What happens after USCIS approves an I-526 petition?

Have your attorney inquire with NVC, and if NVC says it does not have your case, have your attorney do a service request with USCIS.

It can take some time but three months is excessive. You need to follow up with USCIS and ask them to please forward the file to NVC.

Yes. It is a little strange that you are getting the run-around after three months of approval of your I-526 petition. First and foremost, you need to make sure that your file was in fact sent to NVC for consular interview, as opposed to retained for adjustment of status by USCIS. A simple mistake like this could potentially delay your case forever! Sending your case back to USCIS for further review is, of course, a possibility but quite remote, to say the least. Most likely, if it is not a mix-up, your delayed processing and frustration are a result of across-the-board slowdown with immigration-related processing.

You can inquire with the NVC. For non-Chinese or Vietnamese nationals processing under the EB-5 category, you are not subject to any delays in processing for your immigrant visa. Upon approval, the USCIS notifies the consulate you have chosen to process for your immigrant visa. Then the National Visa Center puts the file together, assigns a case number and proceeds to processing for your immigrant visa. We are seeing approximately 30 days or less for NVC to notify you of the next procedure, instructions, file number, etc.

There is nothing on unusual with regards to length of time in this situation. If the NVC claimed it has not received the case, it means that the case is still with the USCIS. If you need to, check with the USCIS, feel free to do so by contacting the customer service center or through an InfoPass. Typically, the USCIS would neither opt to review nor revoke a decision unless there is any new and material evidence. Even assuming a worst-case scenario, there is such a decision, USCIS will notify you and until you receive such a notice, do not entertain the possibility of either a review or revocation being underway.

Yes, it can take some time to transfer your case from USCIS to NVC. All you can do is follow up, and at some point if nothing happens, you could have the appropriate entity make a congressional inquiry on your behalf. In theory, anything can be sent back to USCIS for review. A decision could be revoked after an approval notice, but more likely, this is just a result of the long delays that are being encountered across the board with both USCIS in D.C. and consular posts abroad.

Three months seems a little long, though it does take a while for the NVC to email the invoices. Check the I-526 to make sure all contact information is correct and that you selected consulate processing instead of adjustment of status. There is a form you can submit to compel USCIS to move the case to the NVC. It would be only in the most rare of circumstances that USCIS would review the case a second time after the I-526 approval (perhaps if during the next phases they discover some kind of fraud).

Sometimes USCIS drops the ball in transferring cases to NVC. Have your attorney put in an inquiry to IPO to transfer the case to NVC. Please note that currently, the regional center program for EB-5 has expired and no such category exists for the IV process during this shutdown.

Don&#39t you have a lawyer helping you with this? He or she should contact USCIS to get them to send the file to the NVC.

Send an email to NVCresearch@state.gov and have them track where the transmittal is, assuming the case was properly set up for consular interview.

Is there any chance your I-526 was marked for "adjustment of status"? Double check that. Next, contact IPO and ask whether they have sent your approval notice to NVC and when. Keep checking in with IPO and NVC.

It should not take over eight weeks for NVC to receive it. Send them your approval information so they can locate it.