Last week, USCIS announced an update to the visa availability approach for Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Investor. The new policy is intended to reduce backlogs and increase application processing efficiency.
- Currently, the USCIS Immigrant Investor Program Office (IPO) manages its Form I-526 petition inventory by determining whether a visa is available (or will be available soon) and whether the underlying project has been reviewed.
- USCIS generally processes applications according to a first-in, first-out approach.
- However, the new staggered processing model will group petitions by new commercial enterprise (NCE) with filing dates on or before Nov. 30, 2019, within the workflow queue of petitions where the project has been reviewed and whether there is a visa available or soon to be available.
More information on the new processing model can be found here.
Erickson Insights & Analysis
Erickson Immigration Group will continue to share updates as more news is available. If you have questions about anything we’re reporting above or case-specific questions, please contact your employer or EIG attorney.