Department of State Issues All Unreserved EB-5 Visas for FY 2024
Earlier today, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) announced that it had issued all legally available visas in the unreserved EB-5 categories. DOS will continue to schedule appointments in August and September; however, no new visa numbers will be available for issuance until October 1st.
This is a significant development as the Department of State and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) work to reduce the EB-5 backlog and improve processing times. Additional resources can be explored on the IIUSA Visa Dashboard and in our latest YTD visa issuance report.
Department of State Announcement
The State Department, working in close collaboration with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, is pleased to announce the issuance of all legally available visas in the Employment-Based Fifth Preference (EB-5) unreserved category for fiscal year (FY) 2024. Maximizing these visas facilitates legitimate travel for investors who establish commercial enterprises that create employment opportunities throughout the United States.
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) limits the number of employment-based preference immigrant visas that may be issued within a fiscal year. Specifically, INA 203(b)(5) provides that the annual limit for EB-5 visas is 7.1 percent of the worldwide employment limit, of which 68 percent is available for unreserved visa categories (C5, T5, I5, R5, RU, NU). Additionally, the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 specifies that unused EB-5 reserved visas from FY 2022 may be made available in the EB-5 unreserved categories for FY 2024.
Since all available EB-5 unreserved visas for FY 2024 have been used, embassies and consulates may not issue visas in these categories for the remainder of the fiscal year. The annual limits will reset with the start of the new fiscal year (FY 2025), on October 1, 2024. At that point, embassies and consulates may resume issuing immigrant visas in these categories to qualified applicants.
