On March 5, 2013, the US Department of Homeland Security’s CIS Ombudsman Office held an EB-5 stakeholder meeting in Washington DC. The Ombudsman’s Office was created by section 452 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, and is dedicated to improving the quality of citizenship and immigration services delivered to the public by providing individual case assistance, as well as making recommendations to improve the administration of immigration benefits. The executive summary, held after the stakeholder meeting began with Ombudsman Maria Odom’s explanation that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the challenges in the program and pose possible solutions.
During her address, she noted that since October 2012, the Ombudsman’s Office has received nearly 400 requests for assistance on EB-5 cases. The wide majority of these requests were to aid with the processing of delays.
Some of the concerns mentioned by the stakeholders during the meeting were as follows:
The last time the Ombudsman’s Office issued formal EB-5 Program recommendations to USCIS was in 2009. USCIS responded to those requests within a few months. US Immigration Fund is pleased the Ombudsman Office held a meeting on the EB-5 program to examine places of improvement and looks forward to the response from USCIS.
2013年3月15日,美国国土安全部移民局调解官办公室在首府华盛顿举行了EB-5涉众方会议。调解官办公室是根据《2002年国土安全法案》第452章设立的机构,旨在通过个人案件协助、推荐来提高移民审批行政效率和改善公民及移民申请服务的质量。此次会议结束后,调解官办公室官员Maria Odom女士总结了会议内容并表示会议的目的正是讨论目前签证审批所面临的一些问题以及可能的解决方案。
她表示,自2012年10月起,调解官办公室就收到了近400件EB-5签证协助请求。其中绝大多是都是希望对延误案子的加速审批。
在会议期间,涉众方提出的一些值得关注的内容如下:
调解官办公室上一次就EB-5做正式推荐是在2009年。移民局在数月内就对其请求做了相应响应和答复。美国移民基金很欣喜看到调解官办公室做了这个听证会议并讨论了当下的关注问题。我们期待移民局的消息。