On January 10, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advised that it would publish an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on January 11, 2017 to make regulatory changes to the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Center Program. Comments will be due 90 days from the date of publication. As such, no regulatory changes have been made based on these proposals to date.
One of the main proposals is to divide the current Form I-924 Regional Center (RC) application process into two steps, as follows:
- DHS would first require submission of a more general application for initial designation;
- Once designated an RC, DHS would require the RC to submit a more specific application i.e. a comprehensive business plan, economic report, and offering documents, so as to approve an exemplar project.
Currently, RC applicants can decide whether they would like to file an exemplar project with the regional center application. Alternatively, the RC application can describe a project that exists (i.e. actual) or is purely hypothetical without all the exemplar documents, which is less onerous. This proposal would mandate an exemplar filing as part two of the new process. DHS believes that this proposal would significantly improve the processing time for immigrant investor petitions, as the project documents will have been adjudicated prior to the investor filing his/her Form I-526 petition. Further, regional center designation processing times should also improve by waiting to review an exemplar project until after the RC is approved.
There are a number of other proposals included which aim to reduce fraud, encourage active investment to meet the goals of the EB-5 program, and increase overall transparency for both regional center principals and investors. One such proposal requires that any documents related to the investment offering that have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission be submitted to USCIS at the exemplar stage, and would also require submission of all investment and offering documents that the regional center intends to provide to investors (including any agreements between the investor and the regional center) at that stage.
Jackson & Hertogs will continue to keep our clients apprised of future developments. Do not hesitate to contact us for a consultation.
