Starting your EB-5 case -- what you should know

Whether you decide to pursue a direct EB-5 or a regional center EB-5 case, you should realize that there are several procedural components to your EB-5 case.

As with any legal case, you can represent yourself, but that's same with all kinds of services, such as repairing car, computer, doing your tax returns, defending a lawsuit, etc. Having said this, EB-5 case is more difficult to prepare than I-130 family petition case, for sure. It isn't a rocket science . . . but sometimes it can feel like it.

No. If you used one immigration attorney for your I-526 immigrant petition and IV consular or I-485 adjustment processing, you can decide to retain another immigration attorney to handle your I-829 conditions removal petition.

You must realize that EB-5 case does not just involve or consist of I-526 and/or IV consular processing (assuming you and your family are going to do consular processing.

In our opinion, here is the absolutely bare, minimum information you should know before you begin your EB-5 case.

Well, it really depends on what your goals are. We believe there are three (3) possible goals in your pursuit of EB-5 case.

1. Minimizing loss of your initial investment amount.

If you wish to begin EB-5 Processing and you are already in the U.S. on non-immigrant visa status such as H-1B, E-2 and F-1, we strongly advise you to maintain non-immigrant status for you and your family members until you and your family obtain either Immigrant Visas or conditional lawful status. That is the safest course of action.

As Anais Nin said "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." This means our preference of the RC will probably reflect the way we are, our preferences and traits regarding risks and safety.

• Level of experience with EB-5 cases and with U.S. immigration cases in general.
• Whether the immigration attorney seems to be knowledgeable about EB-5 law.
• Whether the immigration attorneys seems to be hard-working.
• Whether the immigration attorney seems to be honest and responsive.

I would say the primary considerations should be the track records for I-829 approvals, structure available to reduce the risk to your initial investment and whether the job-calculation methodology is "reasonable" to lead to the approval of I-829 condition removal.