G.T Law Firm attorneys visit Worldway
Editor's Note: The U.S. Department of State Visa Office released a visa bulletin on April 13. Subsequently, Worldway's appointed client law firm, GT Law Firm, sent a letter to Worldway providing a detailed explanation and analysis of the latest visa bulletin. The latest explanatory letter is published as follows:
The U.S. Department of State has announced that EB-5 applications for Chinese investors will be subject to a backlog starting May 1, 2015. On April 13, 2015, at the "Invest in the U.S." conference held in Washington, Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at the U.S. Department of State, announced that starting May 1, 2015, Chinese EB-5 applicants will face a backlog. Oppenheim had actually hinted at this in October 2014. The Department of State's May 2015 visa bulletin further confirmed this. Therefore, this means that the Chinese EB-5 immigrant visa category will face a 2-year backlog, with a cut-off date of May 1, 2013. The cut-off date will determine the order of issuance for EB-5 immigrant visas. The cut-off date is determined by the date the I-526 petition was filed. A date will be listed in the priority date column of the approval notice for each I-526 petition.
According to the May 2015 visa bulletin, the cut-off date is set for May 1, 2013, which means that in May 2015, only Chinese EB-5 applicants (and their derivative beneficiaries) whose priority date is earlier than May 1, 2013, or whose priority date is May 1, 2013, can apply for an EB-5 immigrant visa. The dates in the visa bulletin may advance, retrogress, or remain unchanged, and these changes are announced regularly each month.
Therefore, it is crucial for applicants to check the Department of State's visa bulletin every month to determine if their priority date is current. Our previously published blog post explains in detail how to use the visa bulletin.
Oppenheim also revealed that the visa fee notification forms (receipts for visa fees processed by the National Visa Center for consular processing) for EB-5 applications approved in April 2015 will be sent out soon. In addition, the Department of State and USCIS will soon provide guidance on I-824 applications (applications based on an already approved petition). It is crucial to realize that visa backlogs are based on the country of birth, not the country of citizenship. Therefore, only investors born in mainland China will be affected. Applicants born in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Macau are not affected.
Furthermore, if an EB-5 applicant's spouse was not born in mainland China, the investor may be treated as an applicant from their spouse's place of birth to avoid the impact of the Chinese backlog.
We would like to remind readers of another piece of news related to this: President Obama's proposals regarding immigration policy reform in November 2014, which may positively impact the EB-5 program. These proposals include maintaining existing regulations, changing existing regulations, and presidential memoranda on keeping visas up to date. Our previous blog post provided a detailed analysis.
Regarding regulatory changes announced through the Administrative Procedure Act, EB-5 investors may benefit in two ways: First, if investors are researchers, inventors, or entrepreneurs, they may be paroled into the United States. Second, "advance adjustment of status" would allow some adjustment of status applicants whose priority dates are not yet current to file for adjustment of status and obtain work and travel permits.
Regarding the presidential memorandum on keeping visas up to date, there are two points that may positively impact EB-5 applicants. EB-5 investors may be able to regain permanent residence visas based on unused visa quotas allocated by Congress, meaning that remaining visa quotas would be allocated for use in the following year. If the President allows the Department of State to retroactively reallocate unused visa quotas from the EB-5 category from the past five years or more to current EB-5 applicants, this would have a significant impact on EB-5. Secondly, it is possible that derivative beneficiaries (spouses and children) will not be counted against the visa quota. Currently, when an EB-5 principal applicant's EB-5 petition is filed and approved, their family members are also counted against the 10,000 EB-5 immigrant visa limit.
As a leading institution in the U.S. investment immigration industry, for 18 years, Worldway Immigration Group has adhered to the corporate values of "Character First, Excellence Second; Integrity-based, Client-oriented," and is committed to providing clients with selected projects and responsible value concepts. We have helped tens of thousands of families successfully immigrate overseas, opening the door to a new life for our clients. Worldway has maintained close contact with the law firms that file with the U.S. immigration authorities and has provided timely and authoritative analysis and forecasts on U.S. investment immigration policies and the latest trends. On April 3, the official Worldway website released in advance the professional interpretation of visa backlog issues by senior attorneys from Greenberg Traurig and senior U.S. EB-5 expert attorneys (article link: http://www.worldwayhk.com/news/5325.html), once again proving Worldway's foresight, predictability, and authority in its understanding of EB-5.
