Legislative Update, Due Diligence, New I-485, New RCs

Legislative Update
We are now less than a month from December 12, when the Regional Center program will sunset if it doesn’t get another reauthorization. It’s possible that the program could get temporarily extended as part of the appropriations bill that also needs to get passed by December 11 (which would mean extension with no change through 9/30/2016), or there might be stand-alone legislation with some significant changes and reform as well as reauthorization, or our representatives might let the program lapse for a while because they haven’t worked out appropriate legislation in time but don’t want to see simple extension. Grassley, Corker, and Johnson sent a letter on 11/6 to Senate leadership saying that they oppose a straight reauthorization of the EB-5 Regional Center program in the anticipated appropriations bill that will cover fiscal year 2016, and advocate instead to continue the program together with measures to increase accountability and better guard against fraud and abuse. We wish they would hustle to formulate such measures. Grassley and Leahy have been quietly circulating a revised draft of S. 1501 (IIUSA has a copy, as do select real estate industry executives according to the Wall Street Journal Washington Wire blog). I’ve read the draft but decided not to comment here until it gets officially proposed. The new draft is significantly clarified and toned down from the original bill, though still a game-changer. But will passable legislation be proposed in time to make any difference? If only Washington worked more efficiently!

Due Diligence
I appreciated the article “EB-5 Due Diligence Matters” (November 3, 2015) by Douglas Hauer, John Nucci, and Peter Saparoff of Mintz Levin. The authors discuss the legal requirements for due diligence investigations and give practice pointers.

Form I-485 Update
USCIS has published new editions of the Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status and Supplements

New Regional Centers
Additions to the USCIS Regional Center List, 11/02/2015 to 11/12/2015

• EB5 Capital Oregon Regional Center (Oregon, Washington): www.eb5capital.com
• Empire Regional Center, LLC (New Jersey, New York)
• Great Southern Regional Center (Georgia, South Carolina)
• North Valley Regional Center (California)
• Proficiency Regional Center LLC (California)