EB5 INVESTORS M AGAZINE
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within 30 days, but that is not always the case. If there
is either a delay in the issuance or not all the family
members’ fee bills have been received, a follow-up with
the NVC will be required, which can delay the process.
It’s good to be proactive in contacting the NVC once
the 30 days has passed since the approval of the I-526
petition, as this can save potentially weeks or months
to the overall consular processing timeline. Payment of
the NVC fee bills can be completed online.
The primary focus of the consular process and visa
interview is the admissibility of the EB-5 investor
and his or her dependents. 2 Prior to making the EB-5
investment and again prior to the consular interview,
the investor and his or her immigration counsel must
discuss the personal immigration and criminal history
(if any). The most common grounds of inadmissibility
include: health-related grounds, prior criminal history,
security terror-related grounds, fraud and material
misrepresentation, and alien smuggling. 3
The EB-5 investor must be familiar with the contents
of the I-526 petition, as the consular officer may ask
questions about either the EB-5 investment project
or the investor’s source of funds. The consular officer
may engage in these lines of questioning to determine
if there was any fraud or misrepresentation associated
with the I-526 petition, not a re-adjudication of said
petition. Therefore, in preparation for the consular
interview, the EB-5 investor should review the EB-5
investment project’s business plan and the source of
funds documents.
If an EB-5 investor is unable to attend the scheduled
consular interview, then it must be rescheduled per the
consulate’s specific instructions. However, the EB-5
investor and family should make all reasonable efforts
to attend the interview as scheduled. If the consular
interview must be rescheduled, this will add weeks or
months onto the overall consular processing timeline.
THE CONSULAR INTERVIEW
WHY THE NON-IMMIGRANT VISA HISTORY
STILL MATTERS
The EB-5 investor and their dependents must be
prepared to discuss their past U.S. immigration
history. Recently, U.S. state and federal government
agencies have made a coordinated effort to better
detect and eliminate visa fraud. 4,5 A direct impact of
these collaborative efforts is that prior information
provided on visa applications may be used to compare