How can my children finish school after applying for EB-5?

Currently, it may take 1.5 to 2 years for an EB-5 investor to be able to physically enter the United States as a conditional permanent resident. As a lawful permanent resident, you are required to continuously reside in the United States. You may travel abroad temporarily. Your intent, however, is to maintain your lawful permanent resident status and reside in the United States permanently. If you or your children expect to be outside the United States for 6 months or more, you should file Form I-131, a re-entry permit, which enables re-admittance to the United States upon return within 2 years. If an additional period of time exceeding 6 months is needed, the Form I-131 can be extended for another 2-year period. However, the person applying for an extension must be in the United States to file the application and remain in the United States until his or her fingers are printed. Your children should have no problem finishing school abroad.

Once your immigrant visa is issued, you must immigrate to the United States within six months. Your child can immigrate later, as long as they remain under 21 and unmarried. EB-5 processing is taking longer and longer, so if you invest now, you can expect a processing time of about 18 months before you have your immigrant visa interview. If you were born in China, then the wait may be longer because a visa number retrogression for China-born EB-5 investors is likely by June of this year.

The I-526 Petition will take 12-18 months to process. Afterwards, the approved petition will be forwarded to the National Visa Center, which will request fees and documents from you, and then schedule an interview for you at the consulate. This process normally takes about 4-6 months. You usually have up to a year to respond to the National Visa Center after they request fees and documents. So I suppose you could extend the 4-6 months to a little over a year. Once the immigrant visas are issued, you will have six months in which to enter the United States. At most, between filing the I-526 and when you must enter the United States, I think it could take 3 and a half years. I do not know if that will fit your time-frame.

The date you and your family will obtain conditional permanent residency will depend on your national origins. This year and the following years there may be extra time delays for Chinese nationals. In 2015, for the Chinese national there maybe a 2 year delay, while in 2016 there may be a 3 year time delay. The filing of the EB-5 investor petition will put you and each family member in a waiting line before you and the family members can apply for conditional permanent residency. Please remember it may take a few months to prepare the petition before filing with USCIS. Therefore, it may be a few years before anyone in your family obtains residency, to come and live in the United States.

You may apply now and it will be probably be 18 months before you receive an approval. The entire family could come here and receive your conditional residency. Thereafter, your children could return to your home country during the school year then return to the United States.

If you make the investment in 2015, it is likely that the soonest you will be able to move to the United States as a conditional resident would be about 1-1/2 years from the time you make the investment; USCIS is taking almost a year more to adjudicate I-526 petitions and it will take about six months to get an interview for the Immigrant Visa (IV) processing. After you get your IV, you have six months to enter the United States. As to your children finishing school beyond that two years it will take you to enter, you could obtain a reentry permit after entry to stay out for more than a year OR they could enter at least once a year during their vacation while you keep a residence (leased or purchased) in the United States.

Your EB-5 petition will have no effect on your children''s ability to come here and study. The sooner the better. Your children can only apply under your petition if they are under 21. In case your petition does not work out, you want to give yourself an opportunity to apply again while your children are under 21.

First, you need to find a project in which to invest and authenticate your source of funds, which can take a few months. Then the I-526 is filed and you wait (currently) 14 months for an approval (putting you in the middle/end of 2016). A few months later the National Visa Center sends invoices for the visa processing, and you can delay paying the invoices, then delay filing the applications, but that could only get you another year, maybe two. Once you get the visas you are expected to enter fairly quickly.

It will take about two years to obtain conditional residence at this time, unless you are from China. If you are born in China, the quota is estimated to have a cut-off date sometime in 2013. That means that you would have to wait your turn in the quota. Once you become a permanent resident, you are required to have a residence and live in the United States. You can travel, but in order to keep your green card, you should spend more time inside the United States than outside. If the children are going to school, but spend their time off from school at their residence in the United States, they can protect their green card since their stay outside of the United States is temporary.

Waiting four or five years before coming to the United States might be too long. However, keep in mind that the entire EB-5 process (start to finish) can take nearly two years in some situations.

They will need to enter the United States to obtain their permanent residency cards and then apply for a reentry permit to allow them to be overseas for up to two years. This can be renewed back in the United States as needed.

It will be a problem for your children to attend school overseas and they will risk losing their residence in the United States if they are gone for over six months. But they can apply for and get a two year reentry permit.