Please note that we and, as far as we know, the entire EB-5 industry, are waiting for USCIS to issue I-956F formal receipt notices, which is currently required per USCIS guidance issued on July 12th with the newly released Form I-526E.
To date, we and others have only received a letter confirming receipt of the Form I-956F’s $17,795 filing fee. This payment receipt letter states that “USCIS will issue a formal receipt notice which will include the assigned receipt number for this application when data entry has been completed.” It appears that USCIS is taking an unreasonably long period of time to complete “data entry.”
We understand that efforts have been taken by AILA and IIUSA to urge USCIS to issue formal receipt notices promptly or change their guidance to comply with the “filing” requirement of the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (“RIA”). The current delay in issuing formal receipt notices is in violation of the June 24th preliminary injunction, which states in part that existing EB-5 regional centers “must presently be permitted to operate within the regime created by the [EB-5 Reform and Integrity] Act [of 2022]. This includes processing new I-526 petitions from immigrants investing through previously authorized regional centers” (See Behring Reg’l Ctr. v. Mayorkas, 22-cv-02487-VC, 12 (N.D. Cal. Jun. 24, 2022)).
