USCIS Updates Job Creation And Capital At Risk Requirements

On June 14, 2017, USCIS issued a policy alert announcing that they were seeking input on important revisions to the job creation and capital at risk requirements for the I-526 Petition and the I-829 Petition.

The revisions represent the next iteration of USCIS’ memorandum, last published in August 2015, Guidance on the Job Creation Requirement and Sustainment of the Investment for EB-5 Adjudication of Form I-526 and Form I-829.

The policy highlights from the memorandum include [Volume 6: Immigrants, Part G, Investors]:

“An investor must continue to be eligible for the EB-5 visa classification throughout the adjudication of his or her Form I-526 and until he or she obtains conditional permanent resident status by making an investment that remains “at risk.

“An investor must also sustain his or her investment “at risk” throughout the 2-year period of conditional permanent residence to be eligible for removal of conditions on his or her permanent resident status.

“Further deployment of an investor’s capital may be used to meet the capital at risk requirement under certain circumstances.”

What do these policy changes mean?

• USCIS is stating that in order to maintain eligibility an EB-5 investor’s investment must remain at risk even after job creation and throughout the conditional residence stage.
• An EB-5 investor only needs to sustain their investment until Form I-829 approval (the two-years of conditional residence).
• Redeployment of an investor’s capital isn’t an issue as long as it creates the required number of jobs.

While the policy is already in effect, interested parties may still submit comments on the policy until June 28, 2017, to publicengagementfeedback@uscis.dhs.gov.