The Best Practices Committee is seeking to collect information and details from any Regional Centers that have experienced USCIS site visits at one or more of their project sites. The committee is working on a member resource to help Regional Centers prepare their project sites for site visits and needs your help. They have already collected details from a handful of members, but want to expand their database to provide the most useful information possible. Specifically they are looking for:
- What kind of (and how many) USCIS officials visited?
- Who did they talk to on site?
- What kinds of questions were asked?
- What, if any, kinds of documentation were requested?
- What, if any, follow up occurred?
- Any other pertinent and useful information
We are aware that USCIS has conducted several site visits for projects at the 829 stage in line with their efforts for increased oversight, so if you have experienced one, please reach out to Ashley Sanislo Casey. Your information will be taken in confidence. We greatly appreciate your help in this important effort.
What is a USCIS EB-5 Site Visit?
In August 2015, the Immigrant Investor Program Office (IPO) announced at an EB-5 Stakeholder Engagement that it was looking into beginning site visits to improve Program oversight. As of 2016, IPO began these random site visits, mostly at the job creating entity (JCE) level, to verify project progress and job creation, particularly when projects began filing I-829s. According to remarks by IPO Chief Nicholas Colucci from the March 3, 2017 Stakeholder Engagement, IPO expected to conduct at least 250 site visits this year.
