Using ChatGPT to Determine EB‑5 Visa Availability and Potential Backlog Based on Your Country of Birth

If you’re exploring the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, the U.S. immigrant investor visa that can lead to a Green Card, you need to pay attention to several key steps: choosing the right project, ensuring your investment meets all the requirements, and navigating the legal process. But one of the most critical factors that can affect your timeline is visa availability, which is largely influenced by your country of birth.

Understanding the potential backlog for your specific situation can make a significant difference in your planning and expectations. And tools like ChatGPT can help you make sense of this complex landscape.

Why Your Country of Birth Matters

For EB‑5 visa purposes, your “country of chargeability” is usually the country where you were born, not your current nationality or residence. This distinction is crucial because the U.S. caps the number of visas that can be issued to any one country each year.

Currently, EB‑5 visas are limited to approximately 10,000 annually, including derivatives. To prevent one country from monopolizing the program, no more than 7% of visas may go to individuals from a single country.

A backlog occurs when the demand for EB‑5 visas from a particular country exceeds the number of visas available under the per-country limit. This triggers retrogression, meaning applicants must wait until their priority date becomes current before their visa can be processed.

Historically, applicants from China and India have experienced significant backlogs due to high demand. By contrast, many countries in the “Rest of World” category do not face retrogression, allowing faster processing once other requirements are met.

It’s also important to note that within the EB‑5 program, there are set-aside categories for rural or high-unemployment targeted employment areas (TEAs). These categories have separate availability, and ChatGPT can help you compare unreserved versus set-aside visa availability.

A visa bulletin hinted at potential backlogs in TEAs last year, especially in the high-unemployment category, which may soon no longer be “current” for every country. Once a retrogression is officially reflected in a visa bulletin, it will have significant implications for new investors filing after that point—i.e., Chinese and Indian applicants may lose the option for concurrent filing for adjustment of status.

How ChatGPT Can Help You Understand Availability

The first step is clarifying your chargeability country. Once you know this, you can use ChatGPT to help gather and interpret relevant information.

You can ask questions like:

• “What is the current EB‑5 visa availability for applicants born in [Country X]?”
• “Is there a backlog or cut-off date for my country under any EB-5 category?”
• “Based on trends, how long might I wait for a visa?”

ChatGPT can summarize publicly available data, highlight trends, and explain how your country’s demand compares to visa allocations. While it cannot predict exact timelines, it can help you understand the broader picture.

Estimating Your Waiting Time

Once you know whether your country is facing visa retrogression under any EB-5 category, you can begin to estimate how long it might take to receive a visa.

If your country is current under your category, the wait will mostly depend on processing times for the Form I‑526E petition, USCIS adjudication, and consular processing or adjustment of status. These timelines can still vary but are generally more predictable.

If your country is experiencing retrogression, you may face several months or even years of waiting before your priority date becomes eligible for visa issuance. ChatGPT can help you analyze historical trends and current priority date movements to estimate a realistic timeframe, though it cannot guarantee outcomes.

Tracking Changes and Staying Informed

Visa availability is not static. Backlogs can emerge or worsen as demand changes, and government policies or reforms can affect eligibility and allocation. As mentioned above, the EB‑5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 introduced new set-aside categories and adjusted minimum investment amounts, which may impact visa availability in the coming years.

ChatGPT can help you monitor these changes by summarizing updates from government sources, highlighting trends, and explaining how they may affect your timeline. Asking questions like the following can help you make better-informed decisions and stay ahead of potential delays:

• “Are there recent updates to EB‑5 visa cut-off dates?”
• “How does the backlog for set-aside categories compare to unreserved EB‑5 categories?”

Limitations and the Importance of Professional Advice

While ChatGPT is a powerful tool for understanding trends and interpreting public data, it has important limitations. Data may lag, policies change, and individual circumstances—such as dependents, cross-chargeability, source of funds details, or specific project types—can significantly affect your EB‑5 journey.

For these reasons, it’s critical to consult with an experienced EB‑5 attorney. They can interpret how your specific situation interacts with current backlog trends, regulatory updates, and project selection. ChatGPT can provide clarity and context, but it cannot replace professional legal or financial guidance.

Taking Action With Clarity

Your country of birth can be a decisive factor in your EB‑5 journey. By leveraging tools like ChatGPT to interpret public data, track trends, and understand backlog risk, you gain clarity on what lies ahead.

Ultimately, the more informed you are about visa availability and potential backlogs ahead, the better equipped you’ll be to make strategic investment decisions, manage your timeline, and navigate the path to U.S. permanent residency with confidence.

EB5AN has helped more than 2,700 families from 70+ countries become lawful permanent residents of the United States. Our expert team has more than a decade of experience and offers clients first-rate, low-risk EB-5 regional center projects with a 100% USCIS project approval rate.

If you would like to know more about your EB-5 investment options, book a free call with our expert team today.