What are the steps of EB-5 consular processing?

After your I-526 petition is approved, USCIS notifies NVC (National Visa Center) to initiate gathering of the required civil documents for you (and eligible family members). After you submit the civil documents to NVC and pay the immigrant visa fees, NVC will schedule a consular interview in your home country in a U.S. embassy. You will have a medical exam for each family member and an interview. If your interview is successful and you are not otherwise inadmissible to the United States, a consulate will issue a U.S. immigrant visa in a passport for each family member and you will have to enter the United States within its validity period (six months). After you get admitted at the U.S. border and after you have paid the green card fees (usually after your consular process is done, you pay a $165 fee for each family member), you will receive green cards and social security cards by mail approximately 30 - 40 days after you are admitted to the United States. Your green cards are valid for two years and you must remove conditions by filing the I-829 petition within 90 days of the expiration of the two-year anniversary. On average, the consular process takes six months.

Once the I-526 petition is approved you will be contacted by the National Visa Center (NVC) and they will request certain information from you as well as certain forms to be filled out. After providing the requested information and documentation, the NVC will schedule an interview with the U.S. Consulate.

After the I-526 petition is approved, if consular processing was requested on the form, the file is sent to the National Visa Center (NVC) in Portsmouth, NH. The NVC sends instructions to the applicant or representative about how to pay an immigrant visa processing fee, how to submit the DS-260 immigrant visa application form, how to submit any civil documents (by mail or electronically) and how and when the immigrant visa processing will take place. The purpose of the I-526 petition was to classify you as an immigrant investor (prove that the project qualifies and your invested capital is at risk and was lawfully obtained). The purpose of the immigrant visa interview is to determine if you are admissible to the United States. A background check, medical exam, police clearance and other documents must be reviewed and completed before the U.S. State Department (consular office) will issue you an immigrant visa. The immigrant visa is valid for six months and you must enter the United States as an immigrant for the first time during the validity period of the immigrant visa. After you have entered the United States, the green card will be produced and mailed to your U.S. address.

All the immigrant processes require two separate steps: one, immigrant petition with USCIS and, second step of either adjusting (I-485) if you are already here in United States through USCIS or consular processing (DS-260) through the State Department for an immigrant visa. You may only get the immigrant visa or adjust if your immigrant petition is approved. In EB-5 the steps in the process are as follows: 1. You will file the immigrant petition (I-526) after you invest into an EB-5 project/business. 2. When the I-526 is approved, USCIS will send your file to the State Department&#39s clearing house (NVC) to start the consular processing where you will pay the visa fees and submit the DS-260 immigrant visa applications for you and your family. 3. After NVC reviews the DS-260 and documents, they will request the U.S. Embassy in your home country for an interview date and will notify you. 4. After you are interviewed and approved, you will be given an immigrant visa valid for six months for you to enter the United States. Please note that your conditional green card is valid for two years only. 5. Three months before the conditional green card expires, you will have to prepare and file the I-829, removal of conditions application. When that is approved in about one year, then you will become a permanent green card holder.

The purpose of the Consulate interview is to grant you a visa to enter the United States as a conditional permanent resident. It is a requirement of the U.S. State Department for anyone wishing to immigrate. It involves personal background information. It is more or less a screening process to make sure you are who you say you are. The time span will vary from country to country depending on how busy the particular Consulate is. After receipt of the visa, I believe you have six months to arrive in the United States, but I am not sure of the State department rules; you should check with the Consulate in your country.

You should expect notice from USCIS stating that your I-526 petition has been approved and the visa was sent to the NVC (National Visa Center, a division of the U.S. Department of State). You will then receive an email from NVC stating that filing fees are required and can be paid electronically. Upon receipt of the filing fees, NVC will provide a bar code with which you can access the information and documents to be filed with NVC. When NVC is satisfied, it will send the visa on to the U.S. Embassy and assign an interview date for you with that U.S. Embassy. You will receive notice of the interview date. At the interview date, you will be examined. If approved you will surrender your passport; a visa will be affixed usually by a third-party contractor and then returned to you for use in entering the United States. This is a quick summary and details depend upon individuals and can be complex, particularly if there is any inadmissibility or required waiver. The purpose of consular processing is to examine the applicant to determine if he or she is eligible to take the visa that has been set aside when the I-526 was approved. The time required for consular processing depends upon variables including the efficiency with which you respond to, provide documents or information and sufficiency of your responses. It depends upon the number of others ahead of you who have just filed with NVC, the staff assigned to processes at the NVC and the backlog for interview appointments at the U.S. Embassy. Unless you have difficulty obtaining information or documents, you should be through consular processing well within a year. Generally you have six months to enter the United States after receiving your conditional immigrant visa.

After your I-526 is approved (assuming you selected consular processing), the approval is sent to the National Visa Center in New Hampshire, which coordinates with all of the consulates around the world. They will collect the immigrant visa fees and then collect documents for the consulate (each consulate has their own procedures so this will vary from consulate to consulate. After the documents are submitted and reviewed, then a consular interview is scheduled by NVC (except Guangzhou which schedules their own appointments) and the file is shipped overseas. Your immigration attorney then instructs on fingerprints, the medical exam, and preps you for the interview. After the immigrant visa is issued you go online and pay the immigrant visa card processing fee to USCIS and enter the United States before the immigrant visa expires. Your two-year green card comes in the mail and you go to the nearest Social Security office to obtain your U.S. number.

Once you file the I-526 Petition with USCIS and it is approved, the case is forwarded to the National Visa Center, who will send invoices for the visa fees for the primary beneficiary and each of the derivative beneficiaries. Those are paid, and the appropriate forms are completed and filed, as well as the preparation and filing of the required supporting documentation. This step is focused on the personal information of the applicants. Once those are submitted, the Consulate will review and arrange an interview with the applicant and the family members. Once finally approved, you get the EB-5 visa in your passport, which allows you about six months to enter the United States as a permanent resident.