United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has
published EB-5 program data for Fiscal Year 2024, Quarter
4. The released data show a high rate of denial for I-526 petitions
versus I-526E petitions.
The denial rate for I-526 petitions was around 30%, which
means USCIS issued denials for almost a third of all applicants
that invested funds. These applicants waited about 57 months on
average for adjudication. Form I-526, also known as Immigration
Petition by Alien Entrepreneur, is the petition foreign
nationals use in the EB-5 investor program to invest in their own
business or in a regional center investment opportunity with the
petition filed prior to the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022
(RIA)'s passage. When filing this form, applicants take their
first step toward obtaining permanent residency in the United
States by investing in a new business that creates at least 10 jobs
for U.S. workers.
