EB-5 Visa Updates From The Chief Of The Visa Controls Office

At an IIUSA EB-5 Advocacy Conference in Washington D.C. this week, the Chief of the Visa Controls Office, at the U.S. Department of State, Charles Oppenheim, provided the latest EB-5 visa updates.

These are Mr. Oppenheim’s announcements regarding EB-5 visa availability by country.

India

In a sudden shift from his presentation in March 2019, Mr. Oppenheim now predicts that India will in fact enter retrogression no later than July of this year. The backlog could mean delays of 3-8.4 years for Indian nationals. Compared to the E-3 backlog that could take longer than 50 years, however, the EB-5 backlog doesn’t seem as bad.

China

Mr. Oppenheim predicts that the final action date for Mainland China should move up to no earlier than October 8th, 2014, by August of this year.

Vietnam

Final action dates for Vietnam may move to December 2014 by August of this year.

Taiwan, South Korea and Brazil

All three countries are expected to remain current on their final action dates for the remainder of FY2019. This means no visa backlog is predicted.

What would your potential visa number availability wait time be if you filed your I-526 Petition today?

Mainland China: 16.5 years

Vietnam: 7.6 years

Brazil: 1.6 years

India: 8.4 years

South Korea: 2.4 years

Taiwan: 2 years

Top countries by EB-5 number use for FY2019 (predictions) compared to FY 2018:

FY2018    FY2019

Mainland China     48.3%       44%

Vietnam                   7.2%      10.7%

India                        6.1%       10%

South Korea            5.5%         8.8%

Taiwan                     4.7%         5%

Brazil                       4%            4.8%

Venezuela               2.5%         1.8%

Hong Kong              2.1%         1.8%

Mexico                    1.8%          0.8%

Russia                     1.4%         0.7%

The visa backlog has hit Mainland China the hardest. Only 5 years ago did Mainland China make up over 85% of EB-5 visa use. Even more bad news for Mainland China—other countries are beginning to rush to fill their per country quotas. This would mean that there are less “left-over” visas for backlog applicants from Mainland China.

Possible solution:

Alleviate the backlog by removing dependents from counting toward the EB-5 visa cap. This would free up over 6,000 visas for investors each fiscal year.

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