New Regional Centers (CA, FL, NY)

May 19, 2011 Leave a comment

The USCIS list of approved Regional Centers has been updated (most recently as of 5/26) with three new centers.

Wave House California Regional Center, LLC
Geographic Scope: The County of San Diego, California
Industries:  Concert Venue; Full Service Restaurant; Nightclubs, Alcoholic Beverage; Hotels; Water parks, Amusement Parks

The Lake Point EcoVentures Regional Center  
Geographic Scope: Martin, Palm Beach, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties in the State of Florida
Industries: Rock mining; Mineral extraction; Wetlands and ecosystem restoration; Rock and sand processing facilities; Rebuilding the Herbert Hoover Dike on Lake Okeechobee; Water Restoration; Water purification systems; Storm water treatment areas; Farming activities; Land management and Renovation of Lake Okeechobee

North Country EB-5 Regional Center LLC
Geographic Scope: Essex, Clinton and Franklin counties in the State of New York
Industries: Transportation; Real Estate Development & Leasehold Improvements; Manufacturing & Trade; Technology

Also note that FFC-East Bay RC in California has changed its name to San Francisco Bay RC.

Processing times for the California Service Center have been updated as of 5/17. The CSC still reports five months for I-526 petitions and six months for I-829 petitions, and that they are now starting to process I-485 filed on September 16, 2010. The list unfortunately does not report Regional Center proposal processing times. A bit of anecdotal evidence: The North County EB-5 RC approved today reports having filed its proposal in October. I know of one new RC proposal filed in November that got approved in March, and another (a very good proposal) filed last August that finally heard back this May. Go figure.

Filed under New RC, Updates from USCIS

New EB-5 pages at uscis.gov

May 18, 2011 Leave a comment

USCIS has updated its EB-5 pages, with useful information for investors and enterprises including a new page specific to the Regional Center program and a page devoted to the EB-5 process. I’m interested to note that the agency carefully explains what “approval” from USCIS does and doesn’t mean, and provides an email address for reporting fraud and misrepresentation. I’m also happy to see that the I-924 forms are now accessible from the EB-5 home page.

Filed under Updates from USCIS

EB-5 gossip from Washington DC

May 10, 2011 Leave a comment

The IIUSA EB-5 conference that I attended today in Washington DC was very interesting, useful, and depressing. Many EB-5 luminaries were there, as speakers  and in the audience, and though we gathered to advocate for the EB-5 program the event was more pity party than rally. I heard this message: that EB-5 has wonderful promise for businesses, immigrants, and the American economy but is endangered by the carelessness, caprice, inconsistencies, and irresponsibility of USCIS.

I particularly appreciated the panel including Robert C. Divine, H. Ronald Klasko, and Stephen Yale-Loehr, who together have no rival in knowledge of the EB-5 program past and present. A few interesting tidbits from their presentation:

  • According to a recent AILA EB-5 Committee call with Director Mayorkas, CIS is hiring additional staff with professional backgrounds relevant to EB-5 including economists, business analysts, and economic development specialists.
  • The call also revealed that “in a week or two” the service will be publishing for comment a proposed new review process for I-924 forms and exemplar I-526 petitions. According to this new process, instead of issuing a written RFE the adjudicator would issue a “hearing notice” for a face-to-face interview with the applicant.
  • In the last six months these attorneys have been seeing RFEs they never saw before, particularly related to source of funds. They also reported several instances of RFEs that seemed to suggest that the adjudicator hadn’t read the petition. The panel speculated that this might be due to the recent influx of new adjudicators at USCIS, the bent of the adjudicator training materials toward emphasizing bases for RFEs and denials, and possibly some internal evidence of fraud in the program inspiring increased scrutiny. AILA, by the way, has pointedly reposted a 1/6/05 memo by USCIS Director of Service Center Operations, Fujie O. Ohata, providing guidance to service centers limiting the use of requests for evidence not supported by the INA, the regulations, or form instructions.

