FY2023 Q3 Processing Data, I-956 data, I-526E litigation
July 20, 2023 26 Comments
Yesterday, USCIS finally published performance data for January to March 2023, including — for the first time — receipt and processing data for the new EB-5 forms created a year and a half ago. I’ve copied a summary chart at the base of the post.
Insights from the FY2023 Q2 data report
- USCIS now realizes that pre-Integrity Act I-526 and post-Integrity Act I-526 and I-526E are each fundamentally different forms that need to be reported separately. Thank you USCIS! I’m also happy to see USCIS finally starting to count all the new I-956 forms.
- Despite my pleas, USCIS data reporting still does not include any information about I-526/I-526E filings by TEA category and country of origin — data without which it’s impossible for the public to monitor and preempt potential visa backlogs in the new EB-5 visa categories. (But good news: champion litigator Matt Galati came out this week with sword swinging in the cause of transparency, and filed a lawsuit on behalf of the investor organization AIIA to sue USCIS to provide the data. I am happy to see the EB-5 community working together and taking action to avoid repetition of the backlog problems facilitated by USCIS opacity and obstruction in the past.)
- The USCIS report shows that most EB-5 adjudications in FY2023 have been of forms filed prior to the Integrity Act. This is only fair to the pre-Integrity Act backlog, and also unfortunate for Integrity Act implementation. EB-5 processing volume in Q2 was 66% better overall than the previous quarter (yay!), but still 20% worse than even at the height of the Pandemic (sigh), and still almost four times lower than what IPO processed with fewer employees prior to 2019. It’s great to see a near-term volume trend in the right direction, but the lift is still so small in context of what IPO could and should be doing. Failure rates also continue to be disturbingly high, with a shocking 55% of I-526 completions and 19% of I-829 completions being denials or withdrawals. Matt Galati and AIIA are also pursuing litigation to get at the reasons behind the increasing number of denials.
- USCIS has received approximately 1,217 I-526E and I-526 investor petitions since the new EB-5 law passed in March 2022, and reports processing exactly “N/A” of these forms to date, with N/A defined as “not available.” I interpret N/A as signifying zero. This is unsurprising, considering that investor I-526E cannot be processed until the associated I-956F and I-956 have been processed for project and regional center approval, and 956 adjudications are proceeding slowly. Also, considering the 11,206 pending I-526 with earlier filing dates before the law change. But what if USCIS does pick up steam and processes all those 1,217 pending post-Integrity Act I-526? If a thousand petitioners arrive at the visa stage, each bringing a spouse and child, that would translate into demand for 3,000+ EB-5 visas — about the number of EB-5 reserve visas available in a typical year. So we are correct to start thinking already about potential backlogs and try to get the data needed to track/avoid them. (Update: I have now heard of three I-526E approvals, including this one.)
- USCIS reports receiving just over 132 I-956F Applications for Approval of Investment in a New Commercial Enterprise since the new regional center program’s inception in May 2022. USCIS had processed exactly “D” of these forms as of March 2022, with D representing a number that USCIS considers too small to report. (See the base of this post for a list of the I-956F approvals that I’ve seen reported online.) I-956F approvals are critical, as the signal that I-526E processing could move forward.
- It appears that about 300 regional centers have committed to activity under the new Integrity Act regional center program by filing a I-956 application for program compliance and I-956G annual report. Meanwhile the USCIS Regional Center List continues to show 640 regional centers, with no hint as to which are simply legacy shepherds of pre-Integrity Act investment and which have taken the necessary steps to comply and raise funds under the new program. So confusing! How can we tell which regional centers out in the market are in compliance?
- Since October 2022, USCIS reports approving 28 I-956 regional center applications. Some of these are pre-Integrity Act regional centers reaffirming designation, while others are new. The USCIS Regional Center List appears to mark RCs that are new post-Integrity Act with a new style of ID number beginning with the letters RC. From examining post-Integrity Act RCs, I learn that the “regional” in “regional center” has a loose definition, with 3+ states being the standard “limited geographic area” for the purpose of pooling EB-5 capital.
- The USCIS report includes a “Processing Time” column that gives a figure representing the median age of forms processed during that period. It’s important to realize that this number is not general or predictive. For example, Form I-956 shows a “processing time” of 7.3 months. This only means that among the 18 I-956 approved last quarter, the median processing wait was 7.3 months — saying nothing about the wait for unprocessed forms. For prediction, it’s more relevant to look at the number of I-956 pending — 280 — and how long it would take to process that many if IPO continues at the rate of 18 approvals per quarter or 6 per month. 280/6=47 months — yikes! Keep stepping up your game, USCIS!
