Changes EB-5 Visa
On June 22, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California voided the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization Final Rule, which went into effect in November 2019. This indicates that USCIS is currently applying the EB-5 regulations in effect prior to this rule’s effective date.
Several changes made to the EB-5 Investor Program in November of 2019 by the Trump administration are no longer in effect:
- Providing priority date retention to certain EB-5 investors.
- Increasing the required minimum investment amounts to account for inflation.
- Reforming certain targeted employment area (TEA) designations.
- Clarifying USCIS procedures for the removal of conditions on permanent residence.
- Making other technical and conforming revisions.
Increased Minimum Investments
- The standard minimum investment amount has increased to $1.8 million (from $1 million) to account for inflation.
- The minimum investment in a TEA has increased to $900,000 (from $500,000) to account for inflation.
- Future adjustments will also be tied to inflation (per the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, or CPI-U) and occur every 5 years.
- Directly review and determine the designation of high-unemployment TEAs; no longer defer to TEA designations made by state and local governments.
- Specially designated high-unemployment TEAs will now consist of a combination of census tracts that include the tract or contiguous tracts in which the new commercial enterprise is principally doing business, including any or all directly adjacent tracts.
- Provided they have experienced an average unemployment rate of at least 150% of the national average unemployment rate. TEAs may now include cities and towns with a population of 20,000 or more outside of metropolitan statistical areas.
- These changes will help direct investment to areas most in need and increase the consistency of how high-unemployment areas are defined in the program.
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Who Is Eligible For The EB-5 Visa?
The EB-5 program’s prerequisites and available routes are both extensive and convoluted. As our lawyers, we will assist you in developing a strategy for obtaining an investor visa. We’ll help you out with the whole application procedure, from start to finish, with our services that include:
- Obtain, evaluate, and present information and documentation regarding the lawful source of funds.
- Assist in purchasing equity stakes in an investment fund set up by a regional center.
- Obtain and evaluate documentation related to the path of funds to the regional center project.
- Prepare and file an I-526 petition.
- Prepare and file a conditional immigrant visa application or application for adjustment of status to conditional permanent resident.
- Ensure that EB-5 qualifications are met.
- Respond promptly to all questions regarding the EB-5 process.
- Prepare and file an I-829 condition removal petition.
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EB-5 Investment Visa FAQ
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) must rule on your petition by the prior EB-5 regulations and rules. New EB-5 rules will only apply to applications submitted after November 21, 2019. Filing after November 21 will likely result in a wait time of three years or more due to the influx of new applications in the months running up to that day (depending upon the investor’s nationality).
Consult with our EB-5 Lawyer immediately. It can take several weeks or longer to prepare a successful EB-5 application; therefore, any investor considering this route to gain permanent residency should be on time. Call us at 714-868-8250 to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our knowledgeable attorneys.
To apply for an EB5 visa, an investor must first select a region and comply with its investment and fee requirements. These steps and how an investment can be refunded if a program is rejected are not standardized. The next step is to submit Form I-526 to the appropriate U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services regional center after selecting the correct regional program and making the required payments. The typical duration of the approval process is between nine and fifteen months.
After receiving this approval, the foreign investor must visit the U.S. embassy in their home country to undergo medical, criminal, and immigration background checks. The immigrant investor must enter the United States within 180 days of receiving a conditional EB5 visa for two years.
Once new immigrant business owners have settled into the United States and begun managing their investments there, they must meet our attorneys at Garcia & Phan for assistance filing permanent resident petitions from any location. Ample proof that the immigrant investor is meeting the requirements of the EB5 visa must be included in the petition filed to the U.S. federal government.
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