On Wednesday 4/10, IIUSA sent a letter to USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas concerning the processing backlog and its detrimental impact on the success of the EB-5 Program. Initially, we estimated that the total number of backlogged petitions was approximately 4,000+. It turns out that was an underestimate of the problem. Further research into the issues brought us to the exact and staggering number of pending I-526 petitions to be 5,887 (as of January 2013) – using USCIS Case Status data online. It now being late-April, the number if likely closer to 7,000 pending (or $3.5+Billion and 70,000+ U.S. jobs).
Also in the letter, IIUSA notified Director Mayorkas of its pool of over 500 WAC#s for backlogged I-526 petitions collected from our Regional Center members all over the country, representing over $250 million in pure EB-5 capital formation. In this small sample, processing times range from five to over twenty plus months. This kind of inefficiency and unpredictability in processing times would lead to seriously negative consequences in the EB-5 Program at a time when it is peaking in economic growth and regional development nationwide.
To illustrate this growth, in the first four months of FY2013 alone USCIS received over 2,450 new I-526 petitions. These demand trends indicate another record-breaking year of capital formation and job creation for the Program in the current FY.
See below for the latest national processing volumes and trends from the USCIS website.
