Lawsuit Filed to Stop Wastage of EB-5 Investor Visas

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WR Immigration and Banias Law filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of hundreds of Chinese foreign national plaintiffs today requesting the court to compel the U.S. Department of State to authorize FY 2022 EB-5 immigrant visa numbers be allocated to all plaintiffs and their families by September 30, 2022, and to process their immigrant visa applications promptly. 

Approximately 18,000 EB-5 visas were wasted last fiscal year and cannot be used anymore without Congressional action. In fiscal year 2022, ending September 30, 2022, over 11,000 immigrant visas should be available to China-mainland EB5 investors, and it is almost certain most of these will be wasted. 

This lawsuit seeks to compel the State Department to follow the plain language of its own regulations and "allocate" the visas prior to the end of FY 2022, before they are forever wasted, and issue the immigrant visas at a later date after a consular officer has thoroughly vetted each visa applicant.  This effectuates congressional intent to provide a fixed annual quota of visas.  Plaintiffs allege that this intent is being thwarted by the State Department failing to allocate the supply of available visas causing "age-outs" of their children and unfairly prolonging the required time their EB-5 investment capital must be deployed. 

If the congressionally mandated visas are issued, this will encourage other investors and all those in line will experience a much shorter wait, said Managing partner Bernie Wolfsdorf. "The plaintiffs in this case have invested over $100,000,000 into the U.S. economy and created thousands of jobs, but they not getting green cards and many of their children are now aging out. Without judicial intervention, they will be waiting many more years for a green card while the government wastes thousands of visas. The U.S. government must fulfill its end of the bargain and allocate immigrant visa numbers to these individuals so they can obtain their green cards. These people are seeking to immigrate legally, and their cases have been approved so the government inaction in refusing to allocate the visas is inexcusable," said Wolfsdorf.

Co-counsel Bradley Banias stated: "DOS statistics indicate that over 44,000 China-mainland born nationals were waiting for an immigrant visa as of November 1, 2021, and that number has not been reduced much due to lack of consular productivity in Guangzhou. The law does not require DOS to wait for the interview to allocate visas. This should be done before the end of the fiscal year."

CONTACT: Bernard Wolfsdorf, 310-570-4070, bernard@wolfsdorf.com

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SOURCE WR Immigration