The panel discussions on SEC issues and economic analysis were also very interesting, and left me as usual with the impression that most marketing strategies and economic analyses out there are severely flawed. I’m always seeing marketers and analyses doing just the things that these experts say one shouldn’t do, or omitting what’s said to be essential, and I don’t know how to interpret this. Am I just running into diversity of opinion, or are a lot of big mistakes in fact being made out there? If even we practitioners can’t agree on what works, what can we expect from USCIS adjudicators? I worry particularly about economic analyses because so much depends on them. Businesses will have huge headaches and families will get deported if the I-829 stage arrives and it’s not clear how to apply and back up the job counts projected by the economist. I would have loved to hear the economists speak a few more hours and take questions from the audience on how to properly apply the various methodologies in specific cases.

I left the conference feeling informed and saddened, and to cheer myself up finished the day with a pilgrimage to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the government agency that makes me proud to be an American taxpayer.

Filed under EB-5 Events, Updates from USCIS

New Regional Center (ND, MN)

April 21, 2011 Leave a comment

The USCIS list of approved Regional Centers has been updated as of 4/21 with one interesting new center, a first for both North Dakota and Minnesota. The website link associates it with the University of North Dakota Center for Innovation, and I assume that EB-5 investment will soon be added to the “Entrepreneur Financing” options offered by the center. If the applicants had called me prior to filing their proposal I might have responded with cold water — alerting them that a geographic range covering all of one state and part of another is difficult for an economic analysis based on multipliers, and cautioning them about including such a wide range of broadly defined industries, each of which will have to be illustrated by a sample project and narrowed enough to enable job counts. Fortunately they didn’t call me, and what do you know this center has been approved. Congrats UND!

UND Center for Innovation Foundation Regional Center (www.innovators.net)
Geographic Scope: The entire State of North Dakota and 20 counties in Northwestern Minnesota, which includes Kittson, Roseau, Marshall, Pennington, Beltrami, Red Lake, Polk, Norman, Clay, Otter Tail, Douglas, Pope, Traverse, Stevens, Wilkin, Becker, Mahnomen, Clearwater, Grant and Lake of the Woods.
Industries: Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting; Manufacturing; Construction Machinery Manufacturing; Mining Machinery Manufacturing; Aerospace Product & Parts Manufacturing; Information; Research and Development in Biotechnology; Electric Power Transmission, Control and Distribution; Real Estate

Filed under New RC

CSC processing times 3/14

March 15, 2011 3 Comments

USCIS has posted CSC processing times  as of 3/14. According to this report, the California Service Center is currently processing 1-526 petitions filed 8/31/2010 and I-485 petitions filed 7/16/2010. The I-829 petition still has an estimated processing time of six months.

I recently spoke with two RC applicants who heard back from USCIS in February. One got approval for a new RC proposal filed in October 2010; another got an RFE on a proposal filed in July 2010. USCIS says that it processes petitions in the order they are received, but apparently the length of the processing time can vary widely. Another reason to make your proposal just as clear and tight as possible so that it’s easy for USCIS to review.

 

Filed under New RC, Updates from USCIS

New EB-5 info posted at USCIS.gov

March 14, 2011 Leave a comment

Just in time for this week’s quarterly EB-5 stakeholders meeting, USCIS has posted an Executive Summary for the 12/16/2010 meeting.  In addition to summarizing the content of the Meeting Presentation, this summary provides information from the Q&A session. A few highlights:

On the volume of Regional Center proposal filings, and high percentage of denials:
USCIS shared regional center filing receipts and final case actions in fiscal year 2010 highlighting that that 110 initial regional center proposals were received, 36 regional center proposals were approved while 30 were denied.  Also received in fiscal year 2010 were 42 amended regional center proposal filings, typically to modify the scope or activity to be conducted in a previously approved regional center. In the week prior to the implementation of the new forms, USCIS received 100 regional center initial and amended proposals, which equates to 65% of all regional center filings in FY 2010.  USCIS advised participants that the adjudication of this high volume of case filings will have an impact on processing times for Form I-924, Application for Regional Center under the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program.

