On June 16, 2015, USCIS announced the suspension of the USCIS Electronic Immigration System (ELIS) for Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur. Due to challenges with ELIS and in an effort to improve it, effective June 15, 2015, USCIS will no longer accept electronically filed forms for the EB-5 category. Additionally, USCIS ELIS will no longer support the Regional Center Document Library.
This change will not affect petitioners/applicants with pending cases in the system as of June 15, 2015. Filings submitted after this date must be filed in paper format. The following procedures will apply to pending electronic applications:
- Attorneys and customers who already started an electronic Form I-526 on or before June 15, 2015 will have 30 days from the day they commenced the application to complete it and submit it electronically. If the application is not completed within this period, a paper application will be required.
- Applications previously submitted through ELIS will continue to process and attorneys and customers will maintain continuous access to their electronic accounts.
- Applicants who filed Form I-526 electronically will retain access to ELIS to review existing documents uploaded by the document library manager, however the document library manager will not be able to create new document libraries. Applicants will be able to respond to RFEs and check case status online for electronically filed applications.
- Regional Centers will need to file documents in paper format in support of Form I-526 or Form I-924 applications.
For further information regarding the transition from USCIS ELIS to paper filed applications, please visit the USCIS ELIS website.
