I-526 processing time (Part I)
December 28, 2017 51 Comments
Update: I have deleted this now-outdated post and replaced it with How long does I-526 take? (Part III)
Filed under EB-5 Resources, EB-5 Statistics
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Suzanne Lazicki is a business plan writer, EB-5 expert, and founder of Lucid Professional Writing. Contact me at suzanne@lucidtext.com (626) 660-4030.
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EB-5 Updates 
Will an approved I-924 help shorten processing time of I-526?
Communications from IPO (in the document linked to my post) at least indicate that I-526 processing times can be longer if IPO is seeing a project for the first time (ie there’s no approved I-924 and no previously-approved I-526). I’m not sure how much exemplar approvals can shorten times, however.
FYI: I filed I-526 with an exemplar project in April and got I-526 approval in December…
Hi johnson….can u pls elaborate which year you filed and how much time it took for you to get approved…are u talking april 2016 or 2017
Filed in April 2017 and approved in December 2017.
Not sure what is going on in my case that made it happen so fast.
However it doesn’t really help me since I’m from China.
Thats pretty fast approval for the 526 stage
Hi Suzanne, Your blog is a good source of information, and is much appreciated. The processing time updates are always confusing, but guess it is the oldest file which is being reviewed / re reviewed. Just wanted to share, a petitioner who had a priority date of June 2016, did receive an I 526 approval in Dec 2017, which shows a lead time of about 18 months.
Correction – I did read the dates wrong. Petition filed in Oct 2016, received an I526 approval in Dec 2017. Lead time of about 14 months.
Dear RC
I’m very interested to learn about this, where it shows that Oct 2016 petition got an approved I 526 in December 2017 ?
I’m in the same boat, as my file was submitted in Sept 2016, please advise your source of details
Thank you
I submitted my petition in June 2016. According to the spreadsheet it will take a predicted 20 months – or Feb 2018. Anyone have experiences of approval after June 2016? Will they be approved sooner or later than 20 months?
Hi, Can you share whether you have filled through Direct Investment or Regional center?
Regional Center
RC, I am very curious to know where you got this information from ? Does that mean that there is a cherry picking process in play ? Can anyone shine any light on how an Oct 2016 application can be processed “out of queue” ?
Suzanne, Any comments on the processing methodology ?
SK — IPO has consistently said that they try to provide more-or-less first-come-first-served service (see the “IPO Times Quotes” document linked in my post above for detail), but we know that in fact quite a few petitions end up getting processed earlier than others. In October 2017, the Department of State reported that they already had nearly 2,000 EB-5 visa applications with priority dates after 2015, which means that USCIS must have approved over 600 petitions from 2016/17 even as they reported they were working on 2015 priority dates. Some of this might be due to expedite requests, but I suspect that IPO’s process is just too complex to keep petitions in line. (DOS report in this post https://blog.lucidtext.com/2017/10/26/visa-numbers-update-vietnam-india-tea-reform-proposal-rc-audit-change/)
Suzanne, you mentioned about the expedited request for the I-526 petition processing. What is the expedited request when premium processing is not available for the I-526 petitions ?
See for example:
https://my.uscis.gov/helpcenter/article/what-is-the-difference-between-premium-processing-and-expedited-processing
https://my.uscis.gov/helpcenter/article/can-i-request-that-my-case-be-expedited-when-i-file-it
Hi Suzanne, I need your help to understand few things which I have just read. Can approved regional center be considered an exemplar one ? My understanding is regional center considered approved only when associated I 924 of the RC is approved. Is that correct ?
There are two contexts for filing I-924: for initial designation as a regional center, and with an “exemplar” project for project pre-approval. A regional center must be approved before I-526 can be filed. The regional center is not exemplar; a project can be “exemplar” if I-526 paperwork is filed with a Form I-924 initial review in advance of being filed with real investor I-526 petitions.