Emphasizing the importance of the I-526 business plan:
At the I-526 stage, the agency is focused on analyzing whether the investment will create the required jobs within the conditional permanent residence period and in some limited instances within a reasonable time thereafter. What is most compelling at the I-526 stage is to have a solid business plan that transparently describes how the requisite jobs are going to be created within that timeframe.

On the question of whether it’s permissible to use EB-5 funds to pay off a loan:
If the project has essentially concluded and EB-5 capital is simply going to replace debt in which the jobs are already created through non EB-5 capital, this does not make a compelling argument that jobs were created as a result of the investment.

Filed under EB-5 Events, EB-5 Law & Policy, EB-5 Resources, Updates from USCIS

New Info from USCIS 12/16 EB-5 Stakeholder Meeting

December 16, 2010 Leave a comment

USCIS has posted a very informative PowerPoint Presentation for the 12/16 EB-5 Teleconference.  Here is an outline of the topics covered.

  • Regional Center Statistics
  • Regional Center Filing Receipts and Final Case Actions FY10
  • EB-5 Individual Petition Filing Receipts for FY05-FY10
  • Form I-526 Petition and Final Actions for FY05-FY10
  • Form I-829 Petition and Final Actions for FY05-FY10
  • EB-5 Visa Usage
  • FY10 EB-5 Visa Usage by Country
  • EB-5 Case Processing
  • EB-5 Data Reporting
  • Up-coming revisions to Form I-526 and I-829
  • EB-5 Staffing Increase at the CSC
  • Future Posting of 2010 EB-5 Training Materials and EB-5 FAQ
  • About Maintaining Jobs in a Troubled Business
  • Issues with Office of Foreign Assets Control and investors from Iran
  • Issue of Sustaining the Capital Investment (new guidance here!)
  • EB-5 Status Issues
  • TEA Issues

Filed under EB-5 Events, EB-5 Statistics, Updates from USCIS

New Regional Center (MD)

December 16, 2010 Leave a comment

The USCIS list of approved regional centers has been updated as of today 12/16 with one new center, the first for the State of Maryland. This brings the grand total of RCs approved in November and December to three, with well over a hundred new proposals pending.

Maryland Center for Foreign Investment, LLC
Geographic Scope: Counties of Baltimore City, Baltimore, Carroll, Hartford, Anne Arundel, Prince George’s and Howard in the State of Maryland
Industries: Commercial Real Estate Development; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation

Filed under New RC

Nearly 200 new RC applications/amendments pending?

December 9, 2010 Leave a comment

I just received this sobering update through IIUSA, an EB-5 trade organization:

A CSC Case Officer has reported, via response to the EB-5 Program e-mailbox, that over 100 Regional Center applications/amendments were received by the CSC prior to the 11/23/10 deadline to avoid the new filing fee.

At the 10/14 EB-5 stakeholder’s meeting, USCIS reported 83 RC proposals and 11 amendment requests pending. If these “over 100” applications received by 11/23 are in addition to those 94 pending, that’s a lot of applications! What is this going to do to processing times? What will happen to the market? We already have over 100 approved regional centers. How many more offerings can the market take? Are there enough wealthy risk-tolerant potential immigrants to go around? I also wonder about the quality of all those proposals rushed in under the deadline. Can I look forward to doing a brisk business in helping people respond to RFEs, or should I retreat to grant-writing assuming an EB-5 bust on the horizon? California Service Center, how would you like to hire an EB-5 business plan expert as an adjudicator? Make me an offer!

Filed under EB-5 Statistics, New RC

USCIS gives Chinese-language introduction to the EB-5 program

December 1, 2010 2 Comments

The official USCIS blog has posted an introduction of the EB-5 program. The most interesting aspect of this post is that it originated in an article in Chinese published as part of a “You Ask: USCIS Answers” series in The Epoch Times. I wonder if the translation choices in this article should be taken as standard (ie 区域中心 not 经济特区 for “regional center”). Regional Center promoters should find the article very useful as an official Chinese-language introduction to the EB-5 program.

