Some thoughts on EB-5 processing times

Hello Folks,

Here are my thoughts on EB-5 processing times. I hope you are interested, if not, then just delete it. 

Of course they don't spend all of that time "adjudicating", there is a bunch of stuff happening in the background before it is made "adjudication ready". First there are clerical processes, then it sits awaiting its turn. When it finally reaches the initial examination phase there are now several people who have to go through the package, then there is often (nearly always) an RFE. Then there might be 3  months of idle time awaiting a response, then the real adjudication begins and it again involves a cadre of people: adjudications officer, securities attorney, business analyst, economist, etc..., and don't forget FDNS. 

While I agree that the agency takes too long, I also know it cannot happen over night. 

Far too many Regional Centers skip the exemplar and have the investors all go ahead and file. I believe that IPO is really looking at the project first and holding all the associated I-526s. If you subtract the ?9.5? months that is spent on the project then you are looking at ~6 months for the adjudication of the issues directly related to the alien's funds, and of course, background checks. 

If/when USCIS mandates an exemplar filing, which must be APPROVED BEFORE any I-526s will be accepted, then processing times will surely drop. 

As for the I-829s, I think that until the older EB-5 projects (the ones that were not vetted by USCIS up-front) work their way through the system, these times will not drop. 

Also, USCIS is probably holding many cases in abeyance while being litigated, and/or allowing re-filing instead of denying, terminating, and issuing NTAs. There are lawsuits brought by Regional Centers and investors, but there are also actions brought by federal agencies (mostly SEC, but also the FBI, and maybe FinCEN???????). 

Anyways., the number-crunchers probably get these times wrong by not excluding some pending forms from these reports. It is likely also partly an issue to do with extracting information from various case processing systems. 

The more "problems" with a project or an individual's money, the longer things take. Outliers  undoubtedly skews the averages.

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• Joe Whalen

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• New York