USCIS recently updated data for petitions processed in FY2018 Q4. These quarterly trends help investors understand the demand for EB-5 visas per country and ultimately individual country wait times.

The Investor Program Office’s (IPO) total output for 2018 Q4 was about the same in FY2018 Q3. There were more I-829 and less I-526 petitions processed this quarter, and the number of forms received remained comparatively low.

In FY2018, the IPO processed more than twice the number of I-526 petitions it received. As a result, the IPO has reduced its backlog of pending I-526 petitions by more than 40%, from 24,992 I-526 petitions pending at the end of FY2017 to 14,394 I-526 petitions pending at the end of FY2018.

In terms of I-829 petitions, the number of pending petitions at the IPO increased from 6,735 at the end of FY2017, to 7,660 at the end of FY2018. USCIS has confirmed in a recent stakeholder engagement that it will focus more resources on reducing the

I-829 backlog in FY2019.