What Does The Policy Manual State About The Form I-829 Adjudication?

It says that when you file an I-829, you have to include the comprehensive business plan, and the economic analysis that you previously submitted when you filed four years earlier with the I-526. Immigration can see what happened when they look at the I-829 they can refer to what you said when you first started. Everything has to be created as a result of what was submitted in your initial application.

What Clarification Does The Policy Manual Give On Material Change?

The idea of material change is when something happens between the time that a person files their initial application, the I-526, until the time they obtain their conditional green card, which is approximately a two-year period, it could defeat the application. For example, the material change could be that they initially were investing in a hotel, and then something has happened to the hotel project, and the regional center says, “Oh, I am going to now do an apartment building”, that would be a material change. If you started with a restaurant, and it was going to be a Chinese restaurant, and you later change it to an Italian restaurant, that is not a material change.

If it is something minor that does not affect the actual intent of the investment, then that is not considered material. There is no extensive list of what is major, you rather know it when you see it.

When Did The Changes And Clarifications In The Policy Manual Go Into Effect?

Technically the effective date of the policy manual was November 30^th, of 2016. However, there is a public comment period that was set to close December 14, 2016. Therefore, it is possible that after immigration analyzed the comments, they came in roughly around atwo-week period, and decided that one, or more of those comments were applicable, and that convinced them to change one of these policy rules, then they could reissue a clarification. The chances for that happening are one percent. Generally, I’m not planning on it, but conceptually, it could happen.

Is It Possible That There May Be A Regional Center Extension Without Change Through September 30^th, 2017 or An Entirely New Bill Altogether By April 28, 2017?

Congress is debating a new bill that will change some of the things that are in this policy manual. The law was extended until April 28^th, of this year. Currently, people, or investors can file based on $900,000 investment that is in a TEA under the current rules that are in this policy manual. In addition, immigration came out with new rules on investment amounts, and they proposed that instead of $900,000 as in a TEA. They raised it dramatically to $1,350,000, if it was not in the TEA it went from $1.8 million to $1,800,000. These are extremely shocking, and surprising, and caught everybody off guard. People always thought it was going to go up to $800,000 from $900,000.

There is a comment period on that, and it is ninety days, and happened sometime in April. Therefore, a number of things could happen. During the comment period, immigration could say, “This is too high and the proposals relating to change within TEA need to be changed and modified”, and that will go into effect after reviewing them in the comment period, which may take another two to three months. It could also happen that Congress decides we are going to make the decision, and they may decide that the amount should be $850,000 or whatever Congress decides will control.

Congress also could move it to September 30^th, 2017,like they did last year,and then if that is the case, most likely whatever is finally decided on, immigration will become the effective law. There are many balls in the air, so to speak, and we will have to wait, and see how things work out.

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