Updates and RC List Changes
December 23, 2015 4 Comments
Updates
- IPO Processing Times: Average I-526 and I-924 processing times both show marked improvement in the most recent IPO update from the USCIS website.
- New AAO Decisions: A couple more AAO decisions on I-526 cases have been uploaded to the 2015 folder on the USCIS website. DEC042015_02B7203 (Matter of H-Y-) is particularly colorful. The petitioner took a path common to failed EB-5 petitions: apparently trying to put an existing business into a new shell and sell it as a new business with job creation. But she met with aggressive investigation from the USCIS adjudicator, who sorted evidence with a fine-toothed comb and searched out company information online and even called the business and talked to an employee.
- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has published a 118-page
Report on the Review of the Definition of “Accredited Investor” (December 18, 2015)- EB-5 Legislation: I’ve decided not to give regular legislative updates, assuming that you have your own sources if you care about this topic, and that I should resist the comments I’m tempted to make. (There have been several recent additions to the legislative sausage factory– see the IIUSA blog for links. The EB5 Insights blog discusses a substantive new Manhattan-approved entry in detail.)
Regional Center List Changes
New approvals and name changes on the USCIS Regional Center List, 12/08/2015 to 12/22/2015
- American Immigration Group-NYRC (Connecticut, New Jersey, New York): eb5aig.net
- American Lending Center Georgia, LLC (Georgia): www.usedlc.com
- New Empire EB-5 Regional Center, LLC (Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania)
- QueensFort Capital California Regional Center, LLC (California): queensforteb5.com
- Seattle Pacific Area Regional Center, LLC (Washington)
- South Pacific Regional Center, LLC (Hawaii)
- Texas Coast Regional Center Corporation (Texas)
Renamed:
- Continental Regional Center LLC (former name USA Continental Regional Center, LLC) (California)
- Fleet New York Metropolitan Regional Center LLC (former name Federal New York Metropolitan Regional Center) (New York)
- Invest Midwest Regional Center (former name Civitas Indiana Regional Center) (Indiana)
- CUCC Business Regional Center, Inc (former name U.S. Business Regional Center Inc.) (New York)
Additions to the list of Terminated Regional Centers
- Twin Development LLC Regional Center (Washington) terminated 12/8/2015
EB-5 Updates 
Waited 22 months for a decision from USCIS, pleaded with them to give a decision as we could not afford to wait forever ( Not everyone with 500,000 is rich ) , after all that time still could not get an answer from them. Case withdrawn with loss of Attorney fee and Adminstrative charges.
Whoever is reading this, especially if you are willing to apply for EB-5, just bear in mind that there can be a deadlock in communication once your application is submitted. The USCIS has great immunity, which allows them not to answer or respond. This is so sad and disappointing, USCIS is representing a country that everyone looks upto, I come from a poor country and all I can say that I have never been treated like this even in a 3rd world country. Not only our dream to live legally in the USA has been quashed but for the last two years we have been treated improperly by the USCIS. There is a lot more that I can write but instead I would say do follow your dreams but be very very careful, this program is not as simple as it seems and USCIS is playing its part to make it even more difficult.
Probable excuse : We are back logged, not many adjudicating officers.
My suggestion : please don’t take new applications then !
Underlying Intel : Don’t process the new applications so the back log stays.
Result : People will either withdraw their files or wait forever to be processed.
Disgraceful ! All I can say.
I am so sorry to hear about your experience, and thank you for taking time to write about it. If you would like to write this in form of a short article, I will link to it on my EB-5 resources page so that new EB-5 investors can be educated about potential problems. You might also consider emailing about your experience to the IPO customer service mailbox (http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/permanent-workers/employment-based-immigration-fifth-preference-eb-5/eb-5-customer-support) and the CIS ombudsman (http://www.dhs.gov/case-assistance). USCIS really is overworked, with limited budgetary discretion, no control over demand, and no authority to limit the number of petitions. But when they’re overwhelmed with numbers, it’s easy for them to forget the human cost of individual petitions that fall through the cracks. Being reminded about a painful personal story like yours might possibly help spur them on to implement such improvements as are possible. When average processing time is reportedly at 12 months, and many investors are getting decisions within that timeframe, there shouldn’t be petitions that take 22+ months to process.
Suzanne, thanks for taking the time to write and publish these thoughtful summaries. We’ve been reading them for quite some time now, and we have always found them to be very helpful and informative.
We are EB-5 investors and managed to file our i-526 just before the Sep 30th deadline; given the number of new applications on the last few months, we were expecting the processing times to go up, not down. If they keep around 12 months, we will probably be entering the US with our temporary green cards in early 2017 at most! Yay! 🙂
Merry Christmas and a Happy 2016!
—
Vall & Mo.
I hope that your process goes smoothly! Thank you for your comments.