New EB-5 Law Being Circulated in Congress

A New EB-5 Bill is Being Reviewed In Congress

A new EB-5 bill is making its rounds in Congress this week. In order to fund the government past March 23rd, Congress will need to pass a continuing resolution, and this new EB-5 bill’s supporters are hoping to attach it to this resolution. The proposed bill would make meaningful changes to the current Regional Center program including:

• Increasing rural and priority area investment amounts to $925,00
• Increasing the non-priority urban area investment amount to $1,025,000
• Extend the EB-5 Regional Center statute
• Raise the job creation requirement in most areas from 10 jobs to 12 jobs
• Implement a 120-day moratorium on filing new I-526s

These are significant changes and we are keeping an eye on the bill’s progress to get a sense of what to expect in the coming weeks.

The EB-5 Quota for Vietnam is Expected to Backlog 

We expect the Department of State’s April visa bulletin to show that the EB-5 preference category has reached the annual visa allotment for Vietnam. For Vietnamese EB-5 investors this may mean that they will have a waiting time to attain their visa number. Combined with processing times, this means that Vietnamese EB-5 investors may be looking at a longer EB-5 application process than individuals from many other countries.

Shifts May Be Underway for I-829 Dependents

Colleagues of mine have been noticing USCIS deploying some new procedures for dependents of principals with pending I-829 applications to obtain proof of lawful status. It appears that some people are being told to seek I-551 temporary green card stamps, rather than getting extension stickers from the Application Support Center. This may cause issues for I-829 dependents, so we are continuing to speak with colleagues around the country to understand what they are seeing.