A recent meeting of the Invest in the U.S.A. (IIUSA) in San Diego, California served as a forum for those who work in the investor immigration space to share impressions, best practices, and ideas about which way was best to move forward with the EB-5 investor immigration program in the United States. The conference, which was held from May 21st to the 23rd, 2023, mostly attracted individuals who work with U.S. government-approved EB-5 regional centers that enable foreign investors to get a green card in the U.S. if they are prepared to invest $ 800,000 in a regional center project that creates at least ten jobs.
Among the goals that the IIUSA organization is pursuing are: permanent reauthorization of the EB-5 program which was recently renewed only for five years on March 15th, 2022; consistency in adjudications of EB-5 applications; shorter periods of such adjudications; more clarity from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as the lead government agency administering the program; better communication with the agency; and a better understanding that the EB-5 investor program is more of a commerce department and job creation program than it is an investor immigration program.
From the investor’s point of view, what the program should be doing is essentially making use of the invested money to complete the project of the regional center, return the funds invested within a reasonable period of time and get the investor permanent resident status in the United States. It is estimated that the U.S. benefits by $ 4 for every $ 1 that foreign investors invest under the program and the program has been reasonably functioning now for over 30 years bringing billions of dollars and creating thousands of jobs in the United States.
The conference highlighted a number of problems that the program faces. Among the most serious has been the long processing times it is taking the USCIS to approve investor petitions. Indeed, statistics presented to the conference by researchers indicate that the median time for investor applications has been just over 4 years and that as of early in 2023, there were about 75,000 applications pending adjudication in the normal so-called unreserved category. Without a doubt, the problem of backlogs in petitions awaiting review has been most acutely felt by Chinese and Indian nationals since according to current processing rules, they are nationals of countries that have oversubscribed the program and are likely to wait ten years or more for their petitions to be adjudicated. Vietnam may be entering the same category as well. It is not like there aren’t possible solutions to the problem of these backlogs, for example, there are suggestions of clawing back visa numbers from previous years that were not used by USCIS or not including family members of investors in the count of the number of visas being used in any given year. However, the problem is that there is an infinity of problems to be dealt with in Washington all competing with the EB-5 program for the attention of legislators, and at the moment advocating for more immigration in the halls of Congress is toxic since any legislator who endorses such an approach could possibly lose in the next election. The nation is bitterly divided over immigration matters and getting pro-immigration measures adopted by Congress in this climate is a steep uphill climb.
The conference highlighted a number of problems that the program faces. Among the most serious has been the long processing times it is taking the USCIS to approve investor petitions. Indeed, statistics presented to the conference by researchers indicate that the median time for investor applications has been just over 4 years and that as of early in 2023, there were about 75,000 applications pending adjudication in the normal so-called unreserved category. Without a doubt, the problem of backlogs in petitions awaiting review has been most acutely felt by Chinese and Indian nationals since according to current processing rules, they are nationals of countries that have oversubscribed the program and are likely to wait ten years or more for their petitions to be adjudicated. Vietnam may be entering the same category as well. It is not like there aren’t possible solutions to the problem of these backlogs, for example, there are suggestions of clawing back visa numbers from previous years that were not used by USCIS or not including family members of investors in the count of the number of visas being used in any given year. However, the problem is that there is an infinity of problems to be dealt with in Washington all competing with the EB-5 program for the attention of legislators, and at the moment advocating for more immigration in the halls of Congress is toxic since any legislator who endorses such an approach could possibly lose in the next election. The nation is bitterly divided over immigration matters and getting pro-immigration measures adopted by Congress in this climate is a steep uphill climb.