How will EB-5 visa retrogression benefit investors from other countries?

EB-5 visa retrogression only affects Chinese investors. There is no change at all for petitioners from other countries.

The main benefit to retrogression for investors from countries other than China, is that it ensures that China, the market with the highest demand to invest under the program, does not get all the visas available under the program each year.

Another fringe benefit is that as a result of retrogression, EB-5 projects are marketing much more in other countries, thereby creating a better infrastructure and a wider variety of projects on offer in those countries, make it easier for local investors to access projects.

Right now, we are experiencing retrogression in China and Vietnam. It appears like sometime this year, India will join this group. In a given year, before all the other applicants from the other countries are serviced current, when retrogression happens, applicants from retrogressed countries do not get processed. Each country is capped at 7% of the available quotas. According to the interpretation of USCIS of the quota this means 700 visas per country as opposed to 700 principal investors. This is usually more than enough visas for countries that are current. Once they are all serviced, then the remaining spots are distributed to the countries experiencing retrogression.