Fredrick W Voigtmann
Immigration AttorneyThe hardest part of the process is the I-526 petition. Historically, approval rates vary, but the average hovers between 80% to 85%. In my experience, almost all I-526 approvals will result in conditional green card approvals. There are only limited reasons why an EB-5 investor with an I-526 approval would not receive at least the conditional green card. These applicants have been screened pretty heavily by the time the case reaches the immigrant visa interview or adjustment of status application, so there are not a lot of inadmissible applicants that squeak through. The I-829 petition approval percentage is even higher than the I-526 approval percentage (ranging between 88% to 92%). It is true there are no statistics which measure percentage of ultimate project "success" (permanent green card plus return of capital), but if nearly 90% of all I-829s are approved, one can assume that these projects are able to survive for at least five years, which is the time most EB-5 investors wish to exit the project anyway.