How long does this process take if I am located outside the U.S.?

A: The first decision that needs to be made by the applicant is whether to make a $1 million "direct investment" into a new commercial enterprise or whether to take the $500,000 "regional investment center route to permanent residency (green card status). Once this decision is made then the time it will take before one can enter the U.S. on a green card is currently averaging between 8-14 months. The first part of the process (I-526) takes roughly 5-7 months to process with the second part, consular processing, taking the remaining amount of time. Note that these are just estimations as each U.S. consulate has differing processing times based on a number of factors such as the volume of cases that are adjudicated through the consulate and whether a particular country has been labeled as an area with a high risk of immigration fraud.