I-526 processing update
July 18, 2023 23 Comments
Today, USCIS published a new page titled Update to Visa Availability Approach for Form I-526. I’m quoting the page in full below, for the record in case the content changes. In short, USCIS announces a plan to assign I-526 for the same NCE to the same adjudicator(s), for the sake of efficiency considering overlap in project documents. USCIS has long had a three-queue I-526 system in place, with the third queue reserved for I-526 with projects already reviewed and visas available. Today’s change appears to be that I-526 in this third queue will now be officially assigned based on project groupings rather than simply in first-come-first-served order by filing date to the first available examiner. (You can see my log of USCIS announcements to compare today’s process description with previous very similar process descriptions.) Despite the title, the announcement specifies no change to the visa availability approach. Today’s announcement is just a new admission that USCIS can/will group I-526 by project when assigning petitions. Individual I-526 petitioners and projects will benefit or suffer from the change depending on whether their NCE gets assigned earlier or later than others, and to a solid or faulty adjudicator.
We shall see whether efficiencies result from today’s announcement. I-526 in a queue where the project had already been reviewed should never have been getting duplicative project review with each petition, regardless of who reviewed each petition associated with a previously-approved project. If duplicative review has happened in the past with multiple adjudicators, that was a deference problem. But if USCIS can’t teach its adjudicators deference, at least grouping projects by adjudicator should reduce the time wasted in second-guessing decisions.
The real headline behind this announcement is that USCIS has progressed to the point of assigning I-526 filed in November 2019 for adjudication. (You also know this if you follow the charts I post on my Processing Data page.) November 2019 is nearly the end of the line for the pre-Integrity Act I-526 backlog (after that, the price increase, Pandemic, and regional center program shutdown flattened demand, meaning few I-526 filings in 2020-222). USCIS unfortunately still isn’t close to clearing the I-526 backlog, since so many I-526 with early filing dates have been left behind, but this progress to the last filing surge in November 2019 at least gives hope and strengthens arguments regarding unreasonable delay.
Today’s announcement gives no hint regarding queue management and prioritization for I-526 and I-526E filed since the Integrity Act. Nor does the announcement touch on I-829, which could likewise benefit from project grouping for adjudication. (See Ignacio Donoso’s brilliant idea: I-829X – A Proposal for Project Approvals for Job Creation Compliance.)
USCIS Update to Visa Availability Approach for Form I-526 (quoted as of July 18, 2023)
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is announcing an update to the visa availability approach to managing the inventory of Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Investor. The visa availability approach applies to pre-EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 Form I-526 petitions and prioritizes the assignment of such petitions for investors with an available visa or a visa that will be available soon. The USCIS Immigrant Investor Program Office (IPO) manages this Form I-526 petition inventory through workflow queues factoring in whether: a visa is available (or will be available soon) and the underlying project has been reviewed. Workflow queues are generally managed in first-in, first-out (FIFO) order when a visa is available or will be available soon. Effective July 2023, IPO will update this approach by grouping petitions by new commercial enterprise (NCE) with filing dates on or before Nov. 30, 2019, within the workflow queue of petitions where the project has been reviewed and there is a visa available or soon to be available, to gain greater processing efficiencies.
Purpose
The purpose of updating the visa availability approach is to enable USCIS to increase productivity and more efficiently process Form I-526 petitions. As described in more detail below, IPO will group petitions in the third queue by NCE with filing dates on or before Nov. 30, 2019, because adjudicators can process Form I-526 petitions more efficiently when they are working multiple petitions associated with the same NCE given the overlap in project documents and issues presented.
Updated Process Description and Rationale
Under the visa availability inventory management approach, IPO determines visa availability and queues up the Form I-526 inventory into three workflows on a monthly basis as discussed here (PDF, 238.48 KB).
- The first queue contains Form I-526 petitions where a visa is not yet available and not soon to be available and is ordered first-in, first-out.
- The second queue contains petitions related to projects that IPO has not previously reviewed and have a visa immediately available or soon to be available. IPO reviews projects in the second queue in order from oldest to newest.
- The third queue contains Form I-526 petitions that have an available (or soon to be available) visa and either a reviewed project or “non-pooled” (single investor) standalone project. This queue is organized by receipt date of the Form I-526 petition (from oldest to newest). This is the queue from which Form I-526 petitions are assigned to officers for adjudication. Form I-526 petitions have generally been assigned to officers in first-in, first-out order.
The update to the visa availability approach is effective July 18, 2023. IPO will group petitions by NCE with filing dates on or before Nov. 30, 2019, within the third queue. These petitions will be assigned by NCE using a FIFO methodology, namely, by date of the earliest filed petition in that queue for each NCE. Given the large volume of petitions filed shortly before the EB-5 modernization rule had taken effect in November 2019 and because the project documents are often the same, assigning multiple petitions associated with the same NCE to the same adjudicator(s) will enable IPO to gain greater processing efficiencies, reduce the backlog and Form I-526 completion times, and support consistency and accuracy in adjudications, while maintaining fairness given the closeness in the filing dates of these petitions.
USCIS is committed to reducing its Form I-526 petition backlog and completion times and has determined that this update to the visa availability approach will help the agency achieve this goal.
EB-5 Updates 
It looks there is more seriousness towards due cases.
Kindly inform us any updates or progress in adjudication of I-829 cases. Is there any improvement ?
