All Posts

A shift in how employment-based green card cases are handled is quietly changing the calculus for many applicants. In a May 2026 policy memorandum, USCIS encouraged its adjudicators to deny adjustment of status applications (Form I-485) outright in appropriate cases, rather than first issuing a request for evidence, on the expectation that many of those applicants would instead complete their cases through immigrant visa processing at a U.S. consulate abroad. On its face, the

For most of the EB-5 program's history, the people who marketed regional center deals to investors sat largely outside federal oversight. Overseas migration agents, finders, and referral networks introduced foreign capital to projects, collected a fee, and left the compliance questions to sponsors and their counsel. The proposed EB-5 rule published July 2, 2026 would bring that ecosystem inside the regulatory perimeter, establishing a registration system for anyone who promo

The employment-based immigration system entered August under the same strain that has characterized most of fiscal year 2026, with a few categories inching forward and India's situation growing more difficult. The Department of State's August bulletin keeps EB-2 India unavailable through the end of the fiscal year and adds a fresh warning that EB-1 India may run out of visa numbers within weeks. USCIS has confirmed it will process employment-based adjustment applications usin

Within the same week, the Department of Homeland Security announced 2 final rules that reshape parts of the U.S. immigration landscape. The first sets fixed periods of admission for foreign students, exchange visitors, and media representatives, ending a decades-old framework that allowed those visa holders to remain for an unspecified duration. The second rescinds the 2022 public charge regulation and restores a broader standard for assessing whether an applicant is likely t

Receiving a conditional Green Card is one of the defining moments of the EB-5 process. It means an investor's case has advanced far enough that they and their qualifying family members can live in the US as lawful permanent residents. It is a significant milestone, but it is not the finish line. The conditional Green Card carries a two-year term, and it functions as a bridge between an investor's initial approval and the permanent residence that follows. How a family uses tha

For foreign nationals and US-resident investors evaluating an EB-5 investment, one of the most common threshold questions is whether US-based retirement assets can serve as a lawful source of funds. The answer is generally yes. USCIS has approved petitions built on several retirement funding strategies, but the approvals sit alongside a set of legal, tax, and structural questions that remain unresolved. For an investor weighing this route, the practical challenge is understan

For most foreign-trained physicians working in the United States, the path to permanent residence has historically run through an employer. A hospital sponsors the H-1B. A Conrad-30 waiver ties the physician to a specific underserved area for three years. An EB-2 National Interest Waiver requires building a case around research contributions or public health impact. Each of those pathways has merit. Each of them also has a dependency on an employer's continued willingness to

On July 1, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security published a sweeping proposed rule that would comprehensively implement the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 for the first time through formal regulation. Since the RIA was enacted in March 2022, USCIS has been operating under a combination of policy guidance, interim procedures, and informal practice. This proposed rule changes that by translating the statute's reforms into binding regulatory language that would gover

When an investor evaluates an EB-5 project, most of the attention goes to the numbers: the investment amount, the job creation projections, the exit strategy, the regional center's track record. What receives far less scrutiny is the team of professionals who built the offering in the first place. The quality of the people behind an EB-5 project including the attorneys, economists, business plan writers, fund administrators determines whether the offering is structurally soun

The White House just cleared a major immigration rule that would change how long international students can stay in the United States. And for hundreds of thousands of students already here, the clock is about to get a lot more concrete. The rule was cleared by the Office of Management and Budget on June 17, 2026. It can be published in the Federal Register at any time. Once published, it takes effect 60 days later and it would apply to F visa holders, J exchange visitors, I

The pattern that has been building since May has reached a new threshold in July. India's EB-2 category is no longer just retrogressed, it is now officially unavailable for the remainder of fiscal year 2026. No new applications in that category can be filed or approved until October 1 at the earliest. And for the third consecutive month, USCIS has confirmed it will use the Final Action Dates chart only. Chart B (Dates For Filing) remains unavailable again in July. For EB-5 re

EB-5 petitions routinely include family members (a spouse and unmarried children under 21) as derivative beneficiaries on the principal investor's I-526E. In most cases, the family pursues the same path together, either all adjusting status inside the United States or all processing through a U.S. consulate abroad. But family circumstances do not always align that neatly. A common scenario: the principal investor lives abroad and must consular process, while a child or spouse

The warning that appeared in the May bulletin and escalated in June has now materialized into something concrete. As of June 5, 2026, the State Department has confirmed that India has reached its per-country limit in the EB-5 unreserved category for fiscal year 2026. All available unreserved EB-5 immigrant visas for Indian nationals have been issued. U.S. embassies and consulates cannot issue additional visas in this category, and USCIS cannot approve adjustment of status app

Nine months after it was imposed, the $100,000 H-1B fee that reshaped how employers think about international hiring was struck down by a federal judge on June 8, 2026. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, sitting in the District of Massachusetts, blocked the Trump administration's $100,000 supplementary fee for new H-1B visas, ruling that the administration had imposed an unauthorized tax without congressional approval. For foreign nationals who have been watching this policy si

Using a loan from a privately owned company as the source of funds for an EB-5 investment has long been a legitimate and commonly used strategy, particularly for business owners and entrepreneurs who have built significant value inside a company but may not have equivalent liquid personal assets. The legal framework has not changed. Company loans remain a permissible source of EB-5 capital. What has changed is how carefully USCIS is examining them. Immigration attorneys and E

When an investor selects an EB-5 project and prepares to commit $800,000, they receive a substantial package of documents from the regional center. For most investors, particularly those new to U.S. securities law and private placement structures, this package can feel overwhelming. The names are unfamiliar, the language is dense, and it is not always obvious which documents carry the most legal weight. Understanding what each document is, what it governs, and what to look fo

With the September 30, 2026 grandfathering deadline now less than four months away, the rush to file Form I-526E petitions is accelerating. Some investors who cannot access the full $800,000 before the deadline have turned to partial funding (contributing a portion of the required capital upfront and committing to fund the remainder later). It is not a prohibited strategy. But USCIS is scrutinizing these structures more aggressively than at any point since the Reform and Inte

For decades, the path from a temporary work visa to a U.S. green card followed a familiar logic. You followed the rules, maintained your status, got your I-140 approved, and waited for your priority date to become current. Once it did, your adjustment of status application was essentially a formality: the officer asked whether you qualified, and if the answer was yes, you were approved. On May 22, 2026, USCIS issued a policy memo that fundamentally changed that equation. The

One of the most common frustrations among EB-5 investors is the waiting. Waiting for the I-956F project approval. Waiting for the I-526E adjudication. Waiting for visa availability. In a program where timelines can stretch across years, the question of whether anything can be done to accelerate the process is one that comes up regularly. The honest answer is: sometimes, yes. But the path to an approved expedite request is narrower than most investors expect, and misunderstand

The June 2026 Visa Bulletin arrived with something that has not appeared in prior months this fiscal year: an actual, confirmed retrogression. Not a warning. Not a possibility flagged for future consideration. India's EB-1 Final Action Date retrogressed by three and a half months, and India's EB-2 Final Action Date retrogressed by more than 10 months. For Indian nationals in those categories, the ground shifted overnight. Against that backdrop, EB-5 reserved categories held e