The U.S. Division of State (“DOS”) not too long ago launched the October 2022 Visa Bulletin, and it confirmed two new developments for EB-5 traders: (1) precedence date retrogression of the fifth Unreserved Closing Motion Date (“FAD”) for China-mainland born from December 22, 2015 to March 22, 2015, and (2) creation of a fifth Unreserved FAD for India of November 8, 2019. The FAD has remained present for all different nations within the EB-5 Unreserved classes, and for all nations within the EB-5 “Set-Apart” classes.
USCIS additionally introduced that it’ll settle for employment-based adjustment of standing functions with precedence dates which can be sooner than the Dates for Submitting (“DFF”) listed within the Division of State’s October Visa Bulletin. The fifth Unreserved DFF is January 1, 2016 for China-mainland born and is December 8, 2019 for India.
For Indian nationals in the US, this won’t forestall many from making use of for adjustment of standing as a result of almost all Type I-526s have been filed earlier than the now-vacated EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization rules that grew to become efficient date on November 21, 2019.
For China-mainland EB-5 traders overseas, nonetheless, the big retrogression is stunning, particularly given the quantity of visa numbers obtainable in FYs 2021 and 2022 which have gone unused by EB-5 traders, because it implies that the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou won’t concern visas to those that had not filed Type I-526s earlier than March 22, 2015. This occurred as a result of DOS decided the earlier date (December 22, 2015) would have allowed extra candidates be eligible for interview than visa numbers approved for fifth Unreserved FAD for China-mainland, which has been impacted by (a) the decrease FY 2023 employment restrict of roughly 200,000 from FY 2022’s 281,507, and (b) a 32% discount of the variety of visas made obtainable to EB-5 traders who filed earlier than the 2022 EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act (“RIA”) was enacted as a result of “Reserved Visa” provisions. For an in depth evaluation on the impacts of those provisions, overview the weblog featured by Spend money on the USA.
Additional, it’s unlikely that DOS will advance the fifth Unreserved FAD for China-mainland within the foreseeable future until DOS determines it could begin utilizing the in any other case unused Remainder of World (“ROW”) numbers, which might happen within the second half of the fiscal yr after figuring out ROW demand.
*Particular due to WR Immigration Associate and AILA member Joseph Barnett for his help in drafting this replace.
