As EB-5 Visas Become Popular, Priority Dates Backlog

As of May 1, 2015, only Chinese born EB-5 applicants who have priority dates before May 1, 2013 can file to adjust their status if they are lawfully in the United States or have an interview scheduled in China for an EB-5 immigrant visa. What this means is that EB-5 Chinese applicants with pending adjustment of status (Green Card / Permanent Residence) priority dates on or after May 1, 2013 will have to wait until those dates become current. The Visa Bulletin, issued monthly by the Department of State, will update priority dates monthly. For Chinese applicants waiting abroad for their priority date, they will have to wait for them to become current before the immigrant visa interview. It is uncertain how long the waiting line is.

There are 2,525 EB-5 visas available for the remainder of the Fiscal Year(ends September 30), with a total of 10,224 available for the entire fiscal year. Chinese born individuals have accounted for nearly 89% of the approved EB-5 visas this year, continuing a trend that has become popular since 2008.

The EB-5 visa is a relatively new path to permanent residence, in which an individual can invest one million dollars (or $500,000 in a targeted employment area) to stimulate an enterprise directly or through a regional center. For example, some of Bakery Square in Pittsburgh was funded through Chinese investors using the EB-5 visa. The EB-5 visa is complicated and fraught with legal intricacies. There are also peripheral issues, such as finder fees and SEC disclosure that need to be considered. The money being invested in the enterprise must be traced to legitimate sources. It was scarcely used before 2008, but has become immensely popular among Chinese investors seeking US permanent residence since then. Fiscal Year 2014 was the first year that the EB-5 reached its limit, and it looks poised to accomplish that this year.