USCIS has resumed adjudicating applications for employment authorization and advance parole travel documents for EB-5 regional center investors who have pending I-485 adjustment of status applications. This is a reversal from USCIS’s prior stance on holding such applications in abeyance after the EB-5 regional center program ended on June 30, 2021 until the program is reauthorized. Currently, the EB-5 industry are anticipating reauthorization to be part of the must-pass Omnibus Appropriations Bill that was deferred to December 2021.

This is very welcome news for EB-5 investors who had already received I-526 approval and filed their I-485 adjustment of status applications before the program’s lapse. Some of Behring’s investors, too, have recently received EAD/AP approval, providing them with greater flexibility and obtain necessary credentials for work, school, etc.

USCIS’s resumption of processing EAD/AP applications for EB-5 regional center investors seems to come from advocacy efforts by AILA and litigation by immigration attorneys who asserted that there is no legal basis to stop adjudicating interim benefits as U.S. case law has held that these are nondiscretionary benefits. If the I-485 is pending and has not yet been adjudicated, then such interim benefits should be issued. The program’s lapse should not impact EAD/AP while such I-485 Applications to Adjust Status are pending and held in abeyance.

Learn more about the Nandu v. Jaddou lawsuit filed by Matt Galati, immigration attorney and founder of the Galati Law Firm.