Questions and Answers > EB-5 Investments

How will an EB-5 application affect A-1 visa status?

I am in the United States on an A-1 visa. If I apply for the EB-5 visa, what will happen? Will my passport be taken and the A-1 visa stamped as cancelled? Will they inform my home embassy that I applied for a U.S. green card? I need to keep my job for financial purposes for a few more years at least, which means I need to keep my A-1 visa status.

Answers

• Xiaosheng Huang

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on August 11, 2016

  An EB-5 application will not affect your A-1 visa.

• Lynne Feldman

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on July 19, 2016

  It should not affect it until you get to the final green card stage of the EB-5 - then you switch to permanent resident and not A-1.

• Julia Roussinova

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on July 18, 2016

  Filing an I-526 petition will not provide you with any lawful immigration status in the United States and will not directly impact your current underlying nonimmigrant A-1 status. However, holders of A status are ineligible to adjust status in the United States (i.e. filing a petition for a conditional green card upon approval of an I-526 immigrant petition) unless you waive privileges and immunities on Form I-508.

• Raymond Lahoud

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on July 15, 2016

  You will not lose your current visa status simply because of your application for an investor-based visa.

• John J Downey

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on July 15, 2016

  The fact that you filled an application should have no effect on your current status. When your application is approved, then you will need to adjust.

• Charles Foster

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on July 15, 2016

  If and when you file an EB-5 investor petition on Form I-526, it does not directly affect your A-1 nonimmigrant visa as a diplomat as far as the United States is concerned. You will still be eligible, provided you have the support of your foreign ministry, and you will still be eligible to have a visa issued and still be eligible to be admitted in A-1 nonimmigrant status. No, your passport will not be taken nor will your A-1 visa stamp be cancelled when you file an I-526 EB-5 investor visa petition. While anything is possible, it would be very unusual for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service to inform your home embassy. The only people that are informed will be the U.S. officials such as U.S. consular officials and U.S. immigration officials that would have access to a database showing that you filed the I-526 EB-5 investor petition.