The core data for the U.S. EB-5 investment immigration program for the fiscal year 2013 has been released. In the first 11 months of the fiscal year 2013, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received 6,346 new EB-5 investment immigration cases, concluded 4,642 cases, had 5,901 cases under review, and 1,230 cases pending additional documentation. It can be inferred that the actual number of EB-5 investment immigration cases received by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is around 7,000. Additionally, the National Visa Center issued a total of 8,567 EB-5 investment immigration visas in the fiscal year 2013. This marks a historic high for the EB-5 investment immigration program since the enactment of the EB-5 Regional Center Investment Immigration Act, in terms of new applications, concluded cases, and the actual number of EB-5 immigration visas approved and issued. However, the processing time for applications has also lengthened, with the average processing time for EB-5 project applications reaching 18.8 months, and some cases exceeding 20 months.
Due to the strong momentum of the EB-5 investment immigration program in the fiscal year 2013, it has made a significant positive contribution to the socio-economic development of the United States: the contribution of the EB-5 investment immigration program to boosting the U.S. economy and creating a large number of new job opportunities is evident; the improvement in economic employment is also interrelated with the relevant economic areas involved in the EB-5 project policies, the TEA designation of projects, and the employment calculation coefficients. Data shows that in just 2012 and 2013, the EB-5 funds directly invested in the U.S. economy reached between $7 billion and $8 billion, creating nearly 200,000 new job opportunities. In addition to the EB-5 investment principal, this affluent group has also brought in over $20 billion in consumption and investment funds to the U.S. conservatively estimated.
However, it is worth noting that once the U.S. economy recovers to the expected level, the U.S. investment immigration program, which is fundamentally aimed at attracting funds and creating jobs, may face uncertainties. Immigration experts from WorldWay Immigration point out that on one hand, there are increasingly strong signals of rising investment amounts in 2014, and on the other hand, the large number of applications is causing processing times to extend repeatedly. For clients intending to invest in U.S. immigration through the EB-5 program, it is necessary to enhance their sense of urgency, accelerate the application process, and choose high-quality and safe projects recommended by reputable immigration agencies to realize their dream of immigrating to the United States as soon as possible.
