Immigrant Investor Program Office

What it decides

IPO adjudicates Form I-526, Form I-526E, Form I-829, Form I-956, Form I-956F and Form I-956G. Two more forms sit in the same set without being separate adjudications: Form I-956H is submitted as a distinct filing alongside Form I-956 or Form I-956F, and Form I-956K is a registration by direct and third-party promoters. USCIS lists Form I-924 as no longer accepted. Because one office holds the EB-5 petitions, there is no service center version of one, so comparing service center backlogs or asking to move a file to a faster office means nothing. A Form I-485 filed alongside an EB-5 petition is a separate application and is not among the forms IPO handles. IPO runs two queueing regimes at once. For Form I-526 petitions filed before the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, the visa availability approach applies, and USCIS says IPO assesses visa availability monthly by reviewing the Department of State visa bulletin. For Form I-526E and post-RIA Form I-526, USCIS says that effective 30 March 2026 it generally assigns petitions first in, first out: a Form I-526E goes up for review only after USCIS decides the associated Form I-956F, the Form I-526E rural petitions run first, and everything else follows once that queue empties or USCIS decides it has cleared enough of it. Rural post-RIA Form I-526 petitions are not in that priority queue; they are one sub-queue USCIS may carve out of the second group, alongside high unemployment area, infrastructure and unreserved.

Governed by USCIS, EB-5 Questions and Answers, last reviewed/updated 20 April 2026 (https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers/employment-based-immigration-fifth-preference-eb-5/eb-5-questions-and-answers); USCIS, EB-5 Support, last reviewed/updated 27 April 2026 (https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers/employment-based-immigration-fifth-preference-eb-5/eb-5-support); USCIS, Update to Visa Availability Approach for Form I-526 (https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers/employment-based-immigration-fifth-preference-eb-5/update-to-visa-availability-approach-for-form-i-526); USCIS, Form I-956H, Bona Fides of Persons Involved with Regional Center Program, last reviewed/updated 5 June 2026 (https://www.uscis.gov/i-956h); USCIS, Form I-956K, Registration for Direct and Third-Party Promoters, last reviewed/updated 5 June 2026 (https://www.uscis.gov/i-956k)