U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today issued a guidance memorandum
that provides USCIS adjudication officers with instructions related to the timing
of job creation and the meaning of “full-time” positions in the
EB-5 Immigrant Investor
Program.
The guidance memorandum update to the Adjudicator’s Field Manual (AFM),
clarifies that for purposes of the Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur
(Form I-526) adjudication and the job creation requirements, USCIS will consider
the two-year period to begin six months after the adjudication of the Form I-526.
USCIS officers will ensure that the business plan filed with the Form I-526
reasonably demonstrates that the requisite number of jobs will be created by
the end of the two-year period. For Regional Center petitions and for purposes
of indirect job creation, USCIS adjudicators may consider economic models that
rely on certain variables to show job creation and the amount of investment
to determine whether the required infusion of capital or creation of direct
jobs will result in a certain number of indirect jobs.
USCIS also has concluded that certain direct and indirect jobs that would
have previously been considered to be temporary or intermittent (such as construction
jobs) may be considered as permanent jobs for Form I-526 and the Petition by
Entrepreneur to Remove Conditions (Form I-829) purposes if the positions can
be expected to last at least 2 years.
