The Department of State advises in the March, 2013 Visa Bulletin (See http://www.rabinowitzrabinowitz.com/2013/02/visa-bulletin-for-march-2013/) that due to visa demand changes, entrepreneur investors from China are not likely to face a visa number wait time for an immigrant visa. As background, the EB-5 program permits certain foreign nationals who have made a $500,000 or $1,000,000 investment in the U.S., and who meet other requirements, to gain permanent resident status arising out of their investment. The program provides 10,000 entrepreneur investor visas per fiscal year. For the first time in December, 2012, the DOS advised that high visa demand by investors from China had increased to level such that there appeared to be more applicants than visa numbers that could be issued to citizens of China. As a result, the DOS advised that a cut-off date would be imposed, meaning a date after which applicants would have to wait for a visa number to become available. This, according to DOS, would likely occur during the last 6 months of the fiscal year starting in March, 2013. The DOS recently advised that EB-5 visa demand from China is now averaging out to a manageable level and a cutoff would not likely be needed. This means that EB-5 visa numbers should remain available for Chinese applicants for the rest of the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013.
