March 20–April 25 EB-5 Engagement Invite
January 30, 2023 19 Comments
3/14 UPDATE: The EB-5 engagement has now been postponed to April 25, 1-3 ET. Visit the invite page to register again. The postponement email said “We appreciate all the feedback and questions you submitted in advance and are very closely reviewing this helpful information.”
From: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services <uscis@public.govdelivery.com>
Sent: January 30, 2023 1:00 PM
Subject: USCIS Immigrant Investor Program (EB-5) Stakeholder EngagementUSCIS Immigrant Investor Program
(EB-5) Stakeholder EngagementMonday, March 20, 2023
1:30 – 3 p.m. EasternU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) invites you to participate in a stakeholder engagement on Monday, March 20, 2023, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Eastern.
During the first part of the engagement, USCIS will discuss three specific areas within the Immigrant Investor Program.
The three topics are:
- Direct and Third-Party Promoters: A promoter should submit Form I-956K, Registration for Direct and Third-Party Promoters, before operating on behalf of any of the specified entities or promoting any offering under the EB-5 Regional Center Program. The promoter must submit Form I-956K separate from the Form I-956F, Application for Approval of an Investment in a Commercial Enterprise, to seek an approval of an investment in a commercial enterprise.
- Investment Period: USCIS will discuss the requirements for an immigrant investor to sustain their investment if they filed Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Standalone Investor, before March 15, 2022, and the new requirement under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA) that capital must be expected to remain invested for at least two years for those who filed an I-526 or Form I-526E on or after March 15, 2022.
- Regional Center Operations: We will discuss issues related to regional center operations, in particular those who wish to withdraw from the program and terminate their status and those who do not wish to solicit investments for new projects under the RIA.
We will then hold a Q&A to hear questions, comments, and individual feedback from stakeholders on these three topics. Although we are interested in receiving overall feedback about the EB-5 program, we would appreciate focusing the Q&A portion of the engagement on the topics above.
We will not address case-specific questions, questions outside the scope of the engagement, or issues under active litigation or likely to be litigated. We are committed to public engagement, and sessions like this provide valuable feedback as we work to improve our programs. Participation in this engagement will be virtual.
Questions for consideration:
If you would like to submit a question in advance on one of the three topics we will be covering during this engagement (direct and third party promoters, sustainment, or regional center operations), please send your question to the Public Engagement mailbox at public.engagement@uscis.dhs.gov with the subject line “Question: EB-5 Engagement March 20, 2023” by 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10.To Register:
1. Visit our registration page.
2. You will be asked to provide your email address and select “Submit.”
3. On the next screen, you will see a notification that you successfully subscribed to this event.
Once we process your registration, you will receive a confirmation email with additional details.
To request a disability accommodation to participate in this engagement, email us at public.engagement@uscis.dhs.gov by 4 p.m. Eastern, Monday, March 13.
Note to media:
This webinar is not for press purposes. Please contact the USCIS Press Office at media@uscis.dhs.gov for any media inquiries.
We look forward to your participation!
EB-5 Updates 
Our I526 was approved on 25 Oct 2022 (after a 4 year wait). It’s now three months later, and our lawyer says the file still has not been transferred from the USCIS to the NVC. Is it normal to have to wait so long for them to simply transfer a file from one department to another? What could possibly be the reason for the delay? Is there a way to expedite or follow up on this? Any advice or insight would be most appreciated.
Our file took 6 months to get transferred, our lawyer did make an inquiry and escalated it to a supervisor at USCIS. Never got an explanation why there was a delay.
Thanks Chris. That is very alarming. How long after the escalation did it take for you to get some action?
Just checked my records, I inquired 4 months after the I-526 decision was made, it was escalated through my lawyer 6 months after decision date, and NVC finally got the documents 7 months after the decision (took 30 days after the lawyers escalated it – both at UCIS and NVC).
Who is your lawyer? My i797 was send to Department of State over 14 months! I am concerned and even though I paid the lawyer tens of thousands of dollars, he is not doing anything!
Hi there
We just got approval for i526 (regional centre , India)two months back…so it’s too early for us to expect nvc welcome letter within 45 to 60 days…..its really hard hitting reality….if it’s taking 6 months for welcome letter then later process will take another year( already approval took 4 golden years of our lives)…….very upset 😞
Hi there
If welcome letter is taking so long…then what is the use of NVC TIME FRAMES?????…as on 7feb 2023 it shows that NVS is working on the cases received on 30th December 2022…but in reality we see cases like urs…waiting for letter from the last four months….what’s the use of time frames?
The NVC timeframes only show how long NVC takes to process documents once they receive them. The issue is USCIS sitting on the files and not transferring them to NVC in the first place. This is a known problem and has been going on for years. Some applicants have waited up to 20 months for their files to be transferred. Matt Galati is currently putting together a group WOM for anyone with an approved I526 who is still waiting for their file to be transferred to NVC. I would highly recommend anyone in that position to contact him.
Hi@ katyB
Much thanks for clearing the issue..that problem is with USCIS not with NVC……PLZ…now I need more help…How to contact Matt Galati?
http://www.galati.law
Email info@galati.law or matt@galati.law
Thnku so much@KatyB….its a great help
Can someone explain why pre RIA investors need to deploy their funds at risk even after approval of their i526 and completion of their 2 year period whereas post RIA investors need only one 2 year deployment ? Is this another money grab by RC’s in nexus with politicians ?
Do you need to keep the funds at risk after filing for I-829? And wait for another 5 years for USCIS to remove conditions to get your funds back? That is expecting the investors to keep the funds at risk for almost 10 years. This is certainly a money grab scheme then!
The USCIS Policy Manual (which is currently outdated, awaiting revision following the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act) currently states that the at-risk requirement goes through the Conditional Permanent Residence period, not through removal of conditions. (This policy appeared in 2017, and is arguably wrong. Lawyers have argued/pointed out that the at-risk requirement applies to the act of investment and USCIS had no justification to ever link it to the sustainment requirement at all. But the policy to remain at-risk through CPR has been a fact since 2017, and now possibly subject to revision based on RIA changes. Between 2015 and 2017, USCIS was unclear about whether or or not it thought funds needed to be at-risk until I-829 approval.) AIIA recently put up an article on the topic of redeployment: https://goaiia.org/the-nightmare-that-is-eb5-redeployment/
Note that how long an individual needs to keep funds invested depends on multiple factors: not only what USCIS policy says, but also what the investment documents say, and what exit proves practically possible for the project.
Many thanx for your detailed response, hope we get clarity soon.
Thank God AIIA got on that. We should not accept more abuse after what we have been through,
Looking forward to point 2) Investment Period: USCIS will discuss the requirements for an immigrant investor to sustain their investment if they filed Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Standalone Investor, before March 15, 2022.
There is an unbelievable amount of abuse where an investor funds get rolled into new projects at the lowest possible return (0.5%) and the hapless investor having little leverage to negotiate better rates.
Just checked my records, I inquired 4 months after the I-526 decision was made, it was escalated through my lawyer 6 months after decision date, and NVC finally got the documents 7 months after the decision (took 30 days after the lawyers escalated it – both at UCIS and NVC).
March visa bulletin has major retrogression for India. Just when you thought things could not get worse, another setback. WOM was a waste.