Did you know?
The judge ruled that the November 2019 reforms were not duly authorized!!!
In the well-contested court case of Behring Regional Center LLC V. Chad Wolf, the judge ruled in favor of Plaintiff. For now, the required minimum investment amount went back to the pre-November 2019 level of $500,000 for projects that qualify as a TEA, targeted employment area.
Of course, the big question is as follows: Where do we go from here?
The answer is simple for some investors and not so simple for others. If an investor had already decided to invest at the $900,000 waiting to see the minimum required investment required amount reduced to $ 500,000, he does not lose anything by rushing to meet the June 30 deadline next week. If he gets “grandfathered” because he filed his I-526 petition in time, he would be winning. If, on the other hand, he had been waiting for a potential “definite” reduction to $ 500,000, this development would not be bullet-proof for him.
The EB-5 industry is expecting a lapse of the program by June 30. Today, EB5 Investors Magazine reported that efforts to extend the EB-5 regional center program were shot down in the Senate when Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina) objected to unanimous consent. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) had established the bipartisan EB-5 Reform and Integrity bill to pass into law before June 30, 2021.
The investors would have to weigh the potential of being grandfathered at the $500,000 level by filing by the deadline versus having to up the investment amount should USCIS file an appeal to overturn the court decision. This scenario could play if USCIS decides not to honor the $ 500,000 investment amount for investors who met the deadline.
Many regional centers are quite accommodative and flexible as they realize that investors have very little time to complete their source of funds narrative and documentation in time. We expect a large number of “skeleton” petitions filed. On a later date, once they complete the source of funds analysis, attorneys will interfile with the missing information. Should the required amount go back up to $ 900,000, affecting not only new investors but those who filed by the deadline as well, investors will then need to come up with the additional $ 400,000 not to lose their priority date.
The risk of a denial of a skeleton filing is much lower under the Biden Administration. They announced that they would change their policy adopted during the former Trump Administration or return to their former policy that says that it will not issue outright denials for applications and petitions that appear to be lacking critical evidence. Instead, they will resort to a Request For Evidence (RFE) or a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID).
If you want to find out more about this new critical development in the EB5 landscape or would like to obtain general information on EB-5, please do not hesitate to call us at + 1 917 355 9251 or write to us at info@americaeb5visa.com.
Posted by americaeb5visa on June 24, 2021