2014 Events, EB-5 Stats, New AAO Decisions, New RCs (CA, CO, FL, GU, MD)

EB-5 Events
It’s time to sign up for the best EB-5 event of the year: IIUSA 7th Annual EB-5 Regional Economic Development Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C. May 7-9, 2014. I look forward to seeing you there! Also notice the IIUSA 2014 Webinar Series, with monthly webinars on topics including industry advocacy, securities laws, due diligence, retrogression, economic impact analysis, EB-5 in the capital stack, adjudication trends, TEAs, I-924a, and escrow and fund administration. The IIUSA webinars last year were substantive and timely, and I look forward to this new series.

EB-5 Statistics
If you’re interested in trends in receipts, approvals, and denials of EB-5 petitions, see: “IIUSA Obtains I-526/829/924 Adjudication Data for FY2013, Releases Comprehensive Dataset (1991-2013).” The FY2013 data shows a growth in receipts over 2012 of 8% for I-526 petitions, 71% for I-829 petitions, and 82% for I-924 applications. USCIS already doubled the number of approved Regional Centers in FY2013 by approving 220 applications, and – unless many of those 436 new I-924s received in 2013 were amendments – RCs will be facing a very crowded field moving forward. We’re on track to hit the annual EB-5 visa allocation cap of around 10,000 based on filings, with the only uncertainty being whether USCIS can manage to process enough I-526s in one year to make that happen (and whether processing times will speed up enough that Chinese investors would even notice being retrogressed). As with most things in EB-5, this issue is complicated. If you want to read more, see “Department of State Predicts EB-5 Visa Retrogression for China” on the EB-5 Insights Blog and “FAQs on EB-5 Quota Backlog” by Ron Klasko.

New AAO Decisions
Since last time I checked, USCIS has uploaded 18 new 2013 AAO decisions on I-525 cases. (May 24 to June 18, and September 23 to November 15). Besides RFEs, which aren’t public, AAO decisions are my best chance to see what’s going on behind the scenes with adjudications and current policy applications. For me, the most interesting decisions in this batch are SEP232013_01B7203, which addresses a Regional Center’s attempt to claim deference to prior approvals, refers extensively to the 5/30 policy memo, and considers what amendments mean; JUN052013_01B7203, which withdraws the director’s assessment of a business plan’s credibility; and MAY242013_01B7203, which discusses which business activities prior to I-526 filing will help the investment to qualify as “fully invested and placed at risk.” Nearly all AAO decisions on I-526 cases include a section on source of funds problems. People involved in that area may particularly want to read JUN182013_03B7203, which goes into detail on what went wrong with a typical China source of funds scenario involving real estate. Or for comedy, you can review MAY242013_02B7203, which treats a petition for investment in a business that will trade in healthcare products and/or operate a restaurant and/or import textiles and/or export fly traps and avocado oil.

New RCs
New entries to USCIS’s Regional Center list 12/30/2013 to 1/22/2014
Live in America-California Regional Center (California)
U.S. Gateway Regional Center, LLC (California)
InvestAmerica EB-5, LLC (Colorado)
My Florida Regional Center, LLC (Florida)
E Development Corporation dba EDC (Guam)
Birch MD BioPark Regional Center (Maryland) USCIS Approval Letter