UGLOBAL . COM 87 know our adjudication and immigration process is slow , we are rectifying that by giving you parole to stay and work here in the United States until our USCIS and immigration adjudication slow process catches up with market demand . Under Advanced Parole , an investor ( and their co-applicants ) can also travel with the visa to other countries the same way a green card holder could . One caveat is that if the EB-5 investor ( and their co-applicants ) enter the US on a tourist visa , they cannot immediately change status because their intent was tourism and not immigration . An EB-5 investor legally in the US under a tourist visa , could change their intent from tourism to immigration and remain in the US with work authorization the same way as and L-1 , F-1 or other categories , but they cannot travel to other countries with that concurrent filing .
WHICH CATEGORIES ARE FASTER
Currently many regional centers are focused on rural projects , with the presumption that they will get processed much quicker than other applications because it ’ s a new visa category . This could not be further from the truth ; If an investor invests in a rural project , they will still have to wait the average processing time of 21-28 months ( subject to change ) before they get their I-526 application approved . They have to also wait another four months to receive a consular interview ( or eight months if in Mainland China , at the Guangzhou service center ). They could be looking at 29- 36 months to complete their consular interview before they even can reach the State Department for a visa from one of the set-aside visa categories .
Now this wait time can be shortened to the 21-28 months average wait time , if an investor is in the United States and does concurrent filing . But this could still be a 2 to 2,5 year wait time before the investor would reach one of the current set-aside visa categories .
If an investor files an expedite because of the investor ’ s circumstances or a project expedite , he will jump in front of the line at USCIS and will get his file adjudicated immediately . These expedites take anywhere from 3-9 months to adjudicate ( subject to change ). If an expedited investor has to go to a consular visit then add the 4 months , or 8 months for China , and that is the total approximate wait time . This category is much faster than any other category . Now if the expedited investor is one of the 3,200 new visa set asides , they will get a visa from the State Department immediately because these categories are current .
Those investing in a high unemployment area category or infrastructure category also are in that 3,200 current visa categories . The old TEA investors are at a disadvantage , because the new investor categories all take precedent , and the old TEA categories move to a new category called unreserved . The USICS , as it stands today , does not recognize any of the old TEA investor categories and it receives unreserved visas form the State Department . Investors from all countries , except China and India that are not current , are allowed to be in the United Sates on another visa and do a concurrent filing .
Every year , 6,800 visas should be added to the unreserved category , for the old investors to be able to use . However , the 3,200 special visas are held for two years before any unused visas are released to the unreserved category . Unless the USCIS changes its policy and updates its new adjudication strategy , rural or other special visa set aside categories do not save investors any additional time , unless combined with an expedited filing .
REALITIES OF THE NEW RIA SINCE MAY , 2022
Since Congress passed the new RIA , and the RIA went into effect in May of 2022 , several regional centers have brought rural projects into the market . Notably two or three of those projects have already raised north of $ 300 million for their projects through China alone . Two of those projects have also raised that same amount outside of China . There are also countless smaller rural projects that have also raised funds in China and elsewhere .
There is a good likelihood that the rural category may already be backlogged . RCs , agents , and investors that are focusing on a couple of words in the RIA that express that rural projects may get priority processing may be surprised when the USCIS decides that rural projects have the same priority as high unemployment or infrastructure categories , or even find out that the rural category may already be backlogged .
Meanwhile not many projects have entered the market under the high unemployment TEA , and as far as we know zero have entered the market so far as the infrastructure category . Investors should be weary and evaluate projects on their merits on their likelihood to get them their green cards approved and their capital paid back and not pay too much attention to these fast processing gimmicks , unless a project is in fact expedited due to imminence of a benefit to a US federal agency .
ABTEEN VAZIRI
Abteen Vaziri is managing director at Brevet Capital Management , an SEC registered investment advisor and manager with a family of five funds with over $ 2 billion assets under management . Vaziri manages Brevet ’ s real estate practice and the BC Immigration Fund , an EB-5 portfolio fund . He graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas with a bachelor ’ s degree in computer science , and from Southern Methodist University with an MBA in finance . Vaziri also graduated from Fordham University School of Law with a Juris Doctor degree , with a concentration in business and financial law , and is licensed to practice law in the state of Texas .