EB-5 Regulation Could Raise Minimum Investment Amount To $1.35 Million

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization is in its final stage as of June 27, 2019, and what this means is that it’s possible this EB-5 regulation could raise the minimum investment amount of the Regional Center Program from $500,000 to $1.35 million and it could raise the Direct Investment Program amount from $1 million to $1.8 million.

This EB-5 regulation (RIN: 1615-AC07) has been over two years in the works. During that time this rule sought public comments and meetings on the proposed changes. Therefore, it could have undergone drastic changes, or it could have stayed the exact same. We will not know the contents of the regulation until the final step is complete.

The final step involves the regulation being sent to USCIS and then published in the Federal Register. The rule will go into effect in a minimum of 30 days from the date it was published. It could be published immediately.

If the EB-5 regulation has not been changed since its contents were released to the public in spring 2017, then the changes that we will see in addition to the raising of the minimum investment amount include changes to targeted employment area designation, regional center oversight, and to the filing and interview processes.

These changes could be implemented this year. Therefore, any foreign nationals seeking to apply to the EB-5 Program would benefit from applying now, and qualifying for the lower minimum investment amount of $500,000, and locking in their visa priority date.

Investors may think that waiting to apply for EB-5 would benefit them, as the higher minimum investment amount may turn off other potential applicants from investing, leaving more green cards available and decreasing the visa backlog, but this is the wrong way to look at it. 

There is no benefit to waiting. You would only be paying more than double for an EB-5 visa. In fact, applying later and facing an increased investment amount of $1.35 million, or $1.8 million for a direct investment, could have unforeseen issues for investors when it comes to trying to wire transfer this much larger sum of money out of their home countries. 

EB-5 visas are available on a first-come first-serve basis. Your place in line for a visa, your priority date, is based on when you’ve filed your I-526 Petition and received a receipt from USCIS.

Until the rule goes into effect, EB-5 investors will be grandfathered in under the current EB-5 Program rules, Therefore applying now, and taking advantage of being grandfathered in under the EB-5 current rules, is highly recommended.