Process and timing
National Visa Center
Also called NVC.
The Department of State office that holds an approved EB-5 petition, collects the visa fees and supporting documents, and notifies the investor as a visa number nears, in the gap between petition approval and the consular interview. It handles only investors who will apply for the visa abroad; an investor adjusting status inside the United States never passes through it.
What it decides
Once an I-526 or I-526E is approved and the investor will apply for the immigrant visa abroad, USCIS sends the approved petition to the Department of State's National Visa Center, where it sits until a visa number is available. USCIS describes the NVC as "responsible for collecting visa application fees and supporting documentation" and says it notifies both the petitioner and the beneficiary when the petition arrives and again when an immigrant visa number is about to become available. An investor who instead files Form I-485 inside the United States never goes through the NVC. That second notification starts a clock, and the clock is what costs money. 8 U.S.C. 1153(g) directs the Secretary of State to terminate the registration of anyone who fails to apply for the immigrant visa within one year following notification that the visa is available, and to reinstate it only on proof that the failure was due to circumstances beyond the applicant's control, established within two years of that same notification. Read the deadline from the notification date: 22 CFR 42.83(c) words the reinstatement window as ending with the second year after the missed appointment date, so the two anchors are not identical and the earlier one governs in practice. 22 CFR 42.83(c) gives the NVC the job of sending the termination notice, but the reinstatement decision belongs to the consular officer at the post where the applicant is registered. Termination does not merely delay the case. Under 8 CFR 205.1(a)(1) the approval of the petition is revoked as of the date of approval once the Secretary of State terminates the registration under INA 203(g), which takes the priority date with it, and 22 CFR 42.83(d) treats that petition as reinstated only if the registration itself is reinstated.
Where this is explained properly
Pages here that go into national visa center rather than mentioning it.
Related terms
- Consular processingConsular processing is the route to permanent residence through a US embassy or consulate abroad, on Form DS-260 and an interview, rather than by adjusting status inside the United States. It is the only route for an investor who stays outside the country, and it is open by choice to one already inside.
- Adjustment of statusAdjustment of status is the process under 8 U.S.C. 1255 by which someone already in the United States becomes a permanent resident without leaving, on Form I-485, instead of collecting an immigrant visa at a consulate abroad. An EB-5 investor who adjusts is granted conditional permanent residence for two years, the same status a consular applicant receives on admission.
- BacklogBacklog is the demand already waiting ahead of an investor in the same visa category, the same country of chargeability and, since the 2022 set-asides, the same reserved or unreserved pool, which must be worked through before a visa number reaches them.
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