EB-5 Investors Defend Hospital Investment, Win Visas

Six Chinese investors have won visa approval through the EB-5 program, ending litigation in which they said the Department of Homeland Security failed to acknowledge that their investments in a hospital helped a troubled business. 

According to documents filed in D.C. federal court Tuesday, the investors submitted new evidence to support their petitions, and based on those filings, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Administrative Appeals Office sustained the appeals.

“In light of this administrative resolution of the case, further litigation is unnecessary,” according to a status report announcing dismissal.

The investors, Wei Gan, Wentao Huang, Jian Wang, Xue Wang, Xiaomeng Xu and Lihong Yang, sued DHS in April 2016 alleging they were wrongfully denied access to the EB-5 visa program after they each invested about $500,000 in a rural Alabama hospital.

Under the EB-5 program, foreign residents who invest a minimum of $1 million in a U.S. business and create at least 10 full-time jobs for American workers can receive green cards. The investment amount can be reduced to $500,000 for certain rural or high unemployment areas, as long as the job creation requirement is fulfilled.

The investors previously argued that the DHS exceeded its regulatory authority by requiring them to demonstrate when their investment would be profitable and by how much. They also said the agency didn’t recognize Crenshaw Community Hospital as a troubled business although overwhelming evidence proved their at-risk, cash investment would go toward helping a struggling institution.

The investor program first denied the Form I-526 petitions, and then the Administrative Appeals Office denied the investors’ appeals in March 2016. They filed suit about one month later, asking for judicial review of the agency decisions.

To prove that their investments did indeed qualify for the EB-5 program, the investors were allowed to submit new evidence, an expert report that analyzed financial statements, an auditor’s report and tax returns in the existing administrative record, to confirm that the business was in fact a troubled business, said Jason D. Wright, who represents the investors.

Wright told Law360 on Tuesday that he is pleased with the outcome of visas for his clients.

“I appreciate the good work of