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Archive for the ‘EB-5 Investor Visas’ Category
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
Developers seeking capital under the EB-5 program have 3 options available to them. Each of these options has advantages and disadvantages.
One option is applying to be designated as a regional center. A second option is seeking to have an already-designated regional center “adopt” the developer’s project. The third option is to have prospective investors in a pooled investment project file individual EB-5 petitions.
A new article entitled “Three Options for Developers Seeking Capital under the EB-5 Program” has been added to our EB-5 website www.eb5immigration.com. This article provides a list of advantages and disadvantages of each of the three options.
Tags: EB-5
Posted in EB-5 Investor Visas | Click Here To Comment »
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
The December 11, 2009 Neufeld Memorandum regarding material changes in business plans is misguided and legally deficient in a number of respects. The issue of material change has arisen in many contexts, including nonimmigrant petitions and immigrant petitions. If a change is not material, nothing must be filed. If a change is material, an amended petition must be filed.
The Neufeld Memorandum states that a “new petition”, rather than an “amended petition”, must be filed. The distinction is critical. If an amended petition must be filed, the investor keeps his conditional permanent resident status. If a new petition must be filed, the investor must abandon his conditional permanent resident status. USCIS states that the investor can then readjust status but must incur a new two year conditional residence period. This is contrary to law, since INA§245(c)(7) prohibits such an adjustment of status.
The impact of this distinction is a serious one for the investor. It is even more serious for family members. USCIS states that, if a conditional resident spouse has been divorced, or if a conditional resident child has turned 21, the spouse or child cannot gain the benefit of the new I-526 petition. Presumably, the spouse or child is subject to removal from the U.S. This is wrong both as a matter of policy and as a matter of law.
The Neufeld Memorandum relating to material change should be rescinded or challenged.
Tags: EB-5
Posted in Agency Updates, EB-5 Investor Visas, Hot Questions | Click Here To Comment »
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Today, President Barack Obama signed into law the 2010 fiscal year Department of Homeland Security Spending Bill. The law extends four immigration related programs including the:
1. The EB-5 Regional Center Program, which allows immigrant investors seeking a greencard to invest $500,000 in a USCIS approved regional center;
2. E-Verify the internet-based Employment Eligibility Verification System run by USCIS that allows employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of certain employees;
3. The Conrad 30 J-1 program which allows state health agencies to annually hire up to 30 foreign physicians to practice in rural and inner-city communities that often have difficulty recruiting physicians. The sponsored physicians are released from their two year home residency requirement if they work for a minimum of three years with the medically underserved population; and
4. The EB-4 Religious Worker Program which provides up to 5,000 permanent immigrants visas for religious workers which include ministers, professionals working in a religious vocation, and other workers in religious vocations.
The law also includes statutory authority for USCIS to complete processing of permanent residence applications for surviving spouses and other relatives of immigration sponsors who die during the adjudication process.
Posted in Agency Updates, EB-5 Investor Visas, Green Cards, Hot Questions, News & Politics, Worksite Enforcement | Click Here To Comment »
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
The current process by which individual investors in regional centers file for EB-5 classification makes no sense and leads to inconsistent adjudications for investors in the same project. Processing improvements currently under consideration will address those concerns and make the regional center program even more attractive for investors considering the EB-5 classification as an immigration option.
The investor often thinks that the regional center’s certification means the specific project in which he or she is investing has been pre-approved by USCIS. In fact, that is not the case. Rather, the qualification of the project in which the investor has invested is adjudicated at the time the individual investor files an I-526 petition. This means that, if a project has 100 investors, there will be 100 individual adjudications of the qualifications of the same project, and the adjudications may be inconsistent between different adjudicating officers.
If one of the adjudicating officers has questions regarding the project, the questions are addressed to the individual investor, since the regional center is not a party to the EB-5 petition. The individual investor generally does not know the answers to the questions in the RFE. Likewise, if there is a denial of a petition based on the qualification of the project, the regional center, which is the real party in interest, cannot appeal the denial based on the qualification of the regional center’s project, again because the regional center did not file the petition.
