- On the subject of processing times, IPO has also updated the USCIS website to differentiate between the I-526 processing times for petitioners from China and the rest of the world. USCIS hopes these changes will help to provide additional clarity for stakeholders.
- For more information on the visa availability approach, please visit the USCIS website at uscis.gov/eb-5. You can find visa availability FAQs under additional resources, and we recently added a few more FAQs covering some of the information I just addressed.
POLICY MANUAL UPDATE
- On July 24, 2020, USCIS announced a Policy Manual update clarifying initial and further deployments of capital.
- My remarks will primarily focus on further deployment but will also touch upon initial deployment and the relationship between initial and further deployment.
- First, the policy manual update clarifies that capital may be deployed directly or indirectly through any financial instrument so long as it meets applicable requirements. Deployments of capital, both initial and further deployments, must satisfy applicable requirements to:
- Place the capital at risk, to include a risk of loss and a chance for gain;
- Demonstrate the actual undertaking of business activity;
- Demonstrate a sufficient relationship to commercial activity, that is the exchange of goods or services, such that the enterprise is and remains commercial; and
- Make the full amount of the investment available to the business, or businesses, most closely responsible for creating employment, if the job creation requirement has not already been met.
- The requirement to make the full amount of capital available to the business or businesses most closely responsible for creating employment
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