EB-5 Visas

EB-5 Regional Centers are authorized by USCIS to group together investments from many EB-5 investors, and are permitted to determine job-creation using reasonable statistical methodologies. The EB-5 Regional Center program has proven to be the most popular option for EB-5 investors.

The EB-5 Regional Center Program was renewed on March 15, 2022 until September 30, 2027.

New Requirements for EB-5 Regional Centers:

Stricter USCIS supervision of Regional Centers through:

• Mandatory reporting and review of the ownership and management team of the Regional Center.
• Mandatory reporting of money management of EB-5 funds.
• Mandatory USCIS review of capital investment projects sponsored by Regional Centers.
• Mandatory reporting of Securities Law compliance and material changes in projects.
• Mandatory disclosure of conflicts of interests.

These new features of the EB-5 Program should provide greater transparency and predictability for investors.

Mandatory Project Reviews

Starting in March of 2022, all Regional Centers are required to submit a detailed project approval application (Form I-956F) to enable USCIS to review in detail the contracts, plans and job-creation methodologies that the Regional Center and New Commercial Enterprise purport to utilize.  Our recent experience demonstrates that USCIS is taking an active role in reviewing project documents – which means more scrutiny of overly speculative capital investment projects.

It is critical for investors to also understand that USCIS will not approve an investor’s I-526E petition unless and until USCIS approves the I-956F project approval application.

Mandatory Money Management

Regional Centers are generally required to hire a third-party fund administrator or independent certified public auditor / accountant to track EB-5 funds invested in each New Commercial Enterprise.  The role of the third-party fund administrator is intended to require each New Commercial Enterprise to provide documents esetablishing the reasons for disbursement of EB-5 funds and ensuring that disbursements coincide with the stated Business Plan of the New Commercial Enterprise.  The ultimate goal of funds administration is to provide greater protection to foreign investors under the EB-5 Program.

Direct and Indirect Jobs for Regional Center Investors

Only foreign investors investing in a New Commercial Enterprise sponsored by a USCIS-approved Regional Center are allowed to rely on direct and indirect job creation using reasonable statistical methodologies. If the New Commercial Enterprise is not sponsored by a Regional Center, the EB-5 investor is prohibited from counting direct or indirect jobs using statistical methodologies.

Reasonable statistical methodologies use statistical input / output models that rely on data regarding investment amounts, industry classifications, the geographic location of investments and other data to determine the total job creation impact from the capital investment project undertaken by a New Commercial Enterprise or its Job Creating Entity. In this type of job-creation, the New Commercial Enterprise does not hire employees directly.

For regional center-based petitions filed on or after March 15, 2022, up to 90 percent of full-time positions may be created indirectly, and at least 10% must be created directly – in both cases, as determined by reasonable statistical methodologies.