Updates and Resources (CanAm Whitepaper on Visa Allocation, IIUSA EB-5 Q&A, CSPA Policy Change, September Visa Bulletin, Mandamus, I-485)
August 14, 2025 13 Comments
This post provides links to important EB-5 resources and updates that I’ve been collecting to share.
New FAQ on Visa Backlogs (CanAm Whitepaper)
This week CanAm published EB-5 Visa Availability and Allocation: Q&A for 2025 – a set of articles that I wrote to address common visa questions from prospective and current EB-5 investors. Last year I wrote a Q&A that generally reviewed the basics of how visa numbers and allocation work in EB-5. This year’s Q&A addresses 13 more specific and personal questions, and references 2025 data. Most questions came from the CanAm sales team – such as “If I filed a Rural petition to get priority processing, am I required to take a Rural visa?” “How long will it take for the Unreserved category to be current for an India-born investor?” “Is there any scenario where it would make sense for an investor in a Reserved category to choose from the Unreserved pool?” and so on. I contributed questions addressing points of confusion that I’ve encountered in timing consultations, such as “Is my visa wait time longer or shorter depending on my I-526E processing time?” I worked very hard on this Q&A, striving to respond as clearly and justly as I could to a list of tough questions about EB-5 visa availability and allocation. Thanks to CanAm for sponsoring the effort! There are many opportunities to get 1-2-sentence answers to EB-5 questions; this is your chance to get the 1-2-page response to your question.
IIUSA EB-5 Q&A
IIUSA came out with an important and helpful Q&A resource this week for a wide audience. IIUSA’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the EB-5 Regional Center Program was developed by IIUSA’s Best Practices Committee as a practical guide for stakeholders involved in EB-5 transactions. The document is just 36 pages long but quite comprehensive – it could be a mini-book with the title “what you need to know to use EB-5.” A total of 78 questions cover a range of topics including investments, job creation, regional centers, projects, financial oversight, marketing and compliance, and the EB-5 immigration process. A lot of work, expertise, and experience obviously went into this document. The answers are clear and solid across a range of disciplines, and I recommend it as a source of general EB-5 knowledge for anyone involved in the project or investor side of EB-5.
USCIS EB-5 Q&A
I’ve been meaning to mention that on May 15, USCIS consolidated its EB-5 Q&A into one EB-5 Questions and Answers document linked to the USCIS EB-5 Resources page. The USCIS Q&A covers a range of questions about USCIS policy application, and particularly questions related to RIA implementation. I keep an eye on this page and save versions, because Q&A changes can quietly disclose revised USCIS policy interpretations. FYI if you track this as well, here’s a link to my redline of the May 15, 2025 version of the Q&A compared with the previous version as of July 17, 2024.
CSPA Policy Change
Last week, USCIS announced updated policy on the CSPA Age Calculation. “We are updating the Policy Manual to clarify that a visa becomes available for the purposes of Child Status Protection Act age calculation based on the Final Action Dates chart of the Department of State Visa Bulletin. The new guidance applies to requests filed on or after August 15, 2025.” Consistent with the administration’s goal to restrict immigration, the new policy will reduce the number of children who qualify to immigrate with their parents. It’s particularly concerning for EB-5 investor families from China and India who face long waits for their priority dates to match Final Action Dates. At least, the policy change applies prospectively to applications filed after the policy takes effect on August 15. Your lawyer can explain how this policy change may affect your children. See also articles on the policy change from Carolyn Lee and WR Immigration. Also note that while you’re asking your lawyer about CSPA bad news, you might also ask about the limits of the status conveyed by having a pending EB-5 I-485, EAD, and Advance Parole — and how to stay safe, especially in case of job change. It’s wise to be informed of potential worst-case scenarios when a hostile administration is interpreting the rules.
September Visa Bulletin and I-485 data
The September 2025 visa bulletin is out, with no changes to EB-5 dates but a note that “Visa Office expects to reach FY-2025 category limits in most employment-based preference categories during August and September. If at any time an annual limit were reached, it would be necessary to immediately make the preference category ‘unavailable’, and no further requests for numbers would be honored.” Reaching limits is good news: better for visas to be fully used than wasted. Considering the low numbers reported through May, however, the “most categories” maxing out FY2025 visas likely do not include EB-5 Rural, High Unemployment, or Infrastructure.
Monthly DOS and I-485 reports haven’t been published yet since May, but here FYI are my summaries of the May 5 pending I-485 inventory report, compared with the corresponding report from the start of FY2025.
