The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 brought many changes to the EB-5 program. For the latest information, please click here.
I recently returned from a two week trip to China, which included a presentation at the International EB-5 Summit in Shanghai. I left with two distinct and related impressions:
The first impression is that there are far more interested EB-5 investors than there are investment projects that are considered to be low risk for immigration purposes (particularly condition removal) and high probability for the investor getting his money back in a definable period of time.
Second, and related, is the difficulty that agents who promote the projects to investors have in performing both the immigration due diligence and the financial due diligence that is necessary to advise investors.
The lack of good projects is, in part, a function of the USCIS long hold on I-924 adjudications pending resolution of its new position on the economic methodology to be used in tenant occupancy projects. Perhaps with RFEs being issued on all of those projects, some of the RFE responses will result in approved projects that can be made available to investors.
It is difficult to understand how overseas migration agents can be expected to perform the required immigration due diligence necessary to properly advise investors. Immigration due diligence of projects is both complex and ever-changing. Complicating matters is the fact that the Service steadfastly sticks to its position that it is not bound by an approval of an exemplar I-526 petition. Migration agents should certainly seek the counsel of experienced EB-5 immigration lawyers to perform immigration due diligence prior to making a decision to promote a particular project to investors. Failure to do so has resulted in some significant losses by investors and by their agents.
