Salvatore Picataggio
Immigration Attorney
Answered on
90 days overcomes the "presumption" of a fraudulent entry. If you file earlier you will just need to be prepared to defend your original entry as truly temporary in nature.
When can I submit an EB-5 application in the U.S. if I enter the border as a tourist?
We just enter the U.S. with a tourist visa last month. We want to submit our EB-5 application while we are in the U.S. Someone told us we must wait for a period of time before we are allowed to submit this application. Is it true? When can we submit the EB-5 application?
Answers
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Bernard P Wolfsdorf
Immigration AttorneyAnswered onYou need to submit before Nov. 21, 2019, or pay the higher amount. Since filing the petition is not an issue its adjusting status, we would recommend you apply for your green card abroad. Filing the petition does not allow you to remain here.
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Daniel A Zeft
Immigration AttorneyAnswered onYou should return to your home country and then file the I-526 petition.
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A Olusanjo Omoniyi
Immigration AttorneyAnswered onYou can submit your EB-5 application right away. There is no need for a waiting period.
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Robert West
Immigration AttorneyAnswered onYou can submit anytime since you will have to wait outside the U.S. for the petition to be approved.
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BoBi Ahn
Immigration AttorneyAnswered onWhat you may be referring to is the "fraudulent intent" assumption by the USCIS if you enter on a non-immigrant status and immediately file for permanent residency. Since the petition (I-526) will take over a year to process, and would not be filing for adjustment of status immediately upon entering, you should be fine anytime while in the U.S. as a tourist.
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Dale Schwartz
Immigration AttorneyAnswered onYou can submit the application at any time from anywhere in the world. But since they are taking more than two years to approve EB-5 cases, you will not be allowed to stay in the U.S. after your tourist stay expires.
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Charles Foster
Immigration AttorneyAnswered onYou should file your EB-5 petition as soon as possible considering the new final regulations are substantially increasing the minimum investment amounts and growing backlogs in both visa availability and backlog processing. There is no issue on your date of entry unless you would also try to change or adjust status based on EB-5 petition, which is not possible in any event.
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Belma Demirovic Chinchoy
Immigration AttorneyAnswered onYou can file the EB-5 petition whenever you wish and then leave the U.S. at the end of your tourist stay. Filing the EB-5 petition does not allow you to remain in the U.S.
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Hassan Elkhalil
Immigration AttorneyAnswered onIt is advisable to wait 90 days before you apply but because of the Nov. 21, 2019, deadline, you can file it anytime before then.
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Lynne Feldman
Immigration AttorneyAnswered onAs long as you are returning as required under your visitor visa, there is no constraint on when you can file the EB-5.
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Marko Issever
EB-5 Broker DealerAnswered onAs far as I know, there is no requirement to wait any period while you are in the U.S. with the B-1/B-2 visa to apply for the EB-5. Bear in mind, however, that B-1/B-2 visas are not dual-intent visas. Once you apply for the EB-5, it might be difficult to extend your visit here and upon your return to your home country, it might also be difficult to get back unless you could prove that your next visit to the U.S. is of temporary nature, and you will be returning to wait for your I-526 petition to be approved. Once approved, it would be advisable to consider consular processing for the conditional green card.
