Addressing EB-5 Visa Allocation Questions

A project I’ve been working on for the past few months is now live: “Essential EB-5 Visa Allocation Questions and Answers.” My dream has been to put together an FAQ that tackles the basic questions that confuse discussions about EB-5 visas – addressing which EB-5 categories are available and to whom, how visas get allocated and when, how country caps work, what retrogression is and whom it affects, what choices applicants can make about visa allocation, and how EB-5 visa supply works.

My goal was not to compile off-the-cuff responses, but to create a solid work of reference where short answers would each be followed by a robust reference section with links to places where the topic has been addressed in the law, USCIS policy and guidance, USCIS or DOS Q&A or stakeholder meetings, litigation, etc. If you read an answer and think “but that’s not what I heard from X,” you’ll be able to scroll to the base of the post and follow the reference links, see where I found the information presented, and draw your own informed conclusions. If you read an answer and think “ok I understand A but this raises a question about B,” you can follow the cross references to read other related Q&A.  

The current content of the Q&A is dated as of August 2024. I look forward to making this a dynamic resource, with updates as new guidance and data emerge over time.

This project required a lot of work, first in expanding and reviewing the research I’ve been collecting over my years in EB-5, then in striving to distill this background into a basic Q&A format.  I was able to complete the work thanks to finding a patron who shared the vision. CanAm commissioned the FAQ, reviewed it, and has now published it as a PDF whitepaper, plus divided into individual website postings for convenient reference, and with a Chinese translation. In a world full of sales-y clickbait, I’m thankful to find someone willing to invest in what I want to write – content that’s not necessarily fun or profitable, but carefully informative and aiming for the common good.

Here follows a quick quiz, which you can take to help judge whether you already know and agree with everything in the Q&A, or will benefit from following the links and checking out my references:

1. True or false: TEA investors with 2021 priority dates can receive TEA set-aside visas.
2. True or false: TEA investors with 2023 priority dates can only receive TEA set-aside visas.
3. True or false: Direct EB-5 investors have access to different visas with different timing from regional center investors.
4. True or false: No one country can get more than 7% of EB-5 High Unemployment or >7% of EB-5 Rural visas.
5. True or false: High EB-5 demand means that Taiwan and South Korea may have visa bulletin cut-off dates in the future.
6. True or false: Visa applicants from low-demand countries with no country cap can never experience visa bulletin retrogression and visa wait times.
7. True or false: Filing I-485 locks in access to an EB-5 visa as of the time of filing I-485.
8. True or false: EB-5 is likely to have many more than 10,000 visas in most future years, thanks to rollover and carryover.
9. True or false: The time of choosing an EB-5 investment and filing I-526E is the only point at which the EB-5 investor can participate in visa allocation decisions.

The correct answer to each of these questions is “false.” Surprised? Check out the FAQ to read more! And if you still have questions after reviewing the FAQ, or think of Q that should be added, reach out to CanAm or me to discuss further. We want to make this as useful as possible to the community, to help put everyone on the same page with solid background for talking about EB-5 visas.