In the present scenario, everyone loses. The investor has to invest before knowing whether the project is approved. The regional center is subject to varying interpretations by varying officers and has no standing to address the issues. USCIS wastes precious resources by adjudicating the issue of the project’s qualification multiple times instead of one time.
Happily, change may be on the way, albeit not soon enough. USCIS has now stated that it is in the process of creating a government form whereby the regional center will be able to request pre-approval of a specific project before the investor invests. Presumably, such pre-approval would eliminate re-adjudication of the qualification of the project in connection with the individual EB-5 petitions of the individual investors.
Unfortunately, this important change is not going to happen overnight. USCIS estimates at least one year for the form to be approved and this new process to go through necessary channels. Advocates concerned about the success of the EB-5 program are and will be making efforts both at higher levels of USCIS and in Congress to create a streamlined and workable process in a much shorter time frame. In doing so, it is critical that any new process not simply add another level of delay and bureaucracy. Timing is critical for major development projects, and any new system must have very specific and short adjudication time-frames.
Tags: EB-5, Green Cards, investor visas
Posted in EB-5 Investor Visas | Click Here To Comment »
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
Four immigration programs that were set to expire on September 30th have been extended for another month to allow Congress to complete work on the Department of Homeland Security spending bill.
The four programs include:
1. The EB-5 Regional Center Program, which allows immigrant investors seeking a greencard to invest $500,000 in a USCIS approved regional center;
2. E-Verify the internet-based Employment Eligibility Verification System run by USCIS that allows employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of certain employees;
3. The Conrad 30 J-1 program which allows state health agencies to annually hire up to 30 foreign physicians to practice in rural and inner-city communities that often have difficulty recruiting physicians. The sponsored physicians are released from their two year home residency requirement if they work for a minimum of three years with the medically underserved population; and
4. The EB-4 Religious Worker Program which provides up to 5,000 permanent immigrants visas for religious workers which include ministers, professionals working in a religious vocation, and other workers in religious vocations.
Tags: Conrad 30, E-Verify, EB-4 religious workers, EB-5, J-1 Waiver
Posted in Agency Updates, EB-5 Investor Visas, Green Cards | Click Here To Comment »
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
The climate for EB-5 legislative change appears to be favorable for a number of reasons. In the Senate, the Chair of the Judiciary Committee, which will consider immigration legislation, is Senator Leahy of Vermont. Vermont is one of the major beneficiaries and supporters of the regional center EB-5 program, and Senator Leahy is a huge fan. In fact, he recently held hearings with testimony from three advocates of favorable EB-5 legislation. In the House, indications are that Representative Loughren of California, the Chair of the Immigration Subcommittee, is also favorably disposed to an expansion of the EB-5 program. Representative Polis of Colorado has been designated to put together an EB-5 legislative package.
Among the more likely topics for possible inclusion in EB-5 legislation are the following:
1. Permanent extension of the regional center program. In fact, this is already included in the Senate’s DHS Appropriations Bill.
2. Pre-approval of regional center projects.
3. Premium processing and possibly concurrent filing of EB-5 petitions and adjustment of status applications.
4. Clarification of the issues to be adjudicated in the condition removal process.
5. Changes to the definitions and designation procedures for targeted employment areas.
With the possible exception of the permanent extension of the regional center program, it is likely that other changes will have to await comprehensive immigration reform.
Tags: EB-5, legislative updates
Posted in EB-5 Investor Visas | Click Here To Comment »
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
The regional center EB5 program has increased in popularity significantly during the last couple of years. Perhaps this is a direct result of restrictive interpretations and quota delays in other immigration categories. But for many foreign nationals — retirees, graduating students with no jobs, employees whose employers will not sponsor them, and many others — it is not only the option of choice, but rather the only option.
At the same time, regional center EB-5 is a program that fits perfectly with the needs of our country in 2009.
- Providing capital at a time when capital is so tight
- Building infrastructure projects
- Creating employment at a time of massive unemployment
However, it is critical that both Congress and the Administration do what is necessary to make certain that this program thrives and doesn’t get relegated to the trash heap of failed government programs. My ideas for improving the program are after the jump. (more…)
Posted in EB-5 Investor Visas | Click Here To Comment »
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