Immigrant Investor Program: Progress Made to Detect and Prevent Fraud, but Additional Actions Could Further Agency Efforts (GAO-16-828)

GAO report (Sept 2016, 32 pp.) on USCIS fraud detection in EB-5: background, risk assessments (source-of-funds study, random site-visit pilot, national-security review), forms, interviews, FinCEN checks, FDNS resources, compliance unit, proposed fee increases, paper-file problem and digitisation study, Fraud Risk Framework comparison, hypothetical fraud risk profile (Appendix I), DHS comments (image pages OCR-ed: no numbers). Extracted (with the 2 rows already in the data: 851 regional centers, 61 terminated, Aug 2016): FDNS authorized positions 25 FTE; 50 planned pilot site visits (four states, from Aug 2016); ~14,000 petitions and applications expected a year; average review time 5.5 hours (I-829) to 40 hours (I-924); fees then in force (I-526 USD 1,500; I-924 USD 6,230) as program_terms. Not recorded: proposed fees (I-526 USD 3,675, I-924 USD 17,795, new I-924A USD 3,035; proposals, in force from Dec 2016 per other sources); ~1,000 pages per filing and 14 million pages a year; GAO samples (10 I-829 denials FY2010-2014, 10 regional centers, 20 files); statutory amounts and definitions; Fraud Risk Framework example table (hypothetical).