Changes and Trends in EB-5 Investment Immigration
Is it the End of the EB-5 World as We Know it? How to Prepare for Potential Changes
On February 25, 2025, President Trump announced his intention to terminate the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program and introduce a new “Gold Card” visa requiring a $5 million investment. While the proposal has drawn significant...more
The Department of State released the March 2025 Visa Bulletin and USCIS has confirmed they will continue to utilize the Final Action Dates chart for employment-based Adjustment of Status applications. The Final Action Dates...more
The Department of State released the November 2024 Visa Bulletin and USCIS will continue to accept employment-based Adjustment of Status applications based on the Dates for Filing chart. All employment-based categories...more
The Department of State released the October 2024 Visa Bulletin and USCIS will accept employment-based Adjustment of Status applications based on the more advanced Dates for Filing chart for the beginning of this fiscal...more
The Department of State released the September 2024 Visa Bulletin. USCIS will continue to accept employment-based Adjustment of Status applications based on the Final Action Dates chart. Most Employment-Based Categories will...more
The Department of State released the July 2024 Visa Bulletin. USCIS will continue to accept employment-based Adjustment of Status applications based on the Final Action Dates chart. Most Employment-Based Categories will...more
The Department of State released the June 2024 Visa Bulletin. USCIS will continue to accept employment-based Adjustment of Status applications based on the Final Action Dates chart. All Employment-Based Categories will hold...more
The Department of State released the May 2024 Visa Bulletin. USCIS will continue to accept employment-based Adjustment of Status applications based on the Final Action Dates chart. Most Employment-Based Categories will hold...more
The Department of State released the March 2024 Visa Bulletin. In March, USCIS will accept employment-based Adjustment of Status applications based on the more modest Final Action Dates chart for the first time this fiscal...more
Employers sponsoring foreign nationals should be aware that some cut-off dates for filing immigrant visa applications in certain employment-based (EB) preference categories have recently “retrogressed” or moved backwards in...more
On March 15, 2022, the United States enacted the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (the 2022 Act) as part of a large omnibus budget package of legislation. The 39-page compromise legislation grandfathers existing workers...more
Congress has mandated that in a given calendar year, 140,000 employment-based green cards will be awarded to companies sponsoring foreign nationals for permanent employment in the United States. This mandate is effective on...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has made significant changes to the Immigrant Investor Program (EB-5) through their establishment of new EB-5 modernization regulations. The EB-5 program permits individuals...more
Recent Proposed Regulations - Recently, USCIS has sent new regulations related to the EB-5 Program to the Office of Management Budget ("OMB"). Thereafter, the proposed regulations would then be sent to the General...more
The federal government entered a partial shutdown on December 22, 2018. With no end in sight as the shutdown enters its third week, many are wondering how the shutdown will affect immigration matters. To provide some insight...more
EB-1 to retrogress for most categories; EB-3 China to advance by one year. The US Department of State has released its August 2018 Visa Bulletin setting out per-country priority date cutoffs that regulate immigrant visa...more
Final Action dates for China and India EB-1 categories remain unchanged, while EB-2 India advances slightly....more
There appears to be significant momentum from the Republican contingent in the Senate and the House to pass an EB-5 reform bill entitled, "The EB5 Immigrant Investor Visa and Regional Center Reform Act" (the "Draft Bill") in...more
Lawmakers are again considering changes to the EB-5 Program. In fact, before the end of this month, we may see provisions from the “Immigrant Investor Visa and Regional Center Program Comprehensive Reform Act” or “EB-5 Reform...more
As expected, the House and the Senate passed a Continuing Resolution (the “CR”) last week which extended the Federal budget until January 19, 2018. It is expected that the President will sign the CR. This new short-term...more
As part of the two-week spending bill that avoids a government shutdown, the Immigrant Investor Program known as EB-5 is extended unchanged through Dec. 22. Without much buzz on Capitol Hill to suggest the imminent release of...more
Earlier this year we wrote about the Justice Department’s continuing efforts to combat fraud in the EB-5 immigrant visa program, with the filing of several federal lawsuits seeking the forfeiture of nine real properties...more
In early August, President Trump voiced support for a bill introduced earlier this year by Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA) to effectively overhaul the current immigration system. The Reforming American...more
In our continuing series of reports, Charles (“Charlie”) Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division, U.S. Department of State, shares his most recent analysis of current trends and future projections for the...more
Concerns over the EB-5 “Gold” visa have been revived since Senior White House advisor Jared Kushner’s sister pitched the prospect of EB-5 immigration visas to Chinese investors. While the program may appear an easy path to...more