USCIS Releases Executive Summary of EB-5 Engagement

On May 1, 2012, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS’)
Office of Public Engagement and its Service Center Operations
Directorate conducted a stakeholder engagement to discuss the EB-5
Immigrant Investor program, focusing on general EB-5 issues. During the
session, USCIS provided a summary of the EB-5 receipts, approvals, and
denials, and subject-matter experts from USCIS and the Department
of State (DOS) answered questions from participants. USCIS has now
issued its executive summary of the engagement. Questions addressed
pertained to processing times and procedures, I-526 immigration
petitions by alien entrepreneurs, I-829 petitions by entrepreneurs to
remove conditions, I-924 applications for regional centers under the
immigrant investor pilot program, EB-5 visa allocations, customer
services, premium processing, troubled company designations,
diversification, the definition of “new commercial enterprise,”
permissible expenditures, refundable fees, job creation, geographic
designations, profit requirements, new hires, bridge financing,
nonprofit organizations, EB-5 filings by F-1 students, sources of funds,
requests for evidence (RFEs), when a final policy memorandum will be
released, and the EB-5 sunset (set for September 30, 2012, if not
extended by Congress). The executive summary is reproduced here.