Process and timing

Expedite request

Also called expedite, expedited processing.

An expedite request asks USCIS to take a pending application, petition, request, appeal or motion out of turn and decide it ahead of cases filed earlier. USCIS weighs each one case by case against a list of criteria it calls non-exhaustive, generally requires documentary support, and treats the decision as within its sole discretion.

What it decides

The criteria USCIS lists are severe financial loss to a company or person, an emergency or urgent humanitarian situation, a nonprofit request furthering United States cultural or social interests, government interests including public safety or national security, and clear USCIS error, and the list is expressly not exhaustive. USCIS will not consider an expedite where premium processing is available, but no EB-5 form is: Form I-907 buys speed only on Forms I-129 and I-140 and on certain categories of I-765 and I-539, so that bar never blocks an EB-5 filing. Nor is expedite the only acceleration in EB-5, because 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(E)(ii)(I) already requires USCIS to prioritise petitions for rural areas without anyone asking. USCIS warns that a background check pending with another agency or a required on-site inspection can defeat an expedite, both routine in regional center cases, and it generally gives no reason for its answer.

Governed by USCIS, Expedite Requests webpage, last reviewed 30 October 2025, for the criteria, the discretion, the premium processing bar and the circumstances that inhibit an expedite; USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 1, Part A, Chapter 5, Expedite Requests, last updated by policy alert 21 March 2024; premium processing scope from the USCIS Form I-907 page, last updated 1 June 2026; rural priority processing from 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(E)(ii)(I).

Where this is explained properly

Pages here that go into expedite request rather than mentioning it.

Related terms

Priority processing for rural projectsThe statutory instruction that USCIS prioritise the processing and adjudication of EB-5 petitions for rural areas, which moves a case up the assignment queue and changes nothing about the standard for approval.
Processing timesA USCIS processing time is a figure published for a form: the number of months it took USCIS to complete 80 percent of the cases it adjudicated over the previous six months. It reports finished work rather than the position of any case still waiting, so it moves every month, and USCIS says to treat it as a reference point and not an absolute measure of how long a case will take.
Form I-526EForm I-526E, Immigrant Petition by Regional Center Investor, is the petition an investor files with USCIS to claim EB-5 classification under INA 203(b)(5)(E) for capital pooled in an offering for which a designated regional center has already filed Form I-956F.
Request for EvidenceA Request for Evidence, or RFE, is a written USCIS notice that the record as filed does not establish eligibility and that named further evidence must reach USCIS by a stated deadline, which can never exceed twelve weeks and cannot be extended. It is a stage in the adjudication rather than a denial, but USCIS is under no duty to issue one before denying.

Checked against primary sources on 10 August 2026. Back to the glossary