Sarraf Gentile

Congress has mandated that the decision on an EB-5 investor’s I-829 petition, which seeks to remove conditions on a green card, should be made within 90, or at most, 180 days of filing. This requirement is codified section 216A of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1186b. The rule states: (c) Adjudication of […]

If the regional center you have invested through is not providing the documents you need for your I-829 filing, to answer a Request for Evidence (RFE) or respond to a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID), there are strategies to ensure their compliance within a set timeframe. First, based on your partnership or LLC agreement, […]

The EB-5 industry has historically been rife with potential conflicts of interests that vary in severity. Examples of these may include fiduciaries participating in self-dealing, attorneys representing both projects and investors unbeknownst to the investors, or even lawyers doubling as commissioned sales agents, among other scenarios. Such practices bear a significant risk of causing harm […]

I asked GPT-4 to explain why making a FOIA request is important before fighting an immigration denial in federal court. I think the answer it gave  is largely correct and helpful (you can read it below). However, it left out an important reason for using FOIA as part of your strategy — information and documents […]

A visa refusal under section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) means the applicant did not establish eligibility for a visa to the satisfaction of the consular officer, as is required under U.S. law, specifically section 291 of the INA. When an applicant is refused under 221(g), it means the consular officer determined […]

In general, I tend to advise against appealing USCIS denials to the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO). In most situations, I believe proceeding directly to federal court may be a more efficient option. Appealing to the AAO often extends the length of a case substantially. Furthermore, there’s a possibility that the AAO might affirm the denial […]

Recent data from Syracuse University shows that immigration related lawsuits filed in federal court are increasing at a very high rate. Most of these lawsuits are mandamus lawsuits that challenge excessive delays in immigration petition processing times. The volume of these lawsuits suggests two things: 1) People are VERY dissatisfied with the processing backlogs at […]

In 1984 the Supreme Court, in a case called Chevron v. NRDC, established the principal that courts will defer to how a U.S. government agency interprets a U.S. rule or law. This is referred to as the Chevron doctrine. The Supreme Court recently agreed to decide a new case, Loper Brights v. Raimondo, which challenges […]

Administrative Procedures Act (APA) lawsuits to address immigration based denials must be based on a “final” agency action. If an administrative appeal is available, such as through the AAO or BALCA, filing the appeal is not necessary if the regulation or statute creating the appeal route is optional instead of mandatory. For instance, appealing a […]

The Department of State claims that recent improvements in processing techniques and technologies are reducing the amount of cases going into administrative processing and shortening the time it takes for cases to finish administrative processing. I don’t see statistics attached to this announcement so I don’t know how big an improvement this is. What I […]