The Department of State (DOS)’s March Visa Bulletin has kept the key dates for EB-5 applications unchanged, except for the Filing Date for Mainland Chinese investors in the Unreserved category.
The dates are as follows:
- India (Unreserved): The Final Action Date is May 1, 2022, and the Filing Date stays May 1, 2024.
- China (Unreserved): The Final Action Date is August 15, 2016, and the Filing Date has been moved forward almost two months to October 1, 2016 (from August 22, 2016).
The filing date is the date when applicants are eligible to file their immigration applications with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). It is different from the Final Action Date, which indicates when EB-5 visas may be issued.
Chinese investors who filed before October 1, 2016, are now one step closer to visa processing.
What does it mean when the EB-5 filing date advances?
DHS said in the March Visa Bulletin that it advanced filing dates for several immigrant visa categories, including EB-5, due to decreased issuance rates for some countries resulting from national security measures by the Trump administration.
However, the agency cautioned that retrogression may be necessary later in the fiscal year to manage visa issuances within limits, depending on visa demand and changes in administration actions. “As additional immigrant visa demand materializes, or administration actions are amended, retrogression may be necessary later in the fiscal year to keep issuances within annual limits,” said the DHS in the March Visa Bulletin.
As the filing date days advance, more visa numbers become available to investors, benefiting those from high-demand countries such as India and China.
Chinese EB-5 applications face a backlog in the Unreserved category largely due to high demand for these employment visas from this country and processing delays within the program.
Meanwhile, dates for all the other countries in the Unreserved category, except for India and China, and for EB-5 set-asides remain current, with no observed backlogs yet.
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