- Once again, I notice that reported numbers rarely quite add up. Last quarter’s period-end pending plus this quarter’s receipts minus this quarter’s processed rarely equals this quarter’s period-end pending. Q1 receipts reported a few months ago do not match the Q1 receipts implied in this quarter’s report of Q2 and fiscal year total receipts. So take each report with a bit of salt. USCIS needs better technology. And if reports can’t be more clean, as least they might be more prompt. It’s July, and we’re only now finding out a bit of what’s been happening with EB-5 forms since January.
| FY2023 Q2 Data | |||||||
| Form | Description | Received | Approved | Denied | Total Processed | Pending | Processing Time (median months) |
| I-526 (legacy) | Immigrant Petition by Alien Investor | – | 406 | 498 | 904 | 11,602 | 50.1 |
| I-526 | Immigrant Petition by Standalone Investor | 40 | – | – | – | 90 | |
| I-526E | Immigrant Petition by Regional Center Investor | 495 | – | – | – | 1,127 | |
| I-526 Total | 535 | 406 | 498 | 904 | 12,819 | ||
| I-829 | Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions | 352 | 362 | 85 | 447 | 10,542 | 48.8 |
| I-956 | Application for Regional Center Designation | 176 | 18 | D | D | 280 | 7.3 |
| I-956F | Application for Approval of Investment in a Commercial Enterprise | 50 | D | – | D | 132 | N/A |
| I-956G | Regional Center Annual Statement | 287 | – | – | – | 282 | N/A |
| I-956H | Bona Fides of Person Involved in Regional Center Program | 1,007 | – | – | – | 2,147 | N/A |
| I-956K | Registration for Direct and Third-Party Promoters | 38 | – | – | – | N/A | N/A |
| I-924 | Application For Regional Center Designation | – | – | D | D | 84 | N/A |
| I-924A | Annual Certification of Regional Center | – | – | – | – | 1,734 | N/A |
Log of I-956F Approvals (please email suzanne@lucidtext.com with any additions to this table)
| Regional Center | Project | Filing Date | Approval Date | TEA |
| Pine State Regional Center | Big River Steel Phase II | 6/30/2022 | 3/24/2023 | rural |
| Manhattan Regional Center | Manhattan 11th Ave Marriott Tribute Portfolio Hotel Project | 7/19/2022 | 6/15/2023 | high unemployment |
| Can Am | Jefferson Energy Project II | 7/6/2022 | 6/21/2023 | |
| CMB | Group 78 | 7/6/2023 | high unemployment | |
| Can Am | Rhoads III Project | 7/6/2022 | 8/10/2023 | high unemployment |
| CMB | Group 82 | 8/11/2023 |
EB-5 Updates 
What could cause 20% of I-829s to be rejected? Does this imply the conditional green cards don’t become permanent? Thank you.
Yes, I should’ve flagged the denials. One factor in increasing I-829 denial rates is that USCIS has started re-adjudicating source of funds (an I-526 issue) at the I-829 stage, and denying I-829 based on retroactive application of new unwritten source of funds policies that particularly target Chinese and Vietnamese. And I-829 denial is sadly followed by removal proceedings. The investor association AIIA is pursuing litigation related to this issue https://goaiia.org/second-foia-suit-to-address-petition-denials/, as is John Pratt.
The clowns (employees and leadership team) who manage these processes are beyond incompetent with zero accountability.
So disheartening for folks to go through such a long process only to be kicked out in the very end.
Assuming if source of funds were from the US (got fed up of EB-2 India timeline), this should be less of a concern?
And given all the wait, and impact to commercial real estate, Hudson Yards EB-5 backed by Related Companies (Stephen M Ross, owner of the Dolphins), where we had invested, has stopped paying back investors even after successful adjudication of I-829. Seems like everyone is out to fleece the immigrant investors here.
