USCIS EB-5 Training Materials (April 2015)
February 22, 2017 Leave a comment
I just noticed that the FOIA Reading Room on the USCIS website contains a 458-page document with presentations used by IPO in April 2015 to train EB-5 adjudicators. I may be the last person to notice? In case not, I’ve sketched out a Table of Contents and highlights below. The presentations are dated (especially now that the 11/2016 Policy Manual has replaced the 5/2013 Policy Memo and other guidance referenced in this training), but still quite interesting, especially for the examples. Also, because some currently-active adjudicators were trained on this. I’m especially intrigued by the section starting on page 383, which describes a process and checklist used by IPO economists when reviewing regional center I-526 petitions.
| Presentation Title | Pages | Select points of interest (with PDF page numbers) |
| Capital at Risk | 1 – 37 | Indebtedness Analysis (6-9), list of red flags for investment (17), comment on shielding risk (20), evidence of business activity (23), comment on construction reserves not at risk (24), examples of redemption agreements and guaranteed returns (25-26), examples of permissible and impermissible escrow conditions and holdback conditions (29-32) |
| Comprehensive Business Plan | 38 – 56 | Definition of credibility (47), list of expected supporting documents (48), explanation of labor division between economists and adjudicators in business plan review (50), reminder that IPO reviews the business plan for evidence of capital at risk, not only for job creation (52), list of problems common to business plans not prepared by Suzanne Lazicki (53) |
| Child Status Protection Act | 57 – 76 | Explains CSPA age calculation and its effect under visa retrogression |
| DHS Overview | 77 – 99 | Discusses coordination with other agencies (95-96) |
| Direct Job Creation | 100 – 130 | Reminder to adjudicators to require evidence of any existing employment at the I-526 stage (121) |
| EB-5 Overview | 131 – 184 | Indication that I-924 and I-924A are adjudicated by IPO economists not adjudicators (165-166), stats on petitions received, approved, and denied and visas issued from 2005 to 2014 (175-178) |
| Indirect Job Creation for Adjudicators | 185 – 210 | Clarifies that “economically direct jobs” are one of the three types of indirect job creation estimated by economic models (194); discusses of reasonable inputs (198, 203); comments on model-derived construction jobs (205) and tenant occupancy (206) |
| Introduction to Standalone I-526 Adjudication | 211 – 247 | Mainly just summarizes policy |
| IPO Overview | 248 – 281 | IPO organizational chart (263) and explanation of IPO roles and duties (264-276) |
| In-Depth Lawful Source of Capital Issues | 282 – 338 | Examples of unlawful means (291), examples of income evidence (301-305), how to analyze funds derived from real property (307-312), how to analyze shareholder loans as source of funds (313-315), how to analyze gifts as source of funds (322-325), OFAC and FinCEN |
| Formation of an NCE and Active Management | 339 – 382 | Examples of expansion to establish an NCE (350-351), active management example (356-358), ULPA limited partner powers in LP (359) and LLC (370) |
| Reviewing the Economist Due Diligence Summary | 383 – 400 | This entire section is extremely interesting, describing how IPO economists review regional center applications and regional center investor petitions. Immigration attorneys may want to pre-emptively structure their case summaries according to the economist checklist described in this presentation |
| Targeted Employment Area | 401 – 423 | Comments that state TEA designation letters are usually valid for one year from the date of the letter (414) |
| USCIS Overview | 424 – 458 | Just an organizational overview |
EB-5 Updates 