New I-526 form, new I-RIMS product, I-924a, new RCs (AL, AZ, CA, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, KS, LA, MS, MT, NH, NJ, NV, NY, OR, PA, RI, TX, WA, WI)

October has been a busy month in the business plan department; apologies to frequent blog visitors. Here’s what I think you should know of recent happenings.

New I-526
USCIS has issued a new version of the I-526 form and instructions (09/24/13 edition). Previous versions of the form will only be accepted through the end of this year, so bookmark http://www.uscis.gov/i-526 instead of using what you have on file. If you accidentally use an old form, you’ll file in the wrong place. (The new I-526 instructions don’t give a filing address but direct petitioners to consult the USCIS website for an address – currently the Dallas Lockbox facility). Otherwise, the new I-526 doesn’t look dramatically different from the previous editions.

New I-RIMS Product
The IMPLAN Group, creator the IMPLAN methodology used by many RC economic impact studies, has stepped up to create a new product that works like the BEA’s now-discontinued RIMS II system, only using IMPLAN data sets. This looks like good news for the many RCs that liked RIMS II and hoped to continue using familiar methodologies even as the BEA is no longer providing updated data sets. For more information, see the IMPLAN Group page on 2011 I-RIMS Data, and an article on the IIUSA blog “New IMPLAN “I-RIMS” Product Introduced & Available as Alternative to RIMS II.” To refresh your memory about what happened to RIMS II, see the BEA’s notice on Impact of Sequestration Reductions on the Availability and Quality of Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

I-924a Reminder
Approved Regional Centers, don’t forget that the clock is ticking for you to file a Form I-924a for fiscal year 2013. See http://www.uscis.gov/i-924a and http://www.uscis.gov/forms/questions-and-answers-form-i-924a. If you don’t file by December 29, USCIS will contact you in the Spring with a nice letter threatening to terminate your RC. IIUSA has had a chance to see the I-924as filed in 2011 and 2012, and is hosting what should be a very useful webinar on 11/19/2013 on
“3rd Year of Regional Center Annual Reporting on Form I-924A.” To participate, sign up at
http://eventcallregistration.com/reg/index.jsp?cid=41196t11

Other useful items

• IIUSA has another promising webinar on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 at 1pm on the subject of “EB-5 Bridge Financing & Escrow Options.” Register at: http://eventcallregistration.com/reg/index.jsp?cid=41195t11
• Those of you concerned with keeping securities registration exemptions may benefit from Steven Anapoell’s helpful article on “Determining Whether a Potential Investor is a Resident or Non-Resident for Securities Law Purposes”
• Speaking of keeping on the right side of the SEC, if you are a Regional Center principal, please pick up the phone right now and make two calls: one to your website designer to temporarily disable your RC’s website, and one to your favorite attorney to review the website content before it can go back up again. I recently checked a lot of websites in process of refreshing my Regional Center directory, and was torn between suspicion of the mysterious RCs with no web presence and sorrow on behalf of those RCs whose websites are full of content that could get them into trouble. I can see that websites are often left to innocents in the marketing department who have no idea which pretty pictures, useful information, and careless word choice could derail the RC and all its offerings. Don’t let that happen to you!

New Regional Centers
I have decided to quietly update my Regional Center directory as I receive new information, and to announce new RC names only in occasional posts. If I have contact info or other detail about these Regional Centers, you’ll find it in my directory. I also started a log of recent Regional Center approval letters to track information of interest to me (the length of I-924 processing times, the number of approvals based on actual vs. hypothetical projects, the economic methodologies being approved, and so on). To date I am only able to link to letters for 46 of the 179 Regional Centers approved (by my count) so far in 2013, but I will continue to update the log as I get additional information. Maybe one day these public licenses will all be made publicly available! Thank you to Regional Centers that have shared their letters. Note also that the IIUSA Regional Center Directory includes relatively comprehensive listings for all IIUSA-member RCs.

New entries to the list of approved Regional Centers at www.uscis.gov/eb-5centers from 9/24/2013 to 10/28/2013

• Encore Alabama/Florida Regional Center (Alabama, Florida)
• America West Regional Center, LLC (Arizona)
• California International Regional Center LLC (California)
• Sierra Air Center Development, LLC (California)
• Invest New Hampshire Regional Center, LLC (New Hampshire)
  
• Wisconsin-Illinois EB-5 Regional Center, Inc. (Wisconsin, Illinois)
• Live in America – Philadelphia Regional Center LLC (Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania)
  
• MCIG Regional Center (Florida)
  
• Miami Metropolitan Regional Center (Florida)
• Palm Beach Raceway LLC (Florida)
• EB-5 Ameri-Holdings, LLC (Georgia)
  
• Southwest Kansas Regional Center (Kansas)
• Encore Louisiana Regional Center (Louisiana)
• LIGTT Regional Center (Louisiana, Mississippi)
• Pacific Northwest EB-5 Regional Center (Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington)
  
• US EB5 Nevada Regional Center, LLC (Nevada)
• Greater New York Regional Center (New York)
• NYC Mayflower Regional Center, Inc. (New York)
• Tri-State USA Regional Center (New York)
• U.S. Business Regional Center Inc. (New York)
• APIC Regional Center, LLC (Oregon)
• Pathway Capital Partners LLC (Rhode Island)
• Ariel International Regional Center, LLC (Texas)
• Greater Houston Investment Center, LLC (Texas)
• Greater Houston Regional Center, LLC (Texas)
• US Freedom Capital-Texas, LLC (Texas)
• EB-5 Blaine Tomorrow Regional Center, LLC (Washington)
• WWUV Woodinville Regional Center (Washington)