I have $500,000 that is available for an EB-5 investment. I am currently working in the U.S. with an H-1B visa. I am an Indian native and my EB-2 priority date is in 2010. If I file an EB-5 case now, will I get a green card through it faster than through my EB-2 case?
You can file multiple EB petitions. The EB-5 petition process may lead you to be able to apply quicker than the other EB petitions. However, one needs to continually check the time delays on the monthly visa bulletin.
Since the EB-2 final action date is 2009, you are pretty close to the next step with the EB-2. I-526 processing time can itself be several years. You may be one of the lucky ones who can stick with the EB-2.
It is not clear that an EB-5 will be faster than a 2010 EB-2. My speculation is EB-2 is just or almost as fast.
It is very hard to say. EB-2 is May 13, 2009, and EB-5 is Dec. 8, 2017.
That is difficult to predict, as we do not know the degree of retrogression your EB-5 application is going to experience. For Indian nationals, you are looking at retrogression that will delay the availability of your green card for in excess of six years. You have a good priority date on your EB-2 and it may indeed be faster than your EB-5. However, with this administration and USCIS, we lack certainty. I recommend that you have a consultation with an experienced investment immigration attorney immediately.
I think the EB-2 will be faster. The EB-5 quota for India is predicted to go backward sharply after all the current EB-5 cases are filed to beat the Nov. 21 deadline that is looming. I have about 10 EB-5 cases to file for Indian clients myself. All of this advice could be turned upside down if one of several bills pending in Congress passes. They would speed up visas from India.
That is difficult to say. The November Visa Bulletin just came out and the respective priority dates are as follows: India EB-2 is May 13, 2009; India EB-5 is Dec. 8, 2017. It is up to you if you want to hedge your bets. You might want to do EB-5 as well. Note that you cannot transfer your EB-2 priority date to EB-5.
You may get your green card faster through the EB-5. I would file for my EB-5 and whichever adjustment application is approved first, then I drop the other. You may have both applications pending at the same time.
Hard to say which is faster, but you do have the option to have both going at the same time.
Most likely the EB-2 will process faster, since for Indian nationals in EB-2 category, the current priority date is May 2009 and I-526 immigrant petition for alien investor is taking close to two years upon filing to adjudicate.
You can clearly file an EB-5 petition on Form I-526 now and it is likely to provide a visa number sooner under the quota.
Yes, you should apply for EB-5 considering that the waiting time for EB-2 is longer than EB-5.
Most likely, the EB-5 route will be much faster for you than that of EB-2, even with a 2010 priority date. Today, according to the October bulletin, for India-born applicants, USCIS is processing EB-2 with July 1, 2009 priority date, based on dates of filing. There seem to be over 433,000 people waiting in the EB-2 queue, including primary and dependent applicants. If we assume that the applicants came to the queue in equal numbers throughout the years, with a 2010 priority date, that puts you on the top 43,000 applicants. With USCIS approving less than 3,000 green cards annually, that would mean that you will need to wait for over 14 years for your petition to become current. With EB-5, most likely, your conditional green card would be approved in less than half of that amount. If you are lucky, it might be approved in less than five years. That is a huge difference. Nevertheless, you do not need to cancel your pending EB-2 case. If that becomes current, before your EB-5 based application is approved, then you could always drop the EB-5 case. As for your $500,000 investment, depending on the terms and conditions agreed on the private placement memorandum, you might have to wait until the underlying loan extended to the job-creating enterprise is paid off to the new commercial enterprise managed by the regional center.
