Did you know?   Breaking Down the Battineni v. Mayorkas Ruling: A Landmark for EB-5 Investors Introduction The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, established in 1990, has been a vital pathway to U.S. residency for foreign investors, promising job creation and economic growth. However, navigating the complexities of the program, especially the stringent documentation requirements toRead more about Breaking Down the Battineni v. Mayorkas Ruling: A Landmark for EB-5 Investors[...]

Did you know?   Guidance Clarifying the Required EB-5 Investment Period U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued guidance on their interpretation of changes to the EB‐5 Immigrant Investor Program in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) made by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA) on October 11. This guidance clarifies the required investment timeframeRead more about Guidance Clarifying the Required EB-5 Investment Period[...]

Did you know?   Update to Visa Availability Approach for Form I-526   U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) this month announced it would update its visa availability approach for managing the inventory of Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Investor, to promote greater efficiency. In their announcement of the change of policy, USCIS Immigrant Investor ProgramRead more about Update to Visa Availability Approach for Form I-526[...]

  Did you know?   Regional Center EB-5 Investors can file their I-526E petitions! No more roadblocks!   Last week, on August 25, EB-5 Industry stakeholders, consisting of a few large Regional Centers and industry advocate Invest in the USA (IIUSA), entered into a joint settlement agreement with USCIS. As a result, investors can nowRead more about Regional Center EB-5 Investors can file their I-526E petitions! No more roadblocks![...]

Did you know?   Breaking News: Preliminary injunction ruling on EB-5 Regional Center Program! Investors can file immigration petitions under the RIA.   On June 24, 2022, Judge Vince Chhabria of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction ruling. His ruling reverses the USCIS decision in April thatRead more about Breaking News: Preliminary injunction ruling on EB-5 Regional Center Program! Investors can file immigration petitions under the RIA.[...]

Did you know?    EB-5 Regional Center Program is reauthorized!! New minimum  investment amount is $800,000 now.    On Tuesday, March 15, 2022, the President signed the omnibus appropriations bill H.R. 2471 - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, into law. The bill includes the EB-5 reform bill, titled the “EB-5  Reform and Integrity Act of 2022”.Read more about EB-5 Regional Center Program is reauthorized!! New minimum  investment amount is $800,000 now. [...]

Did you know?   Ur Jaddou confirmed as the new Head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services   Suzanne Monyak, Immigration Reporter at CQ Roll Call, and other news agencies reported that the Senate voted in favor of President Joe Biden’s nomination of attorney Ur Jaddou to lead the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).Read more about Ur Jaddou confirmed as the new Head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services[...]

Did you know? The judge ruled that the November 2019 reforms were not duly authorized!!! In the well-contested court case of Behring Regional Center LLC V. Chad Wolf, the judge ruled in favor of Plaintiff. For now, the required minimum investment amount went back to the pre-November 2019 level of $500,000 for projects that qualifyRead more about The judge ruled that the November 2019 reforms were not duly authorized[...]

Did you know? Are we going to have the much-awaited EB-5 Reform bill pass Congress before June 30, 2021? That is the big question! Invest in the USA (IIUSA), the EB-5 Regional Center Program’s only industry trade association is worried. The Executive Director of the Association, Aaron Grau, has been sending emails to its membersRead more about Are we going to have the much-awaited EB-5 Reform bill pass Congress before June 30, 2021? That is the big question![...]

Effect of S 386 - Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2020, and its version of House bill H.R.1044   Did you know?   IIUSA, the foremost EB-5 industry advocate, reported that on December 2nd, 2020, the Senate passed S.386, Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2020, its version of House bill H.R.1044. The billRead more about Effect of S 386 – Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2020, and its version of House bill H.R.1044[...]

Did you know?   Can put options held by EB-5 investors be permissible? Klasko Immigration successfully argues, “Yes”!!! In a recent blog, Klasko Immigration Law Partners (Klasko) announced that “On August 21, 2020, Judge Merrick Garland issued an Opinion on behalf of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in the case ofRead more about Can put options held by EB-5 investors be permissible?[...]

Did you know?   USCIS clarifies Redeployment rules of EB-5 As we know, an essential part of the EB-5 application, the I-526 petition, is the investment component. USCIS updated the policy last week and published it on July 24, 2020. The policy clearly explains what constitutes an eligible EB-5 investment. Besides, if the investment needsRead more about USCIS clarifies Redeployment rules of EB-5[...]

Did you know?   President Trump signed another executive order, suspending entry to the US through non-immigrant visa categories such as H-1B, L-1, J-1, and H-2B but relax! It still does not include EB-5!   In our last blog, we had reported that on April 22, 2020, President Trump signed an executive order that willRead more about [...]

Did you know?   President Trump signed an executive order, temporarily suspending immigration into the US, but relax, it does not include EB-5 and many other immigrant as well as non-immigrant categories!   Almost all of the news agencies have reported that President Trump signed an executive order last night that will limit immigration intoRead more about [...]

EB-5 Visa Bulletin for April 2020 is out Did you know?   EB-5 Visa Bulletin for April 2020 is out   This week, USCIS held an EB-5 Stakeholder Engagement meeting. The EB-5 Visa Bulletin for April 2020 is out as well. The news on retrogression is getting better. Among the three countries that are subjectRead more about [...]

