Implications of Final Policy Memo

For the convenience of those wondering what’s new in the final EB-5 Adjudications Policy Memorandum released today, I have uploaded the previous 02/14/2013 draft version and the final 5/30/2013 memo with significant additions highlighted by me.

Spoiler alert: this final memo has some nice clarifications on issues like escrow outside the US and bridge financing, keeps a few of the mysterious provisions from the previous version (does anyone understand the logic of Section V(D)  on Material Change, or how the author understands “indirect” jobs?), and drops one major bomb regarding the nature of Regional Centers. The new memo tells us the following about Regional Center applications and approvals from now on (see  pages 14-15, 22-27):

• The I-924 Regional Center application can be a general proposal based on general predictions, and need not include a Matter of Ho-compliant business plan unless project pre-approval is desired;
• Organizational and transactional documents will not be reviewed for compliance in the I-924 application, unless the applicant specifically requests I-526 exemplar approval;
• Once having been approved, a Regional Center is free to sponsor investments that are outside its approved industries of focus, outside its previously-presented economic methodologies, and even outside its designated geographic boundaries. (!?!)  Amendments are encouraged but not required.

I’m dazed. The implications of these points are so great that I hardly know how to credit them. Do they reflect considered policy that will actually be implemented, or hasty expression of a general (laudable) desire to promote flexibility? I can’t tell whether the memo author has a vision for what a Regional Center approval does mean, what the Regional Center application/designation process is designed to do, or how/if the requirements of 8 CFR 204.6 (e) or the I-924 Instructions apply to “hypothetical” I-924 filings as described by the memo. I wonder what the adjudicators are going to make of this memo, if they read it.

I will continue to update this post as commentary on the memo emerges around the web.

• Perspectives on New EB-5 Policy Memo: Promise and Possibility By Dawn Lurie on May 30, 2013
• Key Points from USCIS EB-5 Policy Memo published May 30, 2013 By Robert C. Divine on May 30, 2013
• USCIS Issues Final EB-5 Policy Memo By Jennifer Hermansky on May 31st, 2013
• Joseph Whalen’s Comments
• Immigration Progress: A Good EB-5 Policy Memo Could Still Be Better By Angelo A. Paparelli on June 09, 2013
• New USCIS EB-5 Policy Memorandum Mostly Gets It Right By H. Ronald Klasko on June 14, 2013
• New Ground Forged by the May 30, 2013 EB-5 Policy Memorandum (Part 2)” By H. Ronald Klasko