The integration of technology into EB-5 visas and other U.S. immigration legal services is about to revolutionize the legal industry. This can lead to increased efficiency and better client outcomes and ultimately shape the future of legal services for immigrants.
U.S. immigration technology experts told EB5Investors.com that there’s high potential for advancement and streamlined work. Yet, they caution that the legal immigration industry faces significant risks and challenges related to adopting technology, whether it’s Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud Computing, Data Science, Datafication, or automation of processes, to name a few.
AI’s impact on EB-5 and the legal immigration practice
The current debate about technology’s impact on the quality of immigration services is primarily focused on AI.
Nadine Navarro, co-founder and Chief Legal Officer at DraftyAI, highlights the benefits this type of technology offers: “Huge potential to transform the practice of immigration law, offering unprecedented tools for automating and optimizing the preparation of legal documents, analyzing case law, and personalizing legal advice. AI can significantly enhance the efficiency and accuracy of legal processes, allowing lawyers to handle cases more swiftly and effectively, thus improving access to legal services for immigrants and streamlining the path to residency and citizenship.”
She also emphasizes that “beyond mere speed and efficiency, AI technologies can also provide predictive insights based on data trends, guide decision-making, and offer risk assessments, thus enhancing the overall quality of legal services and client outcomes. It is also worth noting that many government agencies, including USCIS, are already employing AI tools in their practices, and they are expected to largely expand their usage and application of AI tools in the foreseeable future.”
Meanwhile, Connor Irish, CEO of EB-5 visa fund administrator platform PRXY, adds that there’s already evidence of the opportunities and risks of using AI. “The legal industry is peculiar in that it has a very high level of opportunity for advancement but paired with a consummate level of risk. 2023 and 2024 are a testament to that relationship, as we’ve already seen a multitude of litigations regarding AI-generated material, its authorship rights, or lack thereof, its ethical issues, its permissibility in court, etc.”
Irish adds that “none of the legal challenges with AI usage have been specifically associated with EB-5 related legal services so far as we are aware. PRXY does not offer legal services, so we are spared many of these particular challenges, but we have our own perspective on AI and its utility for fund administration in EB-5. We’ve already begun exploring AI widgets such as text and image recognition powered workflows as additions to our own platform.”
Challenges and opportunities for streamlining EB-5 legal advice
Irish points out that the use of AI has been particularly evident in the EB-5 industry since the renovation of the program with the Reform and Integrity Act [RIA] in 2022. “There is an interesting cross-section between the timing of emerging technologies and the re-emergence of the EB-5 program. When the EB-5 [RIA] passed in 2022, blockchain was at the forefront of the new technology conversation especially in the fintech and financial services space. Then, starting in 2023 with the emergence of OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and, later, GPT4, AI became a central focus with particular impact on the legal industry at large as law firms could begin to explore AI-powered chatbots, hiring AI specialists or training attorneys specifically on prompting to streamline legal work product efficiency.”
Meanwhile, Navarro highlights how this technology can assist immigration attorneys and other professionals for accuracy and consistency in a susceptible and complex part of the EB-5 application process: gathering documentation.
“Without a doubt, Generative AI is poised to revolutionize the way immigration attorneys manage and complete EB-5 packages. By automating the drafting of complex documents, AI can significantly accelerate the preparation process, allowing attorneys to compile and submit EB-5 applications much faster than traditional methods. This speed in document preparation is particularly advantageous for smaller firms, enabling them to compete more effectively with larger counterparts by reducing the manpower and time traditionally required to handle such intricate cases.”
She adds that as DraftyAI’s current technology primarily focuses on drafting for humanitarian immigration applications, it has gained valuable insights into other processes common to immigration work, such as drafting letters, briefs, and minutes. Therefore, the platform is preparing to create and introduce a versatile tool to aid in these tasks.
Greg Siskind from VisaLaw.ai affirms that immigration attorneys and other professionals can use AI platforms to perform daily tasks that are not difficult but can be time-consuming. “Our software uses artificial intelligence and is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 model. By including a vast amount of legal material (statutes, cases, articles, etc.) we can make it easy to get quick answers to questions on how the program works. We can also use the tools to screen whether Regional Centers and individual investments appear to meet EB-5 requirements. And we can use the software to help us more quickly onboard clients filing these types of cases.”
VisaLaw immigration attorney’s GEN AI technology is currently attorney-oriented, but Siskind anticipates a growing demand for client-oriented solutions. “Mostly what we’re making is attorney facing. But we are developing tools where clients could provide information to us online and that information can be pulled into to our AI tools. And we could potentially push out certain types of information back to clients. We have to be careful about providing legal advice via an AI without an attorney reviewing.”
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