How long does it take for an investor from India to get an EB-5 green card? - EB5Investors.com

How long does it take for an investor from India to get an EB-5 green card?

I am an India-born EB-5 investor. I filed my I-526 petition in the first week of January 2019. Will there be any retrogression for India? How long will the issuance of my green card take?

Answers

Bernard P Wolfsdorf

Bernard P Wolfsdorf

Immigration Attorneys
Answered on

When Mr. Oppenheim from the State Department last estimated on Oct. 23, 2018, he said India could be at 5.8 years. Of course, there are many variables, so no one actually knows the precise waiting line.

A Olusanjo Omoniyi

A Olusanjo Omoniyi

Immigration Attorneys
Answered on

I-526 petitions for Indian nationals are taking as much 20 months or more. As to retrogression, while Indian petitions are taking longer, it is not unreasonable and surprising to contemplate it may happen in the next few years.

Salvatore Picataggio

Salvatore Picataggio

Immigration Attorneys
Answered on

India is expected to retrogress, but the exact amount of time is only based on estimates and speculation. That said, it may be years. So after the approval of the I-526, you then need to wait for the retrogression time to pass before filing a green card.

John Roth

John Roth

Immigration Attorneys
Answered on

The projected wait time for an I-526 filed by an Indian national is complicated by several factors. First, did you invest in the one expedited project in the EB-5 marketplace or not? If you invested in the expedited project, your wait time should be only three to four months. It may be less due to the substantial drop in filing by Indian nationals since Sept. 30. Even if you did invest in this project, however, you probably do not have time to get your green card before a final action date (FAD) is issued by the U.S. Department of State, since it will take at least six months for your I-485 green card application to be approved, by which time the backlog for Indians in EB-5 will have already begun (the latest prediction by the State Department is that the FAD will be issued the “no later than July 2019”). I tend to believe that the FAD will be issued later than July and the wait time for green cards will be less than the 5.7 years predicted by the government in late October 2018 because of the aforementioned drop in new I-526s filed by Indians since Sept. 30, 2018. Indian nationals, particularly those residing in the U.S., seem to communicate well among themselves, so I believe that most prospective Indian EB-5 investors have either invested or decided not to apply for an EB-5 visa. We might see a new surge, however, when the USCIS announces its final rule raising the EB-5 investment amounts to over $1 million. The situation is simpler if you filed your I-526 based on an investment in a non-expedited project. Such I-526s are taking about two years to process, although we have seen such petitions take as little as one year to win approval (luck of the draw, probably). In any event, you will almost certainly be subject to a backlog by the time your I-526 is approved. My educated guess is that your wait time will be three to five years from I-526 filing until green card approval.

Julia Roussinova

Julia Roussinova

Immigration Attorneys
Answered on

There is no retrogression for India yet but it is expected to happen. Currently, it takes USCIS about two years to adjudicate I-526 cases. You should discuss the potential retrogression impact of your case with your immigration attorney.

BoBi Ahn

BoBi Ahn

Immigration Attorneys
Answered on

Currently I-526 petition processing time is over two years. It is hard to predict if Indian nationals will be subject to visa backlogs two years from now, but for now, Indian nationals are not subject to retrogression.

Charles Foster

Charles Foster

Immigration Attorneys
Answered on

Currently, there is an increase of numbers of EB-5 petitions filed by nationals of India. Given the fact that your EB-5 petition was filed in January 2019, there is most likely going to be a growing backlog for Indian nationals, depending upon the number of individuals who file an EB-5 petition before you. It could easily take at least three to four years before you could obtain your lawful permanent residency on a conditional basis.

Lynne Feldman

Lynne Feldman

Immigration Attorneys
Answered on

No one knows. Right now it is current but may retrogress next summer.

Marko Issever

Marko Issever

EB-5 Broker Dealers
Answered on

We are expecting that sometime in the summer, middle to end of summer, we will start seeing retrogression in India. So far, India is processing current like all the other countries except China and Vietnam. It is very difficult to tell how long the process of getting a conditional card takes. The common wisdom was approximately two years. There is no question, however, that the duration has increased and depends on many project-related and individual-related circumstances.

Belma Demirovic Chinchoy

Belma Demirovic Chinchoy

Immigration Attorneys
Answered on

There is no backlog for EB-5 visas for Indian nationals - yet. The process to obtain a CPR could take anywhere from two to five-plus years depending on the visa backlogs, as it is projected to do this year.

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