After Congress passed the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act in March 2022, USCIS announced that the act repealed the legacy Regional Center Program. Consequently, more than 600 existing regional centers were effectively...more
On April 29, 2022, USCIS held its EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 Listening Session and clarified that entities seeking to be designated as a regional center are required to file Form I-956, Application for Regional...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
As of June 30, 2021, the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Center Program has lapsed, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has since rejected any submissions received on or after July 1, 2021, of the following...more
On June 30, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued clear guidance about how it will implement the expiration of the regional center law as of midnight, until any renewal legislation becomes enacted or...more
USCIS has been falling farther and farther behind on adjudication of EB-5 filings. Last week USCIS suddenly announced that, starting March 31, 2020, it will adjudicate first I-526 petitions from investors for whom a visa...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
On November 5, 2019, Senators Rounds (R-SD), Graham (R-SC) and Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the Immigrant Investor Program Relief Act (S. 2778) (“Relief Act”). The Relief Act would extend the Immigrant Investor Program (known as...more
IIUSA hosted a very targeted annual conference in Washington, D.C., to discuss the status of the EB-5 industry and focused on various specific matters of interest to the group....more
In about 2015, USCIS started denying petitions of EB-5 investors who used the cash proceeds of a loan as their source of funds unless the loan was collateralized by the personal assets of the investor. ...more
Linked is a letter submitted, a few weeks back, by IIUSA in support of the proposed rulemaking of USCIS to adopt regulations (the "Regulations") that will have a material impact on the EB-5 Program, including a list of...more
IIUSA had its annual meeting in Washington, DC. The meeting focused a lot on the status of the industry, retrogression, new legislation and collective marketing efforts....more
On March 23, 2018, Congress passed and President Trump signed the Omnibus Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (the “Omnibus Act”), a $1.3 trillion spending bill, as federal funding and the EB-5 program were due to expire....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
A brief federal government shutdown ended Friday as the House and the Senate passed a Continuing Resolution (the “CR”) which provides a bipartisan budget bill that raises spending caps for two years and funds the federal...more
The federal government shutdown came to an end as the House and the Senate passed a Continuing Resolution (the “CR”) which extended the Federal budget until February 8, 2018. The President signed the bill late Monday night. ...more
On Friday, December 8, 2017, President Trump signed House Joint Resolution 123, the “Continuing Appropriations Act”, which prevented a U.S. federal government shutdown. The Act provided a short-term extension which will keep...more
There have been significant movements in Congress to try to come up with a final compromise bill to resolve the impasse that has been in existence for the past two and one-half years (2½) years. It is difficult to predict...more
As we have previously reported, many members of Congress have proposed and considered several reforms to the U.S. Immigrant Investor Program known as "EB-5" over the past several years. The reforms included making the...more
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has increased fees by an average of 21 percent for certain U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) applications, including the U.S. Immigrant Investor Program (EB-5)....more
According to data recently supplied by USCIS, there are more than 20,000 I-526 petitions pending adjudication as of the end of March 2016. This is a massive backlog of cases. What are the implications of this backlog to...more
EB-5 investors are eligible for an EB-5 immigrant visa if they have invested the required amount of capital into one of the three following for-profit business types: 1. A new commercial enterprise (NCE); 2. An...more
Below are my summaries of the 2012 EB-5 AAO decisions recently posted by USCIS, which can be a accessed from www.uscis.gov > Administrative Decisions and choosing the "Folders" for B7 and K1....more
The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act currently allocates 10,000 “EB-5” immigrant visas per year to qualified individuals seeking Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) status - also known as a “green card” - on the basis of...more