In other news, USCIS updated its list of approved regional centers as of 12/01 and 12/08, but not with any new centers.

Filed under EB-5 in the News, EB-5 Resources, Updates from USCIS

Regional Center Proposal Denials

November 30, 2010 Leave a comment

People thinking about applying for regional center designation often ask me whether there’s any publically-available info about previously-filed applications. The answer is no, you can’t see someone else’s successful application. But you can learn something from failures. The USCIS website has a category of Administrative Appeals Office decisions for cases involving “Request for Participation as a Regional Center.” So far two cases have been posted, one from 2008 and one from 2009. I’ve summarized the key issues below.

12/22/2009 AAO decision: Regional Center Proposal Denial

The case dealt with a proposed regional center to cover fourteen counties in Maryland and invest in eleven types of projects: office buildings, lab sciences research space, biotechnology manufacturing, retail stores, restaurants, owner occupied and rental residences, hotels and short-term condominium rentals, recreational and sports activities, sports complexes, a bus station and parking garages. The proposal was denied by USCIS on 7/28/2009, and the AAO confirmed this denial on appeal on 12/22/2009. I take three key lessons from this case:

  1. Project detail is important. The regional center applicant chose not to comply with USCIS’s request, in a Request for Evidence, for a detailed business plan and more focused economic analysis for the sample projects. The applicant argued that such a level of detail isn’t required by the regulations, which only call for a “general prediction” of the projects in which it will invest. However the AAO judged that the regulations require the applicant 1) to provide whatever additional evidence the agency, in its discretion, might deem necessary, and 2) to provide “verifiable” detail as to how the jobs will be created, which could reasonably include focused economic analysis based on a detailed business plan.
  2. Details will be checked. This decision shows that the adjudicator and/or the AAO googled the proposed sample projects and found discrepancies with info provided in the application, judged the plausibility of economic predictions against publically available demographic statistics, and checked the economist’s math.
  3. Documentation is important. USCIS complained that the application didn’t include letters from developers of the proposed projects confirming that they’d work with the regional center, didn’t provide copies of industry reports cited in the economic analysis, and didn’t document the funds committed to regional center operations. The decision repeatedly states that “unsupported assertions of counsel do not constitute evidence.”

11/18/2008 AAO decision: Regional Center Proposal Denial

The case dealt with a proposal filed in 2006 and denied by USCIS out of hand, without issuing a Request for Evidence. The center proposed to cover several counties in Washington State and invest in activities that would “range from commercial real estate development to infrastructure/development financing for local utilities . . . from regional transportation to retail shops.” Some morals of this case:

  1. Don’t file prematurely. Before filing a proposal, the applicant must already exist as an entity and be able to prove it (ie by Articles of Incorporation). The applicant must already have specific potential investment projects to propose, or be able to demonstrate that it has already entered negotiations with entities interested in receiving loans. And USCIS won’t necessarily issue a Request for Evidence that allows making up deficiencies in the original proposal.
  2. Specific projects are important. It’s not enough to propose “broad investment types.” The service wants to see specific projects identified.

Filed under EB-5 Law & Policy, EB-5 Resources, Updates from USCIS

Final I-924 Forms

November 22, 2010 4 Comments

Beginning 11/23/2010, all regional center proposals need to be filed with a Form I-924 “Application for Regional Center” and a $6,230 filing fee. The final versions of the I-924 forms are not yet linked from the EB-5 program page, but I shall guide you to them:

I-924, Application For Regional Center Under the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program

I-924a, Supplement to Form I-924

I regret to say that these forms include not one significant change from the 08/04/01 versions. A few minor words changed here and there (ie “Applicant’s Signature” revised to “Signature of Applicant”), but that’s all.

