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Extended wait times for I-526 processing isn’t news to the EB-5 industry. The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program has long been plagued with processing delays, including backlogs of qualified investors sitting…

As April 2021 approaches, the U.S. Department of State—Bureau of Consular Affairs has once again released a Visa Bulletin to inform waiting immigrant hopefuls of their place in queue. The…

The base-level requirement for every EB-5 investment participant is providing the minimum amount of capital to be invested. The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, first implemented in 1990, offers up the…

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is a residency-by-investment opportunity open to any foreign national with the means to meet the participation requirements. Its popularity stems from two completely different aspects…

A sanctions package passed in July 2020 by the United States Congress was designed to penalize banks conducting business with officials from China. It is called the Hong Kong Autonomy…

While 2020 will certainly go down in history as a volatile year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, for the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program and its thousands of active EB5 investment…

January 2021 nearly marks a year since COVID-19 emerged as a pandemic, sweeping the globe without mercy, economies and livelihoods just two of its clearest casualties. This illness continues to…

The contrast between the Biden administration and the Trump administration is stark. Compare the outright immigration bans throughout Trump’s last year in office to President Biden’s announcement within weeks of…

Nearly every government around the globe has restricted the personal freedoms of its citizens to control the public health crisis COVID-19 has caused. Adjustments in social benefits, travel restrictions, and…

In January 2021, well into FY2021, the EB-5 industry is only now seeing the impacts the volatile year that was FY2020, and things don’t seem to be getting better very…

For United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the fiscal year runs through September 30, and as calendar year 2020 came to a close, it was clear that the year…

Although United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has yet to release detailed data on petition processing for the last half of FY2020, as of January 12, 2021, statistics for…

One key program requirement for EB-5 investment participants is that all capital remain at risk for the duration of the investment period. Sometimes this means redeploying capital to maintain eligibility…

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is an opportunity for foreign investors to achieve permanent residency status in the United States through a qualifying EB-5 investment. This lawfully sourced investment of…

The February 2021 Visa Bulletin is out, and it’s another bout of bad news for most Chinese and Vietnamese nationals pursuing an EB-5 investment. 2021 is shaping up to be…

The need for reform in the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is no secret. Plagued with such issues as increasingly growing backlogs, confusing changes to redeployment policy, and incompetent—or deliberately inefficient—leadership…

Two years after the inception of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, the EB-5 Regional Center Program was formed and immediately began fielding the majority of EB-5 investment traffic, solidifying its…

In 2020, before assuming presidential office, Joe Biden announced his choice of Alejandro Mayorkas as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The day before President Biden’s inauguration, Mayorkas…

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has brought major changes to the worldwide economy, impacting nearly every market sector. Hiring freezes, layoffs, workforce reductions, global supply chain disruptions, travel and operational restrictions,…

2020 market trends for the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program point to South Africa as an emerging market for EB-5 investment. In just two years, the number of EB5 investment participants…

January 20, 2021, marks the dawn of a new era in the United States: President-Elect Joe Biden will assume the role of U.S. president. Following one of the most contentious…

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted both everyday life and the global economy. The hospitality, retail, and travel industries have experienced a downturn in the wake of the virus, while…

A simple, passive investment can earn foreign nationals the right to live, work, and study freely in the United States for the rest of their life. This is the offer…

When the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program was established in 1990, the intention was to revive in-need areas of the U.S. economy through the infusion of foreign capital, which would then…

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is one of the fastest and most attractive ways for foreign investors to achieve permanent residency status in the United States, for both themselves and…

The EB-5 investment program has seen an influx of H1-B visa candidates in recent years as a faster alternative to a permanent life in the United States. This was due…

The EB-5 visa investment program is an employment-based immigration system in the United States that allows a foreign national and their immediate family members, i.e. spouse and unmarried children under…

Sarah Kendall, Chief of the Immigrant Investor Program Office (IPO), led a two-week virtual EB-5 investment industry forum that began on November 10, 2020. The materials presented on the first…

1. What is an EB-5 visa? An EB-5 visa is an immigration visa for U.S. permanent residency, also known as a green card. An EB-5 visa is an employment-based green card that is…

