It’s now been almost two years since the EB-5 Reform and Integrity (RIA) Act came into effect, and a question we frequently get from Indian and Chinese investors is:

“How long are EB-5 Rural Visa applications taking to get processed?”

As of late April 2024, we’ve seen numerous reports from various EB-5 immigration firms confirming that their clients’ I-526E approvals were issued by USCIS in less than 12 months (11 months being the fastest instance we’re aware of).

In addition, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the American Immigrant Investor Alliance (AIIA) sheds some further light on the uptake of EB5 Rural set-aside visas for the period April 1, 2022, and April 30, 2023:

According to the information obtained via this FOIA request, 377 I-526/I-526E applications were filed under the rural category, comprising 24% of the total.

Of these, 247 of the applicants were from China, and 57 from India.

EB-5 Source Market Data: Applications Per Country

 China India Vietnam ROW Total Total %
EB-5 Rural Projects 247 57 7 66 377 24%
EB-5 High Unemployment Projects 429 180 68 413 1,090 69%
EB-5  Infrastructure Projects _ _ _ _ _ 0%
Non-TEA Projects 23 15 3 72 113 7%
Rural AND High Employment Projects 2 _ 1 2 5 0%
 Total 701 252 79 553 1,585 100%
Total % 44% 16% 5% 35% 100%

Learn more about the benefits of Rural EB-5 Visas here, or contact us now for more information.