Thank you for your response, Understood now, 1 more thing ,Do you have a link or data available to show how many I 526 been approved per regional center so far ? I know USCIS published this in a past and removed it , but wanted to see if you have previously reported data available somewhere.
thanks
EB5 Projects re-posted the data originally published and then removed by USCIS (https://eb5projects.com/i526-approved-denied-forms). Just keep in mind that these are the uncorrected numbers.
Thank you for your help ! , I was able to locate the regional center data with whom I have pending I 526 .
The link you have posted from eb5projects.com about the acceptance/denials is so valuable. I have been researching for a few months and couldn’t come across that data-which i was badly looking for. You should start a paid-membership site. people like me will gladly pay for your research.
Thank you for the encouragement! And by the way, I should emphasize that I don’t post that acceptance/denials list myself because USCIS withdrew it due to errors. You can use it for general reference, but keep the fact of errors in mind. (At least, the denial statistics are off because the USCIS database classifies withdrawn petitions as denials.)
Dear Raed, the approval is of a petitioner, whom i know. He received Approval Notice from USCIS. However, I also have a friend who filed petition in Sep 2016, but not received approval as yet. I was informed the delay could be because of the back log with the processing officer. Both the applicants were for the same project.
That’s great
Thank you so much for the nice update
Dear Suzanne, first of all, thank you very much for your blog on EB-5, It is the definitive source for all information related to EB-5 rules & regulations.
I wanted to seek your opinion on the matter of the waiting line for mainland chinese investors, which will consequently affect other Nationals also. Wolfsdorf Rosenthal LLP in their Dec 17 2017 post on their website (https://wolfsdorf.com/blog/why-january-2018-eb5-visa-number-unavailable/)
“There is however some potential good news for mainland Chinese investors in the EB-5 waiting line. A new bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives called the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2017 which would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to: (1) eliminate the per country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrants and (2) modify the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992 to eliminate the provision requiring the reduction of annual Chinese immigrant visas to offset status adjustments under such Act.”
From what I could gather on the web, HR 392 is only related EB-2 & EB-3 category folks – The high skilled ones. Unlike Eb-5 investors, where high skill is not a requirement. I was puzzled why Wolfsdorf would post such a statement, unless there are some rumblings within congress whereby they are trying to bunch up the EB-5s with the EB-2 & EB3s. Have you heard anything in this regard? Thank you.
Here is a link to the text of HR 392: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/392/text. If you follow all the links to original statute and match the language, you can solve the question of whether or not this would only apply to EB-2 and EB-3, or to all EB categories. I didn’t find a restriction, but didn’t spend long on the task. I haven’t heard recent rumblings about this bill.
Hi Suzanne,
Congratulations for your blog. Very amazing information resource.
Can you help me? I´m doing a job presentation and I need to know how many Brazilians got the EB5 visa in 2017. I found about (2015 and 2016, 34 and 150) but coudn´t find anything about 2017.
Do you know something about? Or where can I find it?
Regards
Francisco
Data on EB-5 visas by country for 2017 has been published in Table V. Part 3 at this link: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/annual-reports/report-of-the-visa-office-2017.html
Hi Suzanne,
Thanks for your blog and your efforts on providing the most updated info.
Some fresh info for you and other petitioners who are not from China. Couple of days ago I got surprisingly quick approval of my I-526 (notice issued on 05 Jan 2018, in less than 15 weeks, which may be record time – priority date is 29 Sep 2017). We are really lucky. Now I see the Visa Bulletin for Feb 2018 shows “Unavailable” for EB-5 visas. Could you please advise what it really means and what is the most realistic date for Consular processing and visa interview?
Wow, that is fast for I-526 approval! Very interesting! The Feb 2018 visa bulletin shows “unavailable” for RC visas because of the upcoming RC program sunset date on Feb 8. When the RC program is authorized past February, then the “U” will change to “C” in the Feb 2018 Visa Bulletin for RC visas.
Congratulations Art on speedy 526 processing . What project were you subscribing too. I read elsewhere that certain categories of projects were getting approvals faster. Would be interesting to know which category yours falls under.
