Ep.2_Jennifer Sherer Discusses Changes to Form I-526 Processing Order

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced a change to the form I-526 processing order from a first-in, first-out basis. Jennifer Sherer, Senior VP FirstPathway Partners explains what this change means and who is impacted. You can learn more online at www.firstpathway.com

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Are you looking to immigrate to the United States have questions on what type of visa or investment is right for you? Or maybe you're looking for more information about changing your current immigration status, then you have come to the right place. You have arrived at investing in the American Dream Podcast. I am your host, Jessica Malka.

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Today we have featured guest Jennifer share with first pathway partners. Jennifer is here to discuss the processing changes to form I five to six that was recently announced by us cis. Today Jennifer is going to discuss what these changes mean. Who is impacted by these changes, the good, the bad

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and neutral.

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Let's get into it.

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Jennifer, it's so great to have you on today. Thanks for having me.

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So I understand that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services recently announced that there were some changes to form IE five to six, and that this change may affect some of our current clients. Can you kind of maybe explain yesterday's announcement? And what

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does this mean for some of our clients?

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Yeah, so I've been getting a ton of calls and emails and WhatsApp from our ambassadors with pending petitions, since we made the announcement on our blog yesterday. And so I thought that I'd come on the podcast today to just kind of explain sort of what's going on with us cis and what those changes are and how those will impact different various investor groups. So basically, what's happening is That for years and years and years us cis has adjudicating cases on a first in first out basis. So basically, if you file your case First, you'll also get your adjudication first and if you file your case, you know, later, then that case should theoretically be adjudicated later than a case that was filed earlier. Now, that's not always how we've seen these cases processed in a perfect first in first out order. But, you know, generally that's sort of what we see too as well. So they've moved from processing now in this first in first out order to actually prioritizing certain petitions. So basically, individuals from countries where visas are immediately available or are going to be available soon. Those people are going to be adjudicated first. So anybody who has a pending I five to six petition or who filed an i five to six petition moving forward, who is from a country that does not have a backlog is going to get processed first. And anybody who is from a country that is subject to backlog is going to be processed later.

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Okay. And so currently what countries do have an EB five backlog?

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So countries that have an EB five backlog right now are China, Vietnam and India. So, recently the Department of State gave us their best estimates as to how long they thought the backlogs would be for these particular groups. And so for China, they're estimating about 14 years. For Vietnam. That's seven and a half years and for India, they're looking at about five points seven years. You can check your I five to six filing date that a visa would be available to you on the Department of State website on the on the visa bulletin. And us cis do

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this with any other visa categories, or

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is it specific to Eb five?

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Well, there are backlogs and a number of different categories. So you You know, if you have an alien relative where you're petitioning to get your sister or your adult child brought into the United States, there is currently quite a long wait for that particular category. And so you know, this move from processing cases in order of receipt to processing them in order of visa availability kind of aligns with some of those other processes. So there is absolutely alignment here with other cap subject categories like the alien relatives,

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you mentioned relatives and dependents, but who qualifies as a dependent child.

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So for the EB five program, anyone that is under the age of 21, qualifies as a dependent but, you know, it's a little bit different in that once a child reaches 21, they can no longer qualify under their parents application, but there's a little caveat to that there is something called C spa, which allows a child who's over the age of 21 to actually qualify with their parent.

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So, john, in your opinion, is this change to the forum? Is that a good change? Bad? Is it? Is it neutral?

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Can you kind of maybe take us through what your opinion is on that?

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Sure. Well, it depends on who you are. So for some people, this is going to be,

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you know, bad for them. But this is a very small subset of people. So essentially, if you have any issues with your filing, like your project failed, or your project needs to undergo some sort of material change or your regional center gets terminated, this rule is is not good for you because it'll lengthen the amount of time of your adjudication. So basically, if you are from one of those backlogged countries, and something happens to your project or your regional center, you know, that'll be a longer period of time where You won't be getting that priority date retention. So you know, under the new Eb five rules, you can only get priority date retention if you haven't approved petition. So if it takes longer to prove your petition, that's a longer time that you know, your project could potentially fail during or that, you know, you would not have that safety net of the priority date retention to be able to keep your old priority date for your new petition. So right now, China basically also gets all of the leftover visas. So processing the rest of the world first, shouldn't have too much of an impact on the Chinese for long term, but it may cut down on the number available to Chinese temporarily for the next couple of years while us cis processes, the cases for the rest of the world that are currently pending right now. In addition to that, you know, there's some people that I think this will probably be sort of neutral for, you know, you've got your backlogged applicants And so I don't really think this will be that bad for them, because it's not going to delay their process because a visa is not available to them anyway. So essentially, they would still be waiting. The only thing that they're not going to get is that peace of mind of having that piece of paper with their approval on it. So essentially, they'll just be sitting and waiting along a little bit longer. But the weight period, the total weight that they'll have will not go up. Who is

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this good for?

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Well, it's actually really great news for non backlog applicants, obviously. So their petitions are going to be adjudicated first. And so anybody who's not from China, or Vietnam or India, all of their petitions will basically cut those countries in line. But this is also great news for another group of people that you know, may not be quite as obvious which would be the dependent children of people from China, Vietnam and India. So, essentially, only a child who was unreal married and under the age of 21 can qualify to immigrate with their parent as a dependent. But there's something called sea spa, the child status Protection Act that then allows children to continue on their parents visas.

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So john, I believe you mentioned earlier about children and dependents, but cswa, the child status Protection Act, what is that and what does that mean?

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Yeah, so since 2002, they've brought into the definition of a child. So any kids who turned 21 they can still, you know, retain that eligibility as a child. The child's age is frozen while the I five to six petition is pending with us cis. And then when USGS approves that petition, it then begins advancing against they begin getting older again. So that entire time that the five to six is pending. The child does not age so if they're 19, when they file they Are 19 when they get approved as well. But then when they get approved, their age starts advancing again. So then they start getting older. So the child's age if it reaches 21 before a visa becomes available, then the child ages out. But if visas are available when the five to six petition is approved, the child still qualifies as a dependent and there's no age out as long as the child has not turned 21. At the time the five to six petition was received by us cis, so visas are unavailable when the I five to six petition gets approved, then the child has to wait for a visa to become available. And then when the visas become available, the amount of time that the I five to six petition was pending with USGS gets subtracted from that child's biological age, and that's when you get the SES by age. So a child who's over 21 can qualify under their parents petition, even if they would have Otherwise aged out. So the longer the wait there is for a visa number, the greater risk that your child is going to age out. But the longer the wait for the five to six petition and the longer time that it's pending, the less risk that a child will have that they will age out because that's more time that you get to subtract off.

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So in a sense, is this good for clients or Eb five applicants that are from backlogged countries?

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Oh, absolutely. So if you're from China, or India or Vietnam, and you've got a child, that is a dependent on your petition, this is great news for you because you want your petition to be pending as long as possible because all of that time you get to subtract off of your child's age, that time is frozen. So essentially, none of that counts toward your child getting older and approaching 21. So it's absolutely great news for them. So if instead of it taking a year to process your I five to six, if it takes them seven years to process your I five to six Your kid gets a practice seven years off of his age. So huge, huge really good news for those petitioners.

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If you would like to know more about first pathway partners, and how they can help you with a direct Eb five investment, or if you're looking for other visa opportunities, such as an E two visa, please contact them directly online at www dot first pathway.com. If you would like to be featured on an upcoming podcast, please contact us by calling for 144310742 please now This podcast is not intended to replace direct legal consultation, nor should it but it should provide you with some insight from our community of immigration experts. I hope you've enjoyed today's show. Transcribed by https://otter.ai