The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 brought many changes to the EB-5 program. For the latest information, please click here.
The conference call was co-chaired by Ron Klasko in his capacity as Chair of the AILA EB-5 Committee.
The highlights were as follows:
- I-526 and I-829 processing times are presently four to six months.
- USCIS is considering the possibility of pre-approval of individual projects of an approved regional center prior to investors filing individual I-526 petitions for that project.
- For regional center I-829 petitions, USCIS will not readjudicate the econometric models on which the indirect job creation was premised. However, USCIS will review whether the milestones that were predicted at the I-526 stage, such as monetary expenditures, direct job creation, tenant leases, etc., have actually occurred.
- Targeted employment area (TEA) determinations are made at the time of the filing of the individual I-526 petition. As a result, if various investors will invest in a regional center project over a lengthy period of time, it may be that some investors will invest at a $500,000 level and other investors will invest at a $1,000,000 level if the TEA designation has changed mid-project.
- An I-526 petition can be filed and approved based on the requisite investment and 10+ job creation that occurred in the past, without having to create additional jobs after the I-526 petition is approved. The previously created 10+ jobs must be maintained during the conditional residence period for the I-829 to be approved.
- Each investor in a “troubled business” must show that the investment will save ten jobs.
- If the principal applicant dies or gets divorced after the two year conditional resident period but while the I-829 is still pending, the former spouse and children can file I-829s together or separately. If the derivative beneficiaries have not been admitted to the U.S. for at least one year and nine months at the time that the principal’s I-829 is approved, they are required to file separate I-829s. If a dependent spouse enters the U.S. as a conditional permanent resident after the principal has filed the I-829, the dependent spouse will have to wait two years as a conditional permanent resident and file the I-829 within the ninety day period proceeding the second anniversary of his or her admission as a conditional permanent resident.
