Class-Action Lawsuit Aiming to End
the EB-5 Visa Backlog
Class-action lawsuit offers hope to Chinese investors,
claiming U.S. government’s miscount of annual EB-5 visas
is a‘mistake in plain sight.’
By Ira Kurzban, John Pratt, Edward Ramos, and John Shen
S
ometimes, the worst mistakes are the ones that go
unnoticed.
According to one regional center, that truism accounts
for the growing visa backlog that has crippled the EB-5
program. In a recent lawsuit in federal district court,
American Lending Center (ALC) and thousands of Chinese
investors represented in a class-action lawsuit by the
law firm Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli & Pratt argue that
the U.S. government has been miscounting the limited
annual supply of EB-5 visas. This mistake, they contend,
is responsible for the EB-5 visa backlog. If their lawsuit
is successful, it will substantially shorten the time that
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EB5 INVESTORS M AGAZINE
Chinese investors have to wait to immigrate to the U.S.
based on their EB-5 investments.
THE ORIGIN OF THE EB-5 BACKLOG
V i s a b a c k l o g s d e ve l o p a t a n y t i m e d e m a n d fo r a
par ticular categor y of visas outstrips supply. On the
supply side, the law establishing the EB-5 program sets
aside a fixed number of visas – just under 10,000 each
year – reserved for EB-5 investors. Demand for these
visas is driven by the total number of foreign nationals
who make a qualifying investment in an EB-5 project
and obtain approval of their I-526 petition. For the first