For sure, it has exemplar 526 and in terms of petion approvals number it is one of the top most approved regional center projects in NYC area.
Nice, I am assuming it’s the Related companies project then.
Wow that is really quick, which Regional center did you apply under?
Congrats on quick approval
I am wondering how can someone without any expedite process get their I-526 approval in 15 weeks. May be a special project or a using a lawyer who knows their way around the legal system. This is almost a miracle. Congratulations.
Projects which have exemplar 526 approval also are known to have faster processing times.
As a non Chinese, my friend did his investment under regional center exampler project a little over 13 months ago and hasn’t had any communication on his I-526 approval. That is why I feel it’s a miracle getting an I-526 approval in 15 weeks that is approximately 3.5 months. Remarkable.
Hi Suzanne, Thanks for the updates and good info on EB5..I see faster approvals for RC..I have filed my case in Direct investment in Mar2017..do you or any see any recent approvals? I see Direct investment is taking much longer than RC..do you know usually how longer will be the processing time for Direct? your inputs are more appreciated
If you read Julia Harrison’s comments at the last stakeholder meeting (copied in the Word document linked to this post), she says two things about direct I-526 processing (1) that direct petitions are in a separate queue and adjudicated by a separate team from regional center petitions; (2) that the direct EB-5 team leader communicates with the RC side about the dates being processed on the RC side, to try to keep adjudications in tandem. So apparently their intent is to keep processing times about the same for direct and RC petitions. But anecdotal evidence suggest that this ideal often isn’t accomplished.
hi sasi can u send me your contact details this is raj to discuss on direct investment even i have invested on direct eb 5 april 2017
Raj, did you get any update on your case? I am also planning to start EB5 but confused between direct and RC. Do you mind sharing your contact details (Email/Phone) as I need some details how you decided and what was the process?
Nam, I emailed your comment and contact directly to Raj.
Hi Nam, I have invested Via the RC route. Let me know if you have any questions. We can chat. Email me at Ashok_a at yahoo.com
Hi Suzzane, sorry I did not get the word document link, can you please repost it?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9nhw2axfbkk6t20/IPO%20Times%20Quotes.docx?dl=0
Suzanne
I have a suggestion. Could you start a crowd-sourced page or excel database where people can post certain essential information about their approved petitions such as their country of birth, I-526 filing date, I-526 approval date, whether the project was exemplar, etc.?
(You can design it with the appropriate column headings.) Disclosure of the name of the project can be optional. A centralized database like this will help everyone. Thank you.
It’s a good idea. Here you go: https://goo.gl/forms/p07zQ9IsIxgHg5jq1
Hello Suzanne,
I am very much pleased and excited to see this level of information coming out of your experience and knowledge in the EB5 arena. Thanks for putting all this together, which is helping people like me and everyone else to understand the current situation and political cloud around the EB5 processing and timelines.
What I do not understand is, USCIS states that the applications will be processed as per the country limits and by the date on which they were filled. When China has a long waiting queue, in the excel spread sheet where people log details like when they applied and the date on which they got the I526 approval on your blog, had seen people from countries with long waiting lines, are processed earlier then people from countries without queues.
Example an person from China who applied in 2017 got his I526 approved in Jan 2018. How would this be possible? Can you please provide your valuable insights on this. Thank you.
Keep in mind that there are two lines and processes: (1) the I-526 processing line, and next, after I-526 approval, (2) the visa application line. (I made a graphic in this post to illustrate the process: https://blog.lucidtext.com/2017/10/13/eb-5-timing-issues-and-visa-wait-process-and-data/) Step #1 at USCIS does not consider country limits; that’s Step #2 for the visa application. This follow-up post discusses reasons for variation at the I-526 stage: https://blog.lucidtext.com/2018/02/14/how-long-does-i-526-take-part-ii/ I’m preparing a third post with more recent insights from investor reports and the new processing times page.