By Marta Lillo
Invest in the USA (IIUSA) has sued the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), arguing the agency violated federal law when it announced a Policy Manual guidance on October 2023 about the 2-year sustainment period for EB-5 investors who filed Form I-526 either on or after Mar. 15, 2022.
The organization filed the lawsuit on Mar. 29 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
“The new policy upended decades of industry practice by cutting the required period of time an EB-5 immigrant investor’s capital must be invested—commonly referred to as the “sustainment period”—to only two years,” said the IIUSA in a public statement explaining the legal motion.
They are requesting that the USCIS repeals the existing sustainment period regulation under federal law 8 C.F.R. § 216.6(c)(1)(iii), claiming this rule “was promulgated unlawfully and must be set aside, IIUSA does not wish to see the previous policy reinstated.”
They also demand that the immigration agency comply with the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA) and issue a formal regulation to establish a 5-year sustainment period. “IIUSA believes five years is objectively reasonable, consistent with precedent, and responsive to key reliance interests shared by all EB-5 investors and stakeholders: the urgent need for a sensible, transparent sustainment period.”
Under federal rules, the USCIS has up to 90 days to reply to a complaint.