ORIGINAL (December 8, 2021):
Mandamus lawsuits for EB-5 investors with delayed I-526 petitions has been a successful strategy in the past. Currently, for many petitioners, this is no longer the case.
If an EB-5 petitioner’s investment was made into a regional center, there is really no benefit for going forward with a Mandamus case as long as the Regional Center Program is lapsed. Given the current lapse, a “successful” Mandamus case under this scenario will likely end in a denial. Of course, the analysis is different if the program is reinstated. Hopefully, this will occur sometime in early 2022.
Which investors, facing an unreasonable delay, could potentially benefit from a Mandamus lawsuit today?
The people today that could benefit are those that applied via direct investment. Unfortunately, this is likely a small minority of the total applicants in EB-5 limbo today.
On the bright side, a previous obstacle for many EB-5 visa applicants (especially for those born in mainland China), was the long backlog in available visa numbers. This month (December 2021) is the first time in a long time that visa number availability is current for petitioners from all countries, including China. This can be a great benefit for those people going forward as direct investors. You can view the visa bulletin for December 2021, here:
UPDATE (May 12, 2021):
Since the regional center program was recently reauthorized, Mandamus cases for delayed I-52 petitions are now back in play and can be used to speed up a long delayed case.