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published Q3 data for FY2020 in November, and this recent information release isn’t painting an overly welcoming picture for EB-5 investment participants. This…

Chart B Advances for EB-2 and EB-3 On September 24, 2020, the Department of State (DOS) issued the October 2020 Visa Bulletin. With this bulletin, the Chart B dates for…

The State Department experienced significant publishing delays with the November 2020 Visa Bulletin but December’s bulletin, while still delayed, has come out more quickly. The industry is hopeful this indicates…

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)’s residency-by-investment initiative, the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, may be on the precipice of fundamental change following a federal court ruling that overturned EB-5…

The growing polarization of U.S. politics has made the 2020 presidential election contentious, to say the least. Even though Joe Biden has finally been declared the projected winner of this…

The October Visa Bulletin brought welcome news for EB-5 investors. For FY2021, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has nearly doubled the number of available employment-based visas to a…

Wealthier Investors On November 21, 2019, EB-5 investors saw an increase in the required investment amounts to $1.8 million, or $900,000 for a targeted employment area (TEA). But new TEA…

As of November 10, 2020, EB-5 investors who check the Case Processing Times page on the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services site for I-829 petitions may be in for…

Although each of the two journeys carries its own sets of pros and cons, all paths lead to a life in the United States – a highly sought after future…

When the October 2020 Visa Bulletin came out, the slow advancement of the final action dates for Chinese and Vietnamese EB-5 investors weren’t all that surprising. With the Visa Bulletin…

As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second wave, triggering a resurgence of lockdowns across Europe, immigration to the United States may be the last thing foreign investors are considering. But…

All projects approved through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program can be split into two geographical categories: those inside a targeted employment area (TEA) and those outside. The majority of foreign…

The year 2020 has been an unexpected rollercoaster of events for U.S. green card hopefuls who are participating in EB-5 investments. From extensive I-526 petition processing wait times and widespread…

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has always been up front about long processing times for EB-5 investment petitions. Two years isn’t an uncommon wait time for EB-5 investors,…

Barreling headlong into FY2021, the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program has, nevertheless, borne its own set of challenges in the wake of a global pandemic and the subsequent mental, physical, and…

EB5 Affiliate Network (EB5AN) has added several useful features to its interactive national targeted employment area (TEA) map. The map allows users to immediately see whether a project address is…

While the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is a popular path to U.S. permanent resident status for its speed and relative ease, parts of the program can be somewhat complex. Generally…

Beginning in August 2020, I-526 processing time ranges were split into two categories by United State Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). One range is assigned to Chinese EB-5 investor applicants,…

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is one of the fastest and easiest ways for foreign nationals to obtain permanent resident status in the United States. The program allows foreign nationals…

Household lockdowns en masse. Entire communities brought to an economic halt. Many businesses shuttered for good. This was the picture of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe in early 2020,…

Over the spiraling course of a pandemic-induced economic downturn in the United States, a handful of Republican senators have spoken out about employment-based visa programs, including the EB-5 program. Their…

In July 2020, United States Citizenship Immigration Services (USCIS) announced through a Policy Alert guideline updates for capital redeployment on EB-5 projects. The revisions, published in Volume 6, Part G,…

July 2020’s Visa Bulletin offers some long-awaited news to Indian EB-5 investors: The Indian final action date is finally current. Indian investors have long been subject to lengthy waits for…

No one foresaw the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has wreaked havoc on the world in ways no one could have predicted. The world has seemingly become a prison, with the…

Countries around the world have been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns. In June 2020, as the threat begins to subside in some countries, people can start…

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has shut down life in countries all over the world and ravaged economies from Europe to Asia, hasn’t been able to stop the EB-5 Immigrant Investor…

As the entire world contends with the unprecedented threat of COVID-19, the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program continues, allowing foreign nationals to gain a U.S. green card for an investment in…

The unfortunate reality is that life in many countries is unstable and uncertain. Corrupt governments, civil unrest, weak infrastructure, poor education, and economic volatility are some of the problems that…

