Earlier last week, the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman (Ombudsman) submitted its 2018 Annual Report to Congress. The Ombudsman's role is to assist individuals and employers with problems with USCIS and make recommendations to improve the delivery of immigration services. The Ombudsman is an independent Department of Homeland Security component.
Although this year's report did not make any mention of the growing EB-5 petition backlog for Mainland-China, it did allude to an expected cut-off date for several EB-5 investor markets in 2019 including India, Vietnam, and Brazil.
The Report also highlighted some of the ongoing concerns surrounding the EB-5 Regional Center Program including fraud, TEA abuse, and compliance measures while also highlighting the IPO efforts that have been undertaken to improve EB-5 Program Integrity.
The IPO has taken a number of steps to combat EB-5 fraud and enhance program integrity, including the establishment of a compliance review team; creation of hybrid teams for comprehensive adjudication; site visits; implementation of GAO and OIG recommendations; rollout of document assessment initiatives; and improved coordination with other government components including the DOJ, FBI, SEC, and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. While public concerns remain, USCIS has made great strides to offset fraud and national security challenges and improve program integrity.
Read the full annual report to Congress here.