The US State Department, in partnership with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), recently confirmed.
That all available visas in the Employment-Based Fifth Preference (EB-5) unreserved category for fiscal year 2024 have been issued. EB-5s are vital for foreign investors who seek to establish businesses in the United States, contributing to job creation and economic growth nationwide.
President and CMO of US Immigration Fund (USIF), Nicholas Mastroianni III told HindustanTimes.com that EB-5 “ensures you’re not at the mercy of corporate layoffs and can secure a stable future in the U.S.”
“U.S. visa landscape is a minefield, and relying solely on the H-1B visa is a gamble with your future.”
Unreserved visa categories exhausted, EB-5 issuance halted
The issuance of these visas is governed by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which sets annual limits on the number of employment-based immigrant visas. For the EB-5 category, this limit is 7.1 percent of the total employment-based visas available globally.
Within this allocation, 68 percent is designated for unreserved visa categories, including classifications like C5, T5, I5, R5, RU, and NU. Furthermore, the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 allows for the inclusion of unused EB-5 reserved visas from fiscal year 2022 in the unreserved categories for fiscal year 2024.
As all EB-5 unreserved visas for this fiscal year have now been allocated, U.S. embassies and consulates will halt the issuance of visas in these categories for the remainder of the fiscal year. However, with the onset of the new fiscal year on October 1, 2024 (FY 2025), the visa limits will reset, and the issuance of immigrant visas in these categories will resume for qualified applicants.
EB-5 investors can breathe easy in harsh US visa landscape
The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, managed by USCIS, was created by Congress in 1990 to boost the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment from foreign investors. A key component of this program is the Regional Center Program, first introduced as a pilot in 1992 and regularly renewed since then.
Investors can obtain EB-5 classification by investing through USCIS-designated regional centers that promote economic development. The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act, signed into law by President Biden on March 15, 2022, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, introduced new regulations for the EB-5 visa category and extended the Regional Center Program’s authorization through September 30, 2027.
Indian American visa podcaster, Rahul Menon warned while talking with HindustanTimes.com, “EB-5 is not a program that is easily accessible to a lot of people. You need to invest $800,000 to be able to qualify for that program. Even if you had the money and filed concurrently, it will still take a few months to get their Employment Authorization Document (EAD).”
The State Department and USCIS also announced that all legally available visas in the Employment-Based Third Preference (EB-3) and Other Workers (EW) categories for fiscal year 2024 have been issued. Mostly, what we can these visas are worker’s visas.
The INA sets specific annual limits on the number of employment-based immigrant visas that can be issued each year. For the EB-3 category, this limit is 28.6 percent of the total employment-based visas available globally, with a maximum of 10,000 visas allotted for the EW category.
With the exhaustion of EB-3 and EW visas for fiscal year 2024, U.S. embassies and consulates will cease issuing visas in these categories until the new fiscal year begins on October 1, 2024. At that time, the annual visa limits will reset, and qualified applicants will once again be able to apply for immigrant visas in these categories.