more likely a cut-off would happen in August or September, 2014.

The State Department also provided the following statistical information regarding active applications at the National Visa Center:

  1. 966 cases have priority dates in 2011;
  2. 2,969 cases have priority dates in 2012; and
  3. 813 cases have priority dates in 2013.

Based on these numbers and the estimated number of applications pending with the USCIS, a cut-off date could be retrogressed more than one year.

If it occurs, this cut-off would apply to all Chinese EB-5 applications regardless of whether they are made directly into a qualifying U.S. business or made through a regional center.

For more information about this and other Immigration issues, please contact the author of this alert, James G. Aldrich, Jr., at jaldrich@dykema.com or 248-203-0583.


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