The number of Indian citizens issued with EB-5 visas in the US has almost quadrupled since 2017.
As stated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), 585 conditional green cards were issued to Indians during the 12 month period ending September 2018, compared with 174 during the 2017 with 149 in 2016. An increase in 2 years of almost 400%.
Moreover, during the past few years, hundreds of Indians, including those already working in the US, have been lining up to apply for an EB-5. Such increases can largely be explained by a toughening up on the availability of H1-B visas, making India the third-largest market for the EB-5 visas, behind China and Vietnam.
But, there is a looming fly in the ointment. The growth in Indian applicants is taking them into uncharted wait-list territory. The prediction is that India will slip into an application wait-list, also known as retrogression, in the latter half of 2019. Retrogression occurs when the quantum of applications exceed national quotas.
The US Department of State has also released the figures of pending EB-5 applications currently under processing, as of September 30th 2018. China had the maximum number of pending applications at 8180, followed by India with 1633 EB-5 applications pending. With upcoming legislation changes pending, and a proposed increase in the minimum investment amount, we expect application numbers from India to keep increasing.
For any information about the EB-5 visa program, or to learn more about potential upcoming wait lists from India, please get in contact today.
Learn more about the EB-5 application process here.
Leave a Reply