FY12 Q1 EB-5 Statistics

USCIS has released new statistics as part of the presentation for the 1/23 EB-5 Stakeholder Meeting. This data shows us that USCIS has generally liked what it’s seen in I-526 and especially I-829 filings, and has found a lot not to like in recent Regional Center applications and amendments.

Form I-924 (& Pre-I-924) Regional Center Initial Applications
Fiscal Year or Quarter	Receipts	Approvals	Denials
FY12 Q1	41	14	22
FY11	192	80	51
FY10	110	36	30

• Note: There are currently 194 approved Regional Centers (RCs), operating in 40 states, including the District of Columbia and Guam. A complete list of approved RCs is also available online at http://www.uscis.gov/eb-5centers . 

Form I-924 (& Pre-I-924) Regional Center Amendment Requests
Fiscal Year or Quarter	Receipts	Approvals	Denials
FY12 Q1	17	4	3
FY11	86	43	7
FY10	42	42	11

Form I-526 Petition Final Actions
Fiscal Year and/or Quarter	Form I-526 Approvals	Final Action %	Form I-526 Denials	Final Action %
FY12 Q1	1,076	83%	222	17%
FY11	1,563	81%	371	19%
FY10	1,369	89%	165	11%
FY09	1,262	86%	207	14%
FY08	640	84%	120	16%
FY07	473	76%	148	24%
FY06	336	73%	124	27%
FY05	179	53%	156	47%

• Note: Approximately 92% of the individual Form I-526 petitions filed each year are filed by Investors who are investing in RC-affiliated commercial enterprises.

Form I-829 Petition Final Actions
Fiscal Year and/or Quarter	Form I-829 Approvals	Final Action %	Form I-829 Denials	Final Action %
FY12 Q1	144	93%	11	7%
FY11	1,067	96%	46	4%
FY10	274	83%	56	17%
FY09	347	86%	56	14%
FY08	159	70%	68	30%
FY07	111	69%	49	31%
FY06	106	64%	59	36%
FY05	184	62%	112	38%

EB-5 Visa Usage
Fiscal Year	Total EB-5 Visas Issued
FY12 YTD*	2,364
FY11	3,463
FY10	1,885
FY09	4,218
FY08	1,360
FY07	806
FY06	744
FY05	158
*Estimate of FY12 Visas Issued YTD, reported by the Department of State as of 01/17/2012.

• Note: This includes visas issued to the investor and dependents. Historically an average of 2.5 visas are issued per principle applicant.

FY 2011 Q1 EB-5 Statistics

Here are interesting EB-5 statistics presented at the 3/17/2011 EB-5 Stakeholder’s Meeting at the USCIS California Service Center.

Current Regional Center Stats as of 3/17/2011

# of Active Regional Centers	125
# of Pending Initial RC Proposals	156
# of Pending RC Amendments	34

Stats  on Initial Regional Center Proposal Filings

	FY 2010 (Oct 2009 – Sept 2010)	FY 2011 Q1 (Oct – Dec 2010)
# of Initial RC Proposal Filings	110	116
# of Amended RC Proposal Filings	42	24
% of Initial RC Proposals Denied	45%	24%
% of RC Amendments Denied	29%	22%

Statistics I-526 and I-829 Petitions

(Recall that petitions are not necessarily adjudicated in the year in which they are received!)

	# of I-526 Received	# of I-526 Approvals	% of I-526 Approved
FY11 Q1	701	190	77%
FY10	1955	1369	89%
FY09	1028	1262	86%
FY08	1257	640	84%
FY07	776	473	76%
FY06	486	336	73%
FY05	332	179	53%

	# of I-829 Received	# of I-829 Approvals	% of I-829 Approved
FY11 Q1	531	39	75%
FY10	768	274	83%
FY09	437	347	86%
FY08	390	159	70%
FY07	194	111	69%
FY06	89	106	64%
FY05	37	184	62%

USCIS noted that it is still working on a system to distinguish RC from stand-alone filings and that an estimated 90-95%  of I-526 petitions are currently associated with Regional Centers.

EB-5 Visa Statistics

	Total EB-5 Visas Issued
FY11 Q1	1,421
FY10	1,885
FY09	4,218
FY08	1,360
FY07	806
FY06	744

The presentation notes: “USCIS interprets the set aside of visas to ensure that a minimum of 3,000 visas are available for regional center based applicants. We do not see the set aside as limiting the number of visas that can be granted to regional center based applicants, to the extent that such applicants can be allocated up to 10,000 visas, along with the non-regional center based applicants.”

EB-5 Visa Usage by Country 2010

The U.S. Department of State has published their final visa usage statistics for FY2010. A total of 1,885 EB-5 visas were issued, with the following countries making up the Top 10:

1. People’s Republic of China (772 or 40.9%)
2. Republic of South Korea (295 or 15.6%)
3. Great Britain/Northern Ireland (135 or 7.1%)
4. Taiwan (94 or 5.0%)
5. India (62 or 3.3%)
6. Iran (55 or 2.9%)
7. Mexico (50 or 2.6%)
8. Canada (45 or 2.4%)
9. Russia (41 or 2.2%)
10. South Africa (34 or 1.8%)

Thanks to Peter Joseph at the IIUSA blog for tabulating these stats from the State Department’s master list. Several points of comparison with visa usage statistics from FY2009:

• The top four countries by visa usage are the same as in 2009.
• Iran and South Africa have moved into the top ten, and Mexico has moved up in the list, while Japan and the Netherlands dropped out.
• USCIS issued 55% more EB-5 visas (4,218) in FY 2009 than in FY2010. According to investigation by IIUSA, this 2009 spike occurred because USCIS expedited EB-5 visa processing in advance of the 2009 program sunset date.
• Although EB-5 visa issuance was down in 2010, the number of I-526 petitions filed in 2010 increased by 90% compared to the previous year.

More Mainland China Investors

Ivener & Fullmer LLP has issued a press release on the EB-5 program that includes this interesting statistic: “According to Beijing Entry and Exit Service Association, applicants for the [EB-5] program doubled at the end of last year compared to the previous year, with the numbers jumping from about 500 in 2008 to 1000 in 2009.”