Policy Manual update: Geographic Area

USCIS has now made its policy on geographic area amendments an official part of the USCIS Policy Manual. Before, to know the unofficial policy that’s been effective since February 2017, you needed to have been present at a March 2017 stakeholder meeting, noticed followup clarifications on the USCIS website, and been on the email list for a stakeholder alert. Now, at least the policy is set down in the Policy Manual where everyone can find it.

As usual, I copied the whole of today’s version of the Policy Manual EB-5 section, and saved it as a Word document in my folder of Policy Manual versions. I then did a document comparison with the previous version (current as of May 15, 2018) to see exactly what changed, and kindly share my redline.

In addition to adding language related to geographic amendments, the latest version of the PM clarifies the effective date for tenant occupancy guidance rescision, and specifies that changing regional centers after I-526 filing constitutes a material change.

For more in-depth analysis:

• Robert Divine’s article for IIUSA summarizes the Policy Manual changes and analyzes implications
• AILA’s comments to USCIS make a case for what’s wrong with the content and process of this Policy Manual update

Here is the email from USCIS with links to the Policy Alert and feedback page.

From: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services <uscis@public.govdelivery.com>
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2018 9:13 AM
Subject: USCIS Policy Manual Update

USCIS is updating guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual regarding a regional center’s geographic area, requests to expand the geographic area, and how such requests impact the filing of Form I-526 petitions. The Policy Alert is available here:

• Volume 6: Immigrants, Part G, Investors (Final date for comments: Sept. 9, 2018)

Visit the Policy Manual for Comment page for more information on stakeholder review and comment.