How do F-1 students transfer to an EB-5 visa status?

If your daughter submits an Adjustment of Status application, then no police clearance certificate from India is needed. However, if she will be applying for consular processing from India, it will be required for her interview at the Indian consulate. Also, once an I-526 petition gets approved and the EB-5 principal investor is admitted as a conditional resident in the United States, your daughter may file for an Adjustment of Status from the United States if the priority date is current.

If she has no criminal convictions/arrests, then she does not need to obtain a separate police clearance certificate if filing in the U.S. When they process her for biometrics, they will obtain police clearance/Interpol search of her criminal history, etc.

If your I-526 petition is approved and you (the EB-5 investor) are admitted as a conditional permanent resident to the United States, your daughter may file for adjustment of status in the U.S. if the priority date (date USCIS received your I-526 petition) is current. Only those born in mainland China are currently subject to the immigrant visa backlog. Police clearance certificates are required for consular processing and your daughter will not be required to submit those with adjustment of status application because USCIS will conduct the required background checks.

EB-5 is not a status until the I-526 and the adjustment of status are both approved, thus granting you 2-year conditional PR status. Prior to that, she needs to maintain F-1 or another status or to go home. If consular processing in India, Indian police clearance is needed. If you adjust in the U.S., no police clearance is needed.

If an F-1 student is in the United States at the time a visa number becomes available, and after approval of the EB-5 Petition on Form I-526, the F-1 visa holder would be eligible to file for Adjustment of Status within the U.S. and does not need a Police Clearance Letter from India or the United States. The F-1 student could only do so as the primary applicant or if the F-1 Student is a dependent of the primary applicant, the primary applicant would also have to file for Adjustment of Status in the U.S. or already have been admitted into the United States as an immigrant based upon the approved I-526 petition.

Technically, she can apply to follow to join and adjust in the U.S. after you are approved at the consulate in India. However, this will add additional delay. She will only need an Indian birth certificate and other documents to process in India.

Once the I-526 is approved, your daughter can either join the visa case and be processed with you at the Embassy in China or she can apply to adjust status in the U.S. after you have your visa. If she adjusts status, no police certificate is required. As background checks are carried out in the U.S., there is no need to obtain U.S. police certificates when applying for a visa.

If your daughter who has the F-1 visa is the principle EB5 applicant/investor, upon I-526 approvals and, assuming a green card is available for citizens of her country of birth, she can file for adjustment of status in the U.S. She will get a work permit and advance parole (international travel privileges) in about 90 days and the green card should come in in about another 90-120 days. No police certificates are required for adjustment of status.