WR Immigration Director of Visa Consulting Charlie Oppenheim and Partner Joey Barnett update on the outlook for investor visas.
Learning Topics Include:
– Review of 2022 Visa Report
– March 2023 Visa Bulletin
– Concurrent Filing Strategies
WR Immigration Podcast: Chatting with Charlie: February EB-5 Investor Visa Outlook
Related Posts:
EB-5 I-829 Receipt Notices Extended to 24 Months, But Extensions Don’t Go Far Enough
With Processing 36-60 Months, Litigation May Be the Only Option to Secure Permanent Green Card USCIS has begun to issue receipt notices to all immigrant investors with pending Form I-829, Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status, three months after announcing the policy change to extend Conditional Lawful Permanent Residency to 24 months upon a timely filing of a Form I-829. USCIS is issuing new receipts to immigrant investors who have already been waiting for adjudication for over 24 months, which hardly helps when the waiting line is 3-5+ years. USCIS online processing times show that it takes the Immigrant Investor Program Office (IPO) 38 to 63.5 months to adjudicate a Form I-829. An immigrant investor is not even allowed to inquire on the status of one’s case unless the I-829 was filed before September 2016. This makes no sense, in particular nowadays when IPO does not have Regional Center-based Form I-526 petitions to adjudicate. It appears USCIS will not adjudicate a Form I-829 unless being forced to as a result of mandamus litigation alleging unreasonable delay. In the past 30 days, it appears IPO has only adjudicated 100 Form I-829s. For immigrant investors whose Form I-829 has been […]
EB-5 Investor Program — January 2022 Update
Yesterday, the U.S. government filed an “Unopposed Motion for Voluntary Dismissal” in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on their appeal of a June 2021 decision of a lower district court that invalidated the implementation of the November 2019 EB-5 Modernization Rule. That rule had raised the minimum investment amount from $1 million to $1.8 million and, from $500,000 to $900,000 for targeted employment areas (TEAs). Reducing the investment amount is welcome news for the EB-5 industry that has been stymied by this regulation. Most importantly, this withdrawal of appeal confirms the minimum investment for investors who create ten jobs in a Targeted Employment Area (TEA) is back to $500,000. It also confirms that states have the authority to designate areas as a TEA. This decision has no impact on the reauthorization of the EB-5 Regional Center program. EB-5 investors should know this dismissal does not impact the two biggest issues in EB-5, that is the Regional Center reauthorization, or whether USCIS will continue to hold pending Regional Center I-526s or I-485s in abeyance until reauthorization. We hope to have some news on these two issues soon, so stay posted. At this time, “direct” EB-5 remains an […]