EB-5 Webinars (Mandamus, Timing, Visas)
CanAm has been hosting webinars on a variety of hot EB-5 topics. I particularly appreciated the conversation with John Pratt on Avoiding and Addressing Delays in the EB-5 Process: Planning & Litigation (jump to minute 17 to hear John discussing the questions all EB-5 investors have about Mandamus actions) and the conversation with Joey Barnett and Charlie Oppenheim on EB-5 Visa Allocations and FY2026: Why the Numbers Matter More Than Ever. And you can tune in next week to hear more from Joey as well as Nicolai Hinrichsen, Min Wu and me on the topic of EB-5 Backlogs, Strategy, and What Investors Need to Know Now. (As someone with a face for whitepapers, I mainly recommend the written word for my backlog insights — but the other panelists have good insights! And I may be publishing another article soon with some outtakes from my slides.)
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EB-5 Updates 
Hi Suzanne, likelihood of PD Sep-20,2019 going current in next fiscal for India ? Dq’ed and expecting interview at Montreal anytime now
Considering what we know of India demand, I expect the India Unreserved Final Action Date to remain in early November 2019 throughout FY2026 and FY2027. Your Sept 20, 2019 date qualifies for final action according to the current visa bulletin (though in practice FY2025 visa numbers must be nearly exhausted by now), and I expect visas to remain available for that date. Now if only Montreal would schedule interviews!
my bad Suzanne, I meant November-20,2019. Is it wishful thinking to expect visa anytime soon? I got Dq’ed early August 2024.
Sadly, three months makes all the difference. If the process is FIFO, you may need to wait another three years for a visa. 725 Indians filed I-526 in the month of November 2019 alone — a lot of potential visa applicants, with the addition of spouses and children — and your date puts you near the end of that surge. And there at least a few hundred India Unreserved applicants with pre-November PD still in process. But the process isn’t exactly FIFO, so you might get lucky. And if reserved visa issuance remains low, India Unreserved may continue to get above-average visa numbers. Don’t let me entirely crush out wishful thinking!
Glad your still faster….
I am PD March-2022 & DQ expected to be completed by Oct, 2025, again for India with Montreal location.
Have you tried exploring I-485 route?
Hi Suzanne, any estimate on a pre-RIA Chinese with Aug 2nd 2016 PD? Do you think it will be current in the next FY?
July 2016 to September 2016 was the last big China demand surge, with 5,335 China I-526 filed in that one quarter. With those numbers, it could easily take 3-4 years to issue visas to everyone in that range of priority dates. I expect July 2016 to start getting visas in 2026, but September 2016 might not be reached until 2029. I only have China receipt data by quarter, but will guess that 50%+ of PD in that quarter are likely in September (since lawyers often wait until the last minute to file), and thus that an early August date should have a visa available closer to 2026 than 2029.
By the way, if you download the EB-5 Backlog Analysis Excel file linked to my EB-5 Timing page, you can see that it contains a hidden tab called “Pre-RIA China” with this analysis. (There’s also a hidden Pre-RIA India tab.) I chose to hide the Pre-RIA tabs because the NVC waitlist data contained is old now and might be updated any time by DOS, and because the visa supply predictions for China in particular are questionable given the current volatility around ROW Unreserved visa usage (including potential demand from post-RIA investors, and considering consulate struggles to issue ROW visas). However, I think that the logic in the model is good, and the presentation and data may be helpful.
The”EB-5 Visa Availability and Allocation” is sososo…. good…. Elin
Hi Suzanne,
Thank you for your time and hardwork, your analysis is really helpful.
Any wild guess on visa issuance for India unreserved I-485 ( living in the USA) with PD of July 2019?
Thank you
If visa issuance in 2024/2025 has been FIFO, there are now <400 India Unreserved applicants left with priority dates before July 2019. There will be well over 400 Unreserved visas available to India in FY2026 — and the visa bulletin even now technically allows visa issuance to July 2019 PD. So I would certainly expect you to get a visa within the next 12 months at least, and possibly any day. I think the specific timing probably depends more on operational/processing issues than exact PD priority at this point. (Assuming that you have I-526 approval and the I-485 is all ready to adjudicate.)
Dear Suzanne,
Really enjoyed your presentation at the CanAm webinar.
I know you get this a lot and have provided plenty of resources for it but if you can please provide a rough estimate of i526e approval PD of July 3rd, 2023. HUA outside USA, it would be geatly appreciated.
Thank and best regards
I would say that I-526E processing time is not predictable at this point. It depends on processing volumes that are in a state of flux, and a process with many FIFO exceptions. Your petition approval timing will depend on factors including I-956F approval timing, whether USCIS decides to process investors in your project as a batch, whether/when USCIS improves on the needlessly-low I-526E adjudication volumes in the the most recent reports (FY2025 Q1 and Q2), and luck or litigation. This post details the most recent available TEA-specific report on adjudication progress: https://goaiia.org/aiia-foia-series-post-ria-approval-statistics-for-january-2025/. I-485 approvals reveal that at least a lucky few July 2023 HUA ROW applicants already got approvals (https://blog.lucidtext.com/#jp-carousel-16988).
Forgot to add. It’s for ROW