So far I-829 processing has remained low-volume and dispersed, with little evidence of first-come-first-served order (possibly reflecting the influence of Mandamus actions). You can see such I-829 data as I have here: https://blog.lucidtext.com/processing-data/
Does this mean the second queue is for the ones with regional centers and visa availability and the third with visa availability (or close to having it) but sole investors?
“The third queue contains Form I-526 petitions that have an available (or soon to be available) visa and either a reviewed project or “non-pooled” (single investor) standalone project.” The second queue is for reviewing projects with multiple investors.
Hi, will this change impact the already approved I-526 petition of Nov 2019 which is currently under visa processing stage with NVC?
No; the announcement only affects pending I-526. The Nov. 2019 I-526 already at NVC is very lucky to have advanced so far already!
Does that mean people who have Nov 1526 will get to see their feeling approved soon?
We see that IPO has started to assign I-526 filed in November 2019, so there’s a chance for approval soon. IPO has been processing I-526 at a rate of <200/month and over 4,000 I-526 were filed in Oct-Dec 2019 alone, not to mention thousands still pending with earlier filing dates, so there's also a chance for years more of waiting. Since IPO announced that they are now assigning I-526 by project, any news of approvals of others in the same project is a good sign for attention soon.
1. Regarding I-526E: Bunching and assigning I-526E petitions from same NCE to same adjudicator(s) will certainly bring in much desired efficiency. Perhaps the first 1,200 pages of say, a 1,800 page I-526E petition are project related and common to all applicants. This reduces the burden of repetitive reviews of 2/3rd of every such petition, by many Adjudicators in parallel.
If USCIS is willing to implement, I have some best practices (templates) to recommend even for ‘Path of funds’ which is crux of all applications, besides source of funds. This not only makes the submission process for applicants easy and fully compliant, but also verification process for adjudicators simple and very efficient.
2. Also, regarding I-829 I have a suggestion for USCIS.
If a USCIS officer, following a site visit is fully convinced regarding Job creation, based on evidence provided by NCE, he/she shall issue a Certificate to NCE. As an example,
If 385 investors needed creation of 3,850 jobs, and the project is sitting pretty already having created 4,800 jobs, no repetitive efforts are required for job verification. Once done, the Certificate issued by USCIS (to NCE) shall be attached by subsequent I-829 applicants. The I-829 forms can be simplified further wherein:
if the response to question regarding availability of such Certificate is ‘yes’, form should ask for upload of that attachment and let the applicant skip all/ many project related questions and take him to ‘submit’ button. Assigning I-829 forms from same NCE to same adjudicators will also hopefully speed up the approval process, with the revised form.
These suggestions all sound good to me. You might consider emailing your ideas to the IPO Customer Service Mailbox, on the off chance that anyone is listening.
Hi Suzanne,
Thank you for your assistance and helpful
Clarifications.
My I526 was filed on 29 June 2021 for $500
Exactly when the modernisation rule was
vacated . My country of eligibility is Algeria with available visa.
I see that the new update does not mention the cases before the lapse of the regional center , they specifically stop it at the modernisation rule start on November 2019, is my filing during that week legit ?
If yes when will they get to it according to you.
Thank you
I honestly have no faith in the EB5 program or any business centers, lawyers, and companies associated with it. It’s just one big scam at this point. In the past, it may have had some integrity but now, it’s just a way to make money off of desperate individuals who are in need of a citizenship from a country that gives them some rights. I have had such a horrible experience with my EB5 case, that I eventually had to withdraw. It’s been almost a year since I sent in my withdrawal letter, and I’m still waiting for the USCIS to send me a withdrawal notice. No one did right by me – not the lawyers, not the EB5 investment company, not the individuals associated with the business venture, and not USCIS. In fact, I was attacked and threatened with false accusations for being honest about the entire horrible ordeal. I lost a lot of money and time in the process. The USCIS does not care to backup investors who have been treated very poorly, unethically, unfairly, and dishonestly by EB5 investment companies or lawyers who don’t abide by EB5 policy and do whatever they want with clients’ funds and time. Any news about improving EB5 procedures and policies is just talk, from what I’ve experienced and seen.
Hi Suzanne
Thank you for all the valuable information.
I’m from India , i526 approved and submitted my documents in June2023-mid and haven’t heard anything from NVC so far. According to the NVC timeline it’s already passed the processing date… any idea what’s the wait for a response? Or And what should be my next step ?
I just heard from an Indian who received I-526 approval in early April 2023 and just became documentarily qualified at the end of July — about a four month wait to get to the DQ stage for that case. To get a sense of what’s typical, I suggest joining a chat group for EB-5 investors doing consular processing. Here is an overview of the steps: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-1-submit-a-petition.html
Thank you for the detailed reply . As always so helpful. you are a very valuable member for eb5 group. Thanks again .
Hi, what was the priority date for the investor who got approved in April 2023?
Hi Mia
I think we r sailing in the same boat as we have lot of things in common. Applicant from India, submitted documents in mid June 2023 and still waiting for the response from NVC.
Thankyou suzzanne for ur efforts.
Indeed we r in the same boat . Let’s keep updating here . For me no updates so far …
Yeah sure Mia….no updates here
Hey
Nothing here , anything at ur end ?
Hi
Nop…still waiting
I am too in same group. Applied for DS-260 in March-23 and got DQ in June-23. Waiting for interview.
Hi Suzanne, I am from Dubai, applicants from the project I applied to more than half of them got the approval back in July. My I-526 application date is September 2019, in your opinion when do you think we could probably get our decision?