Our clients are asking about the recent Politico article, published on March 18th

The Politico article indeed claimed that “The Trump administration is considering to boost the number of EB-5 visas offered to wealthy immigrants according to four people familiar with the situation.” The article continued to claim that “the proposal, which could be included in one of the Senate’s coronavirus rescue bills, would significantly boost the number of visas offered annually from 10,000 to 75,000 while halving the investment required to earn legal residence from $900,000 to $450,000.” Finally, it argued that “the expansion is being pushed by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a Trump ally.”
In an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Senator Graham denied the validity of the Politico article’s claims. He said that the claims in the article are “…absolutely garbage”. Senator Graham said that he did not talk to anybody about putting EB-5 on the COVID-19 bill. He also said that he would object anything in the COVID-19 bill that was not related to solving the problem.
Finally, the EB-5 industry’s trade organization, IIUSA, in an article they published to their members, put the matter to rest by saying, “Such rumored proposals are non-starters from many quarters of Capitol Hill; poison pills that would kill efforts to earnestly, and pragmatically reform and extend the EB-5 Regional Center program. Period. Investment amounts are not moving to $450,000, and to-date, there are no new visas for the EB-5 program.”
So, in summary, you can safely tell your clients that any of the claims made a month ago, in the Politico article, have no credible basis. That said, we know that Senator Graham and others are advocates for the EB-5 program, and they will continue to work with the administration and members of Congress to modernize the program.