Updates from Most Recent USCIS Stakeholder Call

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had an EB-5 stakeholder call today. Key takeaways from my side were:

• The new EB-5 leadership team seems to have some interesteing plans to accelerate adjudications. Some details were discussed on the call and we will be watching closely to see how the existing plans progress.
• The USCIS economist on the call gave clear guidance that EB-5 investment funds must move through the Job Creating Enterprise (JCE) before being used to pay off bank loans. We expect this policy to be challenged in court as it is causing issues for some projects, but the USCIS economist was very clear on USCIS’ opinion for the time being.
• USCIS is aiming to finalize new EB-5 regulations by April 20, 2018. At present, our expectation based on what we are hearing from Washington is that the TEA investment amount will be set at $925,000 at that point. However, USCIS is currently proposing an increase in the TEA investment amount to $1,350,000 so we are watching this closely to understand where the new regulations will come out.

As always, please contact us if you are looking for advice on an EB-5 application.