U.S. employment-based visas are some of the most sought-after visas in the world. Every year, thousands of highly skilled immigrants from around the world flock to the United States on…

The historical national average processing time for I-526 petitions, as of February 29, 2020, sits at 12.9 months. Though this is a slight uptick from the 12.6 months prior to…

The sad reality is that health care in many countries is subpar. Across Africa and the poorer regions of Asia and Latin America, millions of people rely on faulty health…

With some of the best colleges in the world, the United States is where many high school graduates around the world set their sights. However, the process of immigrating to…

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program has felt the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, with the closure of U.S. embassies and consulates around the world and United States Citizenship and…

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) closed all its domestic offices to the public on March 18, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. All overseas U.S. embassies and…

I-526 Visa Availability Processing Approach On March 31, 2020, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) implemented the visa availability approach for processing I-526 petitions. Whether this new approach will…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the EB-5 program, as evidenced by the closure of U.S. embassies and consulates abroad and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)…

The U.S. Department of State — Bureau of Consular Affairs has released May 2020’s Visa Bulletin, and much to the delight of Indian EB-5 investors, it reveals that the Indian…

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) implemented a new visa availability processing approach for I-526 petitions on March 31, 2020. Prior to this, I-526 petitions were processed using a…

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, which offers foreign nationals the opportunity to obtain U.S. permanent resident status through an investment in the U.S. economy, has not escaped the far-reaching effects…

I-526 processing times are not consistent. I-526 petitions contain a wide range of information and supplementary documents that differ dramatically from investor to investor, which means not all I-526 petitions…

The purpose of the EB-5 “at risk” eligibility requirement is to ensure that an EB-5 investor’s investment capital is actually used to fund a new commercial enterprise (NCE) that will…

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) implemented the EB-5 Modernization Rule in 2019. The new rule resulted in major changes to the EB-5 visa program, as well as a…

For parents around the world, making the decision to leave their birth country can be difficult—with friends, family, business contacts, and more, they would be leaving a lot behind, and…

COVID-19 is the most devastating disease outbreak the world has seen since the Spanish Flu. While less deadly than some other outbreaks, the virus has left almost no country on…

The COVID-19 pandemic rages on, and as the number of infections rises, so too does the unemployment rate. The crisis has particularly impacted certain industries, such as real estate and…

In today’s tightly connected world, viruses can travel farther and more quickly than ever before, as evidenced by the novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 respiratory illness. What began in…

There’s one observation that can’t be missed when you look at the EB-5 processing statistics from the past decade: FY2019 broke the trend and recorded incredibly low I-526 petition processing…

In recent months, EB-5 demand in India has dropped significantly, which improves the situation for the Indian investors already participating in the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. According to United States…

The EB-5 Visa Bulletin for April 2020 from the Department of State — Bureau of Consular Affairs is out. April is the first month of United States Citizenship and Immigration…

We probably have the Freedom of Information Act to thank for the release of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)’s I-526 and I-829 processing data for the first quarter…

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)’s March 13 public engagement on the new visa availability approach to the processing of I-526 petitions offered valuable insights into how the EB-5…

If you’re a foreign investor dreaming of a life in the United States, the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program might be just the program you’ve been looking for. In exchange for…

As with any government program, the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is subject to continuous changes in its regulations and processing methods as implemented by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services…

Indian EB-5 investors will have a new obstacle to wrestle with come April 1, 2020: a new 5% tax on remittances out of India, announced recently by the Indian government.…

Every year, thousands of foreign investors from around the world invest in the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program in hopes of obtaining U.S. permanent residency for themselves and their families. Each…

Unfortunately, the answer is typically longer than EB-5 investors would like. Despite the long wait times, however, the ability to obtain a green card for the United States is worth…

The Report of the Visa Office 2019 has been released by the U.S. Department of State. It provides a summary of the number of EB-5 visas issued, as well as…

One of the most popular reasons EB-5 investors choose to participate in the EB-5 visa program is to ensure a better future for their children in the United States. As…

The reasons why foreign investors decide to invest in the EB-5 program are numerous, as each investor’s situation is different, but they all have the same general goal: obtaining a…

