Major Changes Proposed To The EB-5 Program

This month, members of Congress made a draft proposal to reform the EB-5 Program. The proposals, called the Immigrant Investor Visa and Regional Center Program Comprehensive Reform Act (EB-5 Reform Act), if passed, would be included with the government spending bill on March 23.

Important aspects of the draft of the EB-5 Reform Act include:

• Re-authorization of the EB-5 Regional Center Program until 2023.
• Improvement and streamlining of the EB-5 process.
• Potential protections for investors whose projects did not pan out.
• A huge reduction in the number of visas that will be available from 10,000 to 7,000.
• USCIS will not accept more petitions than that year’s quota. If, for instance, the quota is only 2,300, then that’s the maximum number of petitions they will accept that year.
• Minimum investment amount increase from $500,000 to either $925,000 or $1,025,000.
• Less strict targeted employment area proposals.
• Filing fee increases.
• An increase in the number of jobs that are required to be created from 10 to 12.
• The ability to count construction jobs as direct permanent jobs regardless of the duration of the jobs.
• Immediately after the bill is passed, no new EB-5 applications (I-526 Petitions) would be accepted for 120 days.

 

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