Note that a Fact Sheet and Q&A on the Final Fee Rule have been published by USCIS.

Filed under EB-5 Law & Policy, EB-5 Resources, Updates from USCIS

Quarterly Update from USCIS

October 14, 2010 Leave a comment

Today 10/14 the USCIS Office of Public Engagement hosted its quarterly EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Stakeholder Meeting by teleconference. Please consult the meeting presentation prepared by USCIS for the event, which includes useful updates and information about the EB-5 program, including the following statistics:

Regional Center Statistics

  • There are currently 114 approved Regional Centers (RCs), operating in 34 states, inclusive of the District of Columbia and Guam.
  • There are approximately 83 initial designation RC Proposals and 11 RC Proposals that request amendments to previously approved designation proposals pending with USCIS.
  • The “target processing time” for RC designation proposals is four months while the current processing time is five months.  Considering the proposal backlog, “additional resources” including one additional EB-5 supervisor and a “substantial” number of new Immigration Services officers will be dedicated to the EB-5 team at the California Service Center. New staff are to begin training this fall.

Investor Petition and Visa Statistics

Approximately 90% of the individual Form I-526 petitions filed each year are filed by Alien Investors who are investing in RC affiliated commercial enterprises.

EB-5 Individual Petition Filing Receipts FY05-FY10*
Fiscal Year Form I-526 Petition Form I-829 Petition
FY 2010 (preliminary)* 1727 690
FY09 1028 437
FY08 1257 390
FY07 776 194
FY06 486 89
FY05 332 37

*The fiscal year runs from 10/1 to 9/30. FY2010 figures are for the full fiscal year, but not yet finalized by the relevant departments.

EB-5 Visa Usage
Fiscal Year Total EB-5 Visas Issued
FY10 (Preliminary) 1,886*
FY09 4,218
FY08 1,360
FY07 806
FY06 744

*The USCIS representatives on the call did not know why this number is so much lower than FY09, considering the steadily-growing number of petition approvals. On average, there are 2.5 visas approved per investor.

Filed under EB-5 Resources, EB-5 Statistics, Updates from USCIS

Form I-924 10/14 update

October 14, 2010 Leave a comment

Among the updates in today’s EB-5 Stakeholder teleconference with USCIS, the I-924 and I-924a forms have been finalized, though not yet published on the USCIS website. [Note: See my 11/22 Update for the final forms.] Drafts of the forms are available (well buried) at regulations.gov, and can be downloaded at the following link: http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#docketDetail?R=USCIS-2009-0033 This folder contains several versions of the forms; be sure to download the most current ones (posted on 9/27/10).  Comments on the form and USCIS’s response to the comments can be reviewed at: http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewDocument?ref_nbr=201009-1615-021

Filed under EB-5 Resources, Updates from USCIS

Delay at the CSC?

September 28, 2010 2 Comments

Since August 16th, only one new Regional Center has appeared in the USCIS directory. In June USCIS reported 65 proposals pending, and only 12 approvals have appeared since then. Last I heard (June), USCIS was stating four months for Regional Center proposal processing, but I know of proposals submitted six months ago that are not yet through the pipeline. I wonder what’s going on at the California Service Center?

Filed under New RC

I-924 and Final Fee Rule

September 23, 2010 Leave a comment

The USCIS website posted today (9/23) “After Public Comment, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Announces Final Rule Adjusting Fees for Immigration Benefits.” The announcement confirms that beginning November 23,2010, Regional Center applications will have a filing fee of $6,230.  (Fees for I-526 and I-829 petitions will also increase, to $1,500 and $3,750 respectively.)  The forms can be downloaded for review from www.regulations.gov.
[Note: See my 11/22 Update for the final forms.]  Fortunately for me, the Form I-924 still requires Regional Center applications to include business plans.

