Christine Chen, Chief Operating Officer of CanAm Enterprises, Walter Gindin, our General Counsel, and Pete Calabrese, CEO of CanAm Investor Services, were recently in Atlanta for the IIUSA Annual EB-5 Industry Forum. IIUSA leads advocacy efforts for the EB-5 program to ensure Congress recognizes the importance and intent of this program: creating jobs, transforming economies across the United States, and helping immigrant families realize their dreams of citizenship. At the recent Leadership Summit, Christine Chen was re-elected to the IIUSA Board of Directors. CanAm is proud that our leaders have long served on the IIUSA Board of Directors. We value the opportunity to help IIUSA carry out its mission and ensure CanAm is at the forefront of important industry developments so we can best support and inform our investors.
The Keynote Speaker at the Annual Forum was Dr. Michael Hanley, the Data Scientist from the Immigration Visa Control and Reporting Division at the U.S. Department of State. He discussed the latest data on EB-5 visa usage and provided critical policy updates related to EB-5 processing. Highlights from his presentation included:
- Approximately 8,359 visas were issued in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 by the National Visa Center (NVC), which is a 27% increase over the previous fiscal year.
- Total visas in the reserved categories for FY2024, including carryover, is estimated to be 8,136 and total visas in the unreserved category, including carry over, is estimated to be 14,169. This is far more than can be used given the current pace of USCIS adjudication and consular/adjustment processing, which means that there are visas available for all approved I-526’s/E’s that are being processed by the NVC. To maximize EB-5 availability, NVC will continue to use carryover visa numbers, which will expire September 30, 2024, before regular EB-5 numbers.
- It is estimated that of the total FY2024 reserved visas available, as many as 7,073 will be visas for Rural Area petitions. As of 11/2023, current demand for visas by Rural Area petitions, based on the number of petitions in the queue, was less than 3,000 visas, indicating that visa supply is greater than demand in the Rural Area reserved category.
- Given the high number of unreserved visas, it is expected that DOS will prioritize processing by Guangzhou over the summer, especially adjustments of status.
- For FY 2024 to date:
- There have been only 15 adjustments of status and 1 consular case assigned.
- 339 I-526E petitions have been approved by USCIS and sent to NVC for consular processing. However, this does not reflect I-526E petitions that have been approved but are still pending adjustment of status, since this occurs at USCIS.
- Currently only China Mainland and India are retrogressed. China currently has a final action date of December 15, 2015, and India has a final action date of December 1, 2020. Given the number of unreserved visas available, it is expected that final action dates for both will advance significantly in the October 2024 visa bulletin, with China possibly advancing to April-June 2016, and India possibly becoming current or close-to current.
As always, we are pleased to share with you the latest news and insights regarding the EB-5 Program. For the most up-to-date news and insights, please visit our website at www.canamenterprises.com.
