> And how do you make sure your getting students on Merit and not on wealth
I hate to break this to you, but if you're rich enough, you can already essentially buy an EB-5 visa by doing the right sort of investing:
https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent...
Also, the USCIS is self-funded from application fees, so letting a few rich people pay huge amounts could actually lower fees for everyone else.
But yes, overall, the system is hell to navigate as I know from having hired lawyers and filed papers with them myself. It's already quite unfriendly to anyone who isn't capable of jumping through complicated hoops.
For example, recently they started rejecting applications that leave any field blank, so you must write N/A or 0 or whatever as discussed in the instructions.
Except the PDF validation doesn't allow a slash in there, so how do I ensure the system doesn't think I have 5 kids named NA NA NA? And 00/00/0000 isn't exactly a valid birthday, either. And some sections say "only fill this out if xyz" making it unclear whether the instructions to leave nothing blank or those instructions should take precedence.
Oh, and the Adobe digital signature thing is broken, so you can't actually fill it out with Adobe Acrobat... which they specifically recommend and have to find other PDF software.
They also specifically state that height should be entered with a leading zero, their example being 5' 09" ... and the PDF does not permit that leading zero, leaving you with 5' 9" contradicting their own example in the instructions.
Yeah, I filled out what I could in a different PDF viewer, printed it, then complied with the instructions by fixing the problems with a pen because we can lose status if they had decided not to accept the application in time. It worked, but the whole thing is just an exercise in frustration.