Filed under EB-5 Law & Policy, EB-5 Resources, Updates from USCIS

RC list update

September 13, 2010 Leave a comment

The USCIS list of approved Regional Centers shows an update as of today 9/13/2010. No new centers this time, but Arizona EB-5 Regional Center has changed its name to Green Card Fund.

Filed under New RC

USCIS publishes EB-5 Meeting Notes

September 9, 2010 Leave a comment

The USCIS Office of Public Engagement has now published notes from the last two national EB-5 stakeholder meetings.

June 16, 2010 EB-5 Stakeholder Meeting in Washington D.C.
Includes an executive summary and the useful EB-5 PowerPoint presentation prepared by USCIS.
December 14, 2009 EB-5 Teleconference
Includes questions prepared by AILA and IIUSA and answers provided during the conference.

Filed under EB-5 Events, EB-5 Resources, Updates from USCIS

USCIS Presentation on EB-5

June 18, 2010 Leave a comment

USCIS prepared a useful PowerPoint presentation for the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Stakeholder meeting in Washington, DC on June 16. Topics of interest include:

  • A concise and helpful overview of the EB-5 program and its requirements
  • EB-5 visa, Regional Center, and case processing statistics
  • Introduction to the proposed Form I-924 and I-924A (for Regional Center application and yearly reporting)
  • Updates on EB-5 Premium Processing (not to be offered), EB-5 Inquiries (webpage and email address available), EB-5 Expedite Requests (conditions explained), and Public Law 106-273 (resolution still pending)
  • Advice for the Regional Center application economic analysis and business plans
  • Definitions of and distinctions between “commercial enterprises” and “capital investment projects.”
  • Questions related to Targeted Employment Area designation, material changes after I-526 approval, job creation, and troubled businesses.

This presentation was distributed by email to meeting attendees, but has not yet been made available on the USCIS website.

Filed under EB-5 Law & Policy, EB-5 Resources, Updates from USCIS

Introducing Form I-924 and I-924A

June 17, 2010 Leave a comment

[Note: please check my “Recent Posts” for updates on the I-924 Form.]

At the EB-5 Stakeholder Meeting on June 16, 2010, USCIS provided the following information on its proposed forms for Regional Center applications and reporting.

Proposed Form I-924
The Proposed Form I-924, Application for Regional Center under the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program, will be used for the filing of both initial RC applications and amended RC applications. The Form I-924, which will has a proposed filing fee of $6,230 will:

  • Clarify filing requirements for the RC designation;
  • Improve the quality of RC applications;
  • Better document eligibility for the Pilot Program;
  • Alleviate content inconsistencies among applicants’ submissions; and
  • Support a more efficient process for adjudication of the RC applications.

The USCIS Services Fee Schedule “Fee Rule” was published for public comment in the Federal Register on June 11, 2010. [CIS No. 2490–09; DHS Docket No. USCIS–2009–0033] The Form I-924 and I-924 instructions are available for review at www.regulations.gov. This folder contains new and revised versions of the forms; be sure to download the most current ones (posted on 9/27/10). I have commented on the forms in a number of posts, including notes on the 9/27/10 revisions.

Proposed Form I-924A
The Form I-924A, Supplement to Form I-924, is the proposed vehicle for a yearly RC reporting requirement. Each approved RC will be required to file the I-924A to report RC-related activities for the preceding fiscal year within 90 days of the end of the fiscal year (on or before December 29th of the calendar year in which the fiscal year ended.) There is no proposed filing fee for the Form I-924A.

USCIS plans to publish an aggregation of the data provided each year by all designated regional centers, to include attributes of the RC-affiliated capital investments, such as:
1. the geographic areas and industry categories receiving investment capital;
2. The volume of regional center affiliated capital invested, and;
3. The number of jobs created or maintained as a result of the capital investments.
This summarized data will be published on the USCIS Web site for each fiscal year following the publishing of the Form I-924A. The Form I-924A is available for review at www.regulations.gov.

Filed under EB-5 Law & Policy, EB-5 Resources, Updates from USCIS

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