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SAINT-EUSTACHE · EB-5 FIELD GUIDE

Our approval notice shows a priority date that differs from the receipt notice — which one do we use?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

Identify why the notices differ before copying either date. An error is possible, but a legally retained earlier priority date or another case-specific explanation may also matter. Compare the petition history and supporting notices with counsel and obtain correction or clarification through the verified official channel where needed.

Keeping the case record consistent

Do not treat a message as official merely because it claims to be from a government body; confirm the sender through the case record before acting on it. Meanwhile, keep the corporate evidence current, since the enterprise's constating documents, resolutions and financial statements can be relevant to eligibility, not only to bookkeeping. Foreign-language documents filed with USCIS need a full certified English translation; consular language requirements may differ.

Fix inconsistencies in the order in which they become harder to fix. A discrepancy between two notices can be raised while the case is still in one place, before further filings are built on the wrong figure. A discrepancy copied into a derivative's forms, a translation and a consular submission has to be corrected in each of those places, and every correction invites the question of which version was believed.

Hypothetical example: an investor in a specialty food-processing plant carries a mistyped priority date from an early spreadsheet into three later documents before anyone compares them against the notices themselves. Verify against the notices rather than against your own summary of them, and note the date of each verification so a later reader can tell when the record was last known to be sound.