Why EB5 Rural Projects Are the Fastest Green Card Path
Author C. Matthew Schulz
Immigrating to the US through the immigrant investor EB5 immigrant visa is frustratingly slow for investors, USCIS-designated regional center operators and the related EB5 projects. That long wait time shorted significantly for many after US Congress made substantial changes to the EB5 program in 2022 that especially made EB5 rural projects the fastest.
120-day Priority Processing for Rural Projects
Enacted in 2022, the EB5 Reform and Integrity Act (RIA) authorized priority processing for investors opting for rural projects and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) dedicated adjudicators exclusively to process rural EB-5 petitions.
The target set by Congress is for the agency to approve I-526e and I-526 petitions by immigrant investors in rural project investors within 120 days.
Is USCIS consistently reaching the target set by Congress? No.
As of the date of this article, USCIS reports currently that 80% of immigrant investor petitions are processed within 54.5 months. See USCIS Processing Times for current times.
But that website does not distinguish between countries of birth and rural versus non-rural projects. Nonetheless, anecdotal evidence reported widely on the Internet shows the agency is working towards the goal of expediting I-526 and I-526e petitions for rural projects.
How USCIS Determines Which I-526 and I-526e To Process First
Pre-2020, the agency used a first in, first out approach.
That approach failed to consider the country-of-birth immigrant visa quota system that meant an immigrant visa was not available as quickly for immigrant investors born in all countries. Investors born in mainland-China, in particular, experience longer wait times and the agency decided it was more efficient to process faster the petitions for immigrants who could immigrate sooner.
In 2020, the USCIS began first processing petitions for investors for whom a visa is either now or soon will be available. Forms I-526 (traditional projects) and I-526e (RC-based projects) capture the immigrant investor’s country of birth. USCIS then refers to Chart B of the U.S. Department of State’s monthly Visa Bulletin , which shows visa availability for that country, to prioritize processing.
In 2022, the changes to the EB5 program by Congress included set asides to ensure that a minimum 20% percent of the annual allocation for EB5 immigrants would go to immigrant investors in rural projects (targeted employment areas or TEAs and qualified infrastructure projects have much lower set aside).
The impact of this change is reflected in the May 2024 Visa Bulletin for China- and India-born immigrant investors. Only these two countries of birth have wait times. Immigrant visas are immediately available for I-526s received before 15 December 2015 (China) and 1 December 2020 (India) for investments in projects outside the set aside areas, but immediately available for investments in projects in rural areas, TEAs and infrastructure projects. For those born in all other countries, immigrant visas are immediately available.
Why EB5 Investors Now Prefer to Invest in Rural Projects and File Now
Immigrant investors who quickly file the I-526e or I-526 for rural and other set aside projects are most likely to benefit from faster processing. As more and more green cards are granted for investors in set aside projects, the visa wait time is expected to increase. This is especially likely for China- and India-born.
The dates set in the Visa Bulletin are based on how quickly immigrant visas and permanent resident status are granted, and not the filing of immigrant visa petitions. These set asides were created in 2022, which is not very long ago. It takes time for petitions and residence applications to be granted. As that happens in future, Visa Bulletin wait times will change.