Recently, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) amended the regulations for the EB-5 investor program, creating what is possibly the most dramatic changes the program has ever seen…

Navigating the changes to the EB-5 program published in the Federal Register in July 2019 is challenging considering the length and complexity of the Final Rule. Nevertheless, current and future…

A comprehensive EB-5 modernization bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate by three Republican senators who aim to strengthen the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. The proposed bill offers a…

Samuel Silverman, Managing Partner of EB5 Affiliate Network, discusses the introduction of a new initiative that promises to protect EB-5 investors’ funds in the event of an I-526 application denial.…

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program benefits both the U.S. economy and foreign investors desiring permanent residency in America. The program facilitates job growth in America by foreign capital creating new…

It doesn’t take a lot of research to see that American immigration policy is becoming somewhat volatile. Investors want to stay informed and manage risks with EB-5 investments. It helps…

With rapid and drastic changes in U.S. immigration policies, foreign nationals seeking permanent residency find the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program to be their best resource. The recent tightening of…

There have never been more varied or higher quality EB-5 investment projects available than there are today. Less than 10 years ago, EB-5 equity and financing investments were considered to…

El Programa EB-5 — también conocido como Programa de Inversionistas Inmigrantes — es un programa de visas de los Estados Unidos que otorga el estatus de residente permanente legal (LPR)…

El programa EB-5 no es uno para apresurarse con los ojos medio abiertos. Es un proceso que requiere mucho tiempo y una cantidad sustancial de dinero y compromiso. Antes de…

El Programa de Inversionistas Inmigrantes EB-5 no es para los débiles de corazón. Si bien el programa es una forma ideal para que los extranjeros obtengan rápidamente el estatus de…

The EB-5 visa program, launched in 1990, is a relatively simple way for investors with the necessary capital to move to the United States permanently and eventually become citizens, if…

Common Obstacles Faced by EB-5 Investors The EB-5 Program, while providing many benefits to the U.S. economy and investors alike, is not without its challenges. Program investors may encounter several…

Permanent Resident Status through the EB-5 Investor Program Foreign nationals who choose to participate in the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program have obtaining permanent resident status in the United States as…

An Overview of U.S. Citizenship There are two ways to be classified as a U.S. citizen: being born into citizenship and becoming a naturalized citizen. Children who are either born…

Due Diligence in EB-5 Investments Within the EB-5 program, conducting due diligence with a thorough investigation of the EB-5 project and major players and the regional center that will be…

Planning for Taxation This section recommends several strategies that EB-5 immigrant investors can use when planning for the taxes they will be assessed following immigration and resident status. Be aware…

Taxation in the United States The U.S. taxation system is somewhat unique in that it requires legal residents to not only pay income tax on income obtained in the United…

The Importance of Retaining Separate Representation To protect the interests of both investors and regional centers, it is recommended that each party retain their own immigration attorney for advisement during…

Outline of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program The employment-based 5th preference visa program, more commonly known as the EB-5 Program, was established as part of the Immigration Act of 1990…

EB-5 Investment Options The EB-5 program was originally designed to stimulate the U.S. economy through foreign capital and job creation within the United States. It has since become a program…

Steps to Becoming a Permanent U.S. Resident Through the EB-5 Program The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa program was established in 1990 to provide an opportunity for foreign nationals to become…

Permanent Resident and Temporary Resident Statuses: EB-5 and E-2 Investment Visas The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa and the E-2 Treaty Investor Visa are two types of visas offered to foreign…

Evaluating Projects with Immigration Risks in Mind When evaluating a project for a potential EB-5 investment, investors should keep two important questions in mind: Is the project likely to see…

Evaluating Immigration Risk in EB-5 Projects There are two categories of risk involved in an EB-5 investment: immigration risk and financial risk. Immigration risk involves the possibility that the investor…

Evaluating Financial Risk There are two categories of risk involved in an EB-5 investment: immigration risk and financial risk. Immigration risk involves the possibility that the investor will not be…

When Material Changes are Necessary On occasion, EB-5 projects do not proceed exactly as outlined in the original project description. While in general all reasonable efforts are made to remain…