U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that revised versions of the I-526, Immigrant Petition for Alien Entrepreneur is now available for use.

The I-526 form is the actual application on which an investor self-petitions for an EB-5 visa.  While many in the immigration and EB-5 stakeholder community have submitted comments to the USCIS regarding proposed changes to the form, the revised I-526 form only has minor changes which differentiate it from the previous version.  These changes include space for the petitioner to write in his or her Passport Number, Travel Document Number, and Expiration Date, in Part 1.  Space has also been added in Part 7 for the petitioner to write in his or her Mobile Phone Number and Email Address.  Interestingly, the form still does not require that the investor list the name of his or her dependents or the regional center under which they are investing into the New Commercial Enterprise (Fund).  The lack of ability to include dependents on the I-526, as is done with other immigrant applications in other immigrant visa categories, often results in delays once the petition is approved, with having the National Visa Center who processes the subsequent immigrant visa applications generate fee bills for dependent spouses and children.

Please be aware that after December 16, 2013 the old version of the I-526 will no longer be accepted, so investors and agents must make sure that they are using the correct version to avoid a kickback from the USCIS.

Please contact your GT EB-5 attorney with any questions.

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Photo of Kate Kalmykov Kate Kalmykov

Kate Kalmykov Co-Chairs the Immigration & Compliance Practice. She focuses her practice on business immigration and compliance. She represents clients in a wide-range of employment based immigrant and non-immigrant visa matters including students, trainees, professionals, managers and executives, artists and entertainers, treaty investors

Kate Kalmykov Co-Chairs the Immigration & Compliance Practice. She focuses her practice on business immigration and compliance. She represents clients in a wide-range of employment based immigrant and non-immigrant visa matters including students, trainees, professionals, managers and executives, artists and entertainers, treaty investors and traders, persons of extraordinary ability and immigrant investors.

Kate has deep experience working on EB-5 immigrant investor matters. She regularly works with developers across a variety of industries, as well as private equity funds on developing new projects that qualify for EB-5 investments. This includes creation of new Regional Centers, having projects adopted by existing Regional Centers or through pooled individual EB-5 petitions. For existing Regional Centers, Kate regularly helps to prepare amendment filings, file exemplar petitions, address removal of conditions issues and ensure that they develop an internal program for ongoing compliance with applicable immigration regulations and guidance. She also counsels foreign nationals on obtaining greencards through either individual or Regional Center EB-5 investments, as well as issues related to I-829 Removal of Conditions.

Kate also works with various human resources departments on I-9 employment verification matters as well as H-1B and LCA compliance. She regularly counsels employers on due diligence issues including internal audits and reviews, as well as minimization of exposure and liabilities in government investigations.