U.S.C.I.S. released a report on the proceedings for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 (October-December 2021).
The chart below shows the I-526 and I-829 processing by USCIS from the first quarter of fiscal 2018 to the first quarter of fiscal 2022. Green indicates the number of I-526 completed trials and blue indicates the number of I-829s completed. The chart shows that uscisomy processed 61 I-526 and 326 I-829s, respectively, in the first quarter of fiscal 2022.
Official figures show that the number of I-526 trials by the Investor Program Office (IPO) at the end of 2021 was almost zero, and the number of I-829 trials was also the lowest in 2 years.
The two charts below show the detailed trials of I-526 and I-829 over the course of the IPO calendar (Q2 FY2015 to FY1Q12).
I-829
The table is gray for rejected quantities, green for approved quantities, and green curves for receipts. In the first quarter of fiscal 2022, USCIS received 618 I-829s, approved 299, and rejected 27.
I-526
Gray in the table indicates rejected quantities; light blue indicates approved quantities; and blue curves indicate the number of receipts. In the first quarter of fiscal 2022, USCIS received 189 I-526s, approved 16, and rejected 45.
Comparing the trials in the first quarter of fiscal 2022 with the average trials in the 2017-2018 fiscal years, it can be seen that the number of I-829 and I-526 IPO trials decreased by 2 times and 54 times, respectively. The number of I-526 trials in the second half of 2021 is so low that it is barely visible in the figure.
USCIS Fiscal 1st Quarter 2022 EB-5 ProcessIng Data Form:
Note: The number of rejects for I-526 may seem high, but in reality many of them are withdrawn
There is no specific data on I-485 in the USCIS report, and the chart below shows the I-485 processing of the California Service Center from the first quarter of fiscal 2018 to the first quarter of fiscal 2022. A total of 86 I-485s were tried in the first quarter of fiscal 2022.
Future trial times can be estimated by dividing the inventory by the number of trials. Taking the I-526 data for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 as an example, it can be seen that there are 13132 I-526s waiting to be reviewed, and 61 I-526s have been processed in one quarter, and it can be calculated that if the applicant files I-526 today, it will take 13132/61 = 215 quarters (i.e. 54 years) to process the applicant's application after the inventory is processed. On the other hand, if the IPO improves efficiency and soon resumes to more than 4,000 I-526s per quarter, the estimation method for the processing time of new I-526 petitions will become 13132/4000 = 3 quarters (i.e. less than a year).
Congress just passed the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act a few days ago, requiring USCIS to study the costs required to hear I-526 and I-829 within 240 days (or 120 days for TEA). The IPO must process nearly 5,000 I-526 and 4,400 I-829s per quarter to complete the current inventory within 8 months.