Hey PNJ, I am also on the same boat. Wondering if we could connect and join our forces. My email address is efet@hotmail.com
Hi Suzanne,
Are there any further data points on the I829 denials flagged? That is, would you have any info on reasons behind these denials (currency swaps or other for Vietnam/china), who/ which country they were, were the related to same project or it wasn’t project specific… any color you could provide would help. I’m expecting I829 adjudication soon and good to be pre-informed.
many thanks
Khurram
I would talk to AIIA about this question, as any answers would have to come from anecdotal evidence from investors or FOIA requests of USCIS discussion. Currency swaps are what I hear most often mentioned. As the Government Accountability Office recently discovered, USCIS is incapable of reporting EB-5 denial reasons even if it wanted to, because its database gives no field for adjudicators to enter denial reasons: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-106452
Hi Suzanne,
What does it mean by ‘currency swaps’ in this Eb-5 context?
Thank you
Terrible! How could they do that after petitioners have actually moved to US for 2 years? Does this only apply to older cases adjudicated under previous guidelines? We are from Hong Kong and our I-526 petition was approved in Nov 2022 and we are indeed attending interview later this month. May I assume that USCIS has adjudicated our sources of funds in accordance with the new guidelines and not likely has to re-adjudicate it when we are applying for our permanent green cards after 18 months?
Thanks Suzanne as always for your great info!
N/As would imply Not Applicable as IPO has not started to adjudicate any post RIA I526/Es yet.
Is any guidance received/established on approach to process post RIA queues? If these are going to be put just at the back of pre-RIAs, it just defeats the purpose of RIA.
It’s disappointing to set aside some visas and rolling them over for a year only to ‘donate’ them to other categories only because of IPO’s inefficiencies and inability to act on the RIA policy.
Hi Suzzane,
Thank you for this post. I think there is a typo with “USCIS has received approximately 1,217 I-526E and I-526 investor petitions since the new EB-5 law passed in March 2022,”
I think based on the data USCIS published the number is 1,127.
Thanks,
I added 1,127 I-526E plus the 90 non-legacy I-526 standalone. The sum being an anagram of the I-526E number did make me look twice as well.
“USCIS is incapable of reporting EB-5 denial reasons even if it wanted to because its database gives no field for adjudicators to enter denial reason”
What a joke this has become!!
They can go back and retroactively READJUDICATE I-516 at I-829 level…..”
Iin the meantime, NCEs have our funds tied up in their projects for free!
USCIS should stop accepting I526 petition from oversubscribed countries to be fair with those who choose to obtain green card through EB5 route.
It is an insult to “fairness”, to use her in the same sentence as with USCIS.
My priority date is December 18 2018. We filed our I-485 in May 2022 for adjustment of status while I-526 was still pending. Received AP approval in January 2023 and employment authorization in September 2022. We received an RFE FOR I-526 which we responded in October 2022. Finally our I-526 approved in March 2023. Still no clue why I-485 hasn’t been processed yet. Any idea why is it taking so long?
Your priority date in not current, October VB , Final Action Date is October 15 2018, unless the dates move ahead beyond your PD, your 485 cannot be adjudicated
PK, we are in the same boat albeit with a different priority date NOV2019. Our I-526 adjudication is still pending even though we filed a WoM late last year. We also filed for our I-485 in May 2022 and received EAD in Sep ’22 and AP in May ’23. I-485 processing is about 24-36 months, given the current timelines on USCIS website. Have any AoS petitioners with I-526 approvals, got their I-485 approved, and if yes how long has that taken?
Which service center has your I-485 with?
California.
I have an approved 526 since April 2023, but I-485 pending since August 2022 and still no approval yet. I don’t know what is taking so long and I’m not from a backlogged country.
Hello Suzanne
My petition status recently changed from “we received your form I-526, immigrant petition by stand-alone investor” to “correspondence was received and USCIS is reviewing it”.
Does this imply USCIS has picked up my petition and started processing it for Approval/Denial/RFE stage? Any idea how much time does this stage take?
Same for me. Status changed mid July.
Hi Deepak,
When did you submit your application? I have my application submitted on 11/19/2019 and my status is still showing as “we received your form I-526, immigrant petition by stand-alone investor”. Thank you
SORRY WHEN DID YOU FILE PETITION?
My eb5 i-526 submission date is: 11/20/2019
As today 09/27/2023 my status is still showing as “we received your form I-526, an immigrant petition by stand-alone investor”.
No updates so far… anyone had any luck?
What was your submission date and when did you receive an update?
I think the status change from “we received your form I-526, immigrant petition by stand-alone investor” to “correspondence was received and USCIS is reviewing it” occurs when the I926F gets approved for the project.
That’s what I noticed for my i526 application.