Electronic Filing of EB-5 Regional Center I-526s

The USCIS held a stakeholder’s call last week solely about its new “document library” and EB-5 filing system for regional center (RC) based I-526 investor petitions.  Information about the new system:

• It allows a RC designated “Document Library Manager” (must be an employee of the RC) to create a USCIS ELIS account, upload project files to the document library, and create a “deal package”
• The investor creates a new USCIS ELIS account
• It will allow investors or their legal representatives access to the deal package
• The RC must use the investor’s USCIS ELIS account email to add the investor to the deal package
• The RC sends the unique deal package passcode to investors to view the documents
• Once the RC sends the deal package to investors, the deal document section will be locked
• The investor must electronically sign an attestation that the deal documents are accurate
• The legal representative can upload the source and path of funds documents for investors, and submit the I-526

One major impediment to the system is that many EB-5 immigrants do not read English well and walking them through this system while they are in China will be extremely difficult.

Some believe this system is built to aid USCIS and other agencies to investigate RCs. So far, electronic filing does not seem to allow for faster processing of applications.