The State Department (DOS) has announced that the annual limit for issuing all available visas in the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program‘s Unreserved visa category was reached for the 2024 fiscal year (FY 2024).
As a result, Unreserved visas for this fiscal year, including those carried over from FY2022 and FY2023, have all been used. This means that all applications outside of the new set aside categories are temporarily backlogged until the new fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
The DOS advised that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), embassies, and consulates worldwide cannot issue visas in these categories for eligible candidates for the rest of the fiscal year. Daniel Lundy, attorney at SCG Law, says the development should have a minor impact for the industry.
“For one month, they won’t issue visas, but they will start again on October 1,” he said. “It’s not really a big deal.”
Meanwhile, Kyle Walker, founder and CEO of Green Card Fund, said: “I see this as positive news from DOS and USCIS – they’ve used the full fiscal year allocation of unreserved visas to clear the backlog impacting pre-RIA investors (and non-TEA post-RIA investors). The fact that USCIS and State are working together in an efficient manner to use the available visas is significant. We’ve seen priority dates for Chinese and Indian nationals advance in FY24, and I don’t expect that unreserved filings between now and the end of the fiscal year will meaningfully add to the backlog. It’s important to note that for post-RIA investors in high unemployment and rural TEA projects, visas remain available, and there is no backlog.”
What happens to new EB-5 applications once the yearly limit is reached?
The EB-5 visa program consists of four types of visa categories: three are set-asides, which comprises rural and high unemployment areas (HUA), and infrastructure projects. The Unreserved category includes EB-5 projects located in Target Employment Areas (TEA) in urban and nonurban areas and pre-RIA projects that do not qualify as set-asides.
When the annual limit for a visa category such as EB-5 Unreserved is completed due to high demand, this visa variety becomes immediately “unavailable.” This means that no further requests for numbers are accepted.
Consequently, any new EB-5 Unreserved applications received after Aug. 16 are queued for processing in the next fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1, when the number of visas resets.
The DOS had cautioned in the last visa bulletin of the 2024 fiscal year about the possibility of employment-based visas reaching their annual limit due to the increasing demand patterns. Given the EB-5 Unreserved category has already reached its maximum, there could be potential announcements about the other three EB-5 visa types (set aside rural, high unemployment, and infrastructure) reaching the same milestone throughout August or September.
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) limits employment-based preference immigrant visas within a fiscal year. The annual limit for EB-5 visas is 7.1% of the worldwide employment limit, with 68% available for the Unreserved visa categories.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article are solely the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher, its employees. or its affiliates. The information found on this website is intended to be general information; it is not legal or financial advice. Specific legal or financial advice can only be given by a licensed professional with full knowledge of all the facts and circumstances of your particular situation. You should seek consultation with legal, immigration, and financial experts prior to participating in the EB-5 program Posting a question on this website does not create an attorney-client relationship. All questions you post will be available to the public; do not include confidential information in your question.
