EB-5 I-829 RFEs: What Does USCIS Look for?
June 3, 2012 2 Comments
“EB-5 I-829 RFEs: What Does USCIS Look for?” (© 2012 Stephen Yale-Loehr, Robert C. Divine, and Sonia Sujanani) asks a question of vital importance for all of us in the EB-5 community. What does USCIS look for when it reads an I-829 petition and decides whether to give the investor a permanent green card or removal proceedings? Statistics show that USCIS denied 30% of I-829 petitions adjudicated in FY2008, 14% in 2009, 17% in 2010, and 4% last year. What went wrong in the cases that were denied? What common pitfalls can we prepare to avoid? What kind of documentation does USCIS expect to see in the I-829 petition, particularly with respect to verifying job creation? The article addresses these questions by analyzing 895 pages of redacted I-829 requests for evidence and denials recently released by USCIS in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by IIUSA. I encourage you to read the article for a full analysis of this trove of I-829 information. [2014 Update: A Cumulative Analysis of What USCIS Looks For in EB-5 I-829 RFEs and Denials]
EB-5 Updates 
So what happens if you relied on gross revenue as the input at the I-526 to drive the job creation model for a hotel project that takes 2 years to building. USCIS approved the I-526 (and thus agreed with your pro-forma estimates and assumptions driving the job creation model). At the 829 stage, you won’t have operating history to prove out the pro-forma (assuming you opened for business in 2 years and can evidence that). What will USCIS look for in terms of proving out the operational jobs? Will they just make sure that you’ve executed the business plan, spent the money you said your were going to spend, and opened the doors to the hotel you said you were going to build, and assume that the gross revenue will follow (the jobs will be created within a reasonable amount of time)?
I think the real nightmare about I-829 is that many CPRs did not file I-829 at all. Why? It is not possible all those CPR gave up? How many projects, regional centers did not exist, did not qualify to file I-829? No statistics (only inference from I-526 approval statistics and I-829 filing statistics)