With the recent change in application processing priorities and the impact of COVID-19, will Indian EB-5 I-526 applications be processed faster?
No. the EB-5 petitions of Indian nationals are not being treated faster. In fact, their petitions may experience slower processing because India is one of the countries that are in retrogression. Hopefully, the process may get better later.
The recent change to I-526 processing prioritizing cases with current immigrant visa availability does not seem to be impacted by Covid-19 directly. If the Date of Filing Chart is current, then they will supposedly process those country''s I-526 petitions before those with a waiting period. Overall, it seems I-526 processing has dipped slightly because of fewer applications after the November 2019 changes. delete the original email.
Yes, they should be processed faster as petitions from Chinese and Vietnamese nationals should be set aside. The word here is ''should''.
Perhaps in the near future once the Priority Date becomes current. As a country with a backlog of EB-5 visas, we may have to wait and see if USCIS processes Indian-based I-526s faster in the queue as a result of a lot of progression in the monthly visa bulletin.
We expect they will but no new processing times are posted yet.
USCIS indicated that they would give preference to non-backlogged countries. While India is currently backlogged, it is not very backlogged so we have yet to see.
