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AVS EB-5 Investor I-526 APPROVED After 3rd Party SOF/POF Request for Evidence

AVS is excited to report that the first “Third Party SOF/POF” RFE received by one of our investors was approved by USCIS on Friday, less than one month after they received the RFE response.  This particular RFE came out of the blue since it was the first one we’d received ourselves; since then, USCIS has been sending such RFEs to virtually all investors where any third party is involved in the funds transfer.   Our extremely happy investor has asked for confidentiality, but here’s what I can tell you:

  1. The funds invested were derived from a third party.
  2. USCIS wanted extensive information regarding that party, including specifics mentioned on the RFE which we could NOT provide.
  3. The investor’s immigration attorney worked with both the investor and AVS in providing MOST but not ALL of the answers USCIS asked for in the RFE.
  4. USCIS reviewed the answers we COULD provide and they
  5. Promptly approved the case within less than one month after receiving the response to the RFE!

My takeaway from this is that there is NO SUBSTITUTE for continued dynamic interaction between the investor, the Regional Center, and the immigration attorneys.  In this case, all of us leapt into action and were able to gather the information requested by the USCIS within several weeks.  Moreover, there were questions the USCIS had which we had no way of answering, and we explained why that was the case, and USCIS accepted these explanations.

As I have stated here previously,  these RFEs represent a well-intended attempt by USCIS to address concerns of potential third party money laundering, but they are causing great anxiety among Vietnamese and Chinese investors.  In fact, these third party intermediaries are simply entrepreneurial individuals and companies providing a legal workaround to investors from countries with strict rules on outbound investment.  I remain hopeful that the Service will soon discontinue this practice but, in the meantime, seeing USCIS’ rational response and quick approval to this first one was very reassuring!

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