IIUSA Filed a Lawsuit Naming the DHS and the USCIS as Defendants Did you know? IIUSA Filed a Lawsuit Naming the DHS and the USCIS as Defendants   Invest in the USA (IIUSA) reported that on March 2, 2020, they filed a lawsuit naming the Department of Homeland Security and the US Citizenship Immigration ServiceRead more about [...]

IIUSA Reported Third Quarter Form I-526 adjudication trends Did you know? IIUSA Reported Third Quarter Form I-526 adjudication trends In this blog, we would like to summarize data on third-quarter 2019 (April-June) I-526 adjudication trends as published by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and reported by Invest in the USA (IIUSA). I-526Read more about [...]

Minimum Investments going up, Targeted Employment Area Designations being redefined U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced new developments under the final rule to include

Congress extended the EB-5 program untilSeptember 30, 2019 with no changes BUT!!! In this blog, we would like to talk about briefly the extension of the EB-5 program but also give an update on immigration related issues that have hit the market in the last few days.

Current EB-5 program extended to December 7th! On September 13th, news agencies reported that government will continue to be funded until December 7th.

Grenada citizenship and E-2 visa may solve the Chinese retrogression problem Summary Some countries, notably China, do not have an E-2 treaty with US but face severe EB-5 retrogression. Given this dilemma, many lawyers are advising Chinese investors to apply for citizenship of another third country.

No room for errors when completing EB-5 applications. On July 27, 2018 The National Law Review published an article warning against such practice. According to the article, “effective September 11, 2018, adjudicators for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will have the authority to deny any application or petition that is incomplete or lacks sufficient evidence without first issuing a request for evidence (RFE) or notice of intent to deny (NOID). The new guidelines are a reversal of the current policy, which requires that an RFE be issued unless there is “no possibility” that the deficiency can be remedied. Depending on the vigor with which it is enforced, this policy shift may eliminate the opportunity for petitioners and applicants to correct simple errors, like missing documents, or to beef-up documentation in support of an applicant’s eligibility, before the case is denied.

What is this waterfall anyway? At the end of the day, does it really matter? Priority of payments, otherwise known as the waterfall, is perhaps one of the most important features an investor should consider when picking an EB5 project. Simply put, the waterfall clearly defines the order of claims to the funds by various stakeholders as the funds become available for distribution.

It Seems like EB-5 Investor Visa will get another clean extension until September 30, 2018!!! As you all know, the EB-5 current investment amount is $500,000 in a targeted employment areas, but we have been experiencing quite a bit of uncertainty about this amount for well over a number of years now.

The window of opportunity to invest at the $ 500,000 level is tightening. Congress extended the current law to February 8, 2018 with no changes! Yes! This time it really is! Trust us and act now if you don’t want to get caught up having to invest $ 1,800,000 for the same exact project. Why do we think that this time it might actually happen? For a number of reasons.

Congress passed a Continuing Resolution extending the EB-5 program to January 19, 2018. As expected, by a majority vote of 231 vs 188 in the House and a majority vote of 66 vs. 32 in the Senate, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution extending the EB-5 program to January 19, 2018. President Donald Trump signed the resolution into law yesterday on December 22.

Congress extended “again” the current law to December 22, 2017 with no changes! Congress is currently debating a number of issues related to EB-5. Our hope is that these issues will all be clarified once the long awaited amendments are made and the new comprehensive immigration law is enacted.

Congress extended the current law to December 8, 2017 with no changes! On Friday August 8th, President Trump signed H.R. 601 that will provide funding for the federal government and extend the EB-5 Regional Center Program until December 8th and the Congress approved the bill with no changes.

September 30 deadline is approaching! Did you know? Did you know that we have less than two months left for the September 30, 2017 deadline? What is expected to happen if and when the current EB-5 law changes? Let us quickly analyze!

Safe until at least September 30, 2017! Yesterday, we reported that Congress passed a continuing resolution to extend federal funding of all aspects of government until May 5th. Today, they agreed to continue funding government projects through September 30 of this year. As part of this bipartisan omnibus spending bill, Congress has granted an extension of the EB-5 Regional Center Program.

Did you know? On April 28, 2017, Congress passed a continuing resolution to extend federal funding of all aspects of government until May 5th. Part of this decision means that deliberation on the future of the EB-5 program, which was set to occur on April 28th, is now extended another week.

Did you know? On April 7, 2017, USCIS announced that the H-1B quota for fiscal year 2018 has been met for both the regular and Master’s caps.

Did you know? The U.S. Department of State has recently released EB-5 visa statistics for Fiscal Year 2016.

Did you know? On December 6th 2016, U.S. Congress passed the Continuing Resolution (CR) legislation.

Did you know? Did you know that on November 18th, The Real Deal hosted a panel of EB-5 experts in Shanghai, who announced that the EB-5 program will likely continue to thrive under President Elect Donald Trump? “His strong stance [is] against illegal immigration,” former New York Gov. George Pataki said.

Did you know? Did you know that on September 28, as widely expected the Senate approved continuing resolution to fund the Federal Government through December 9th.

Did you know? Did you know that the EB-5 (employment based Green Card program) might have some changes after September 30.

Did you know? that non-US citizens seeking to obtain a green card in order to be able to live and work in the United States can do so by applying for an EB-5 visa as long as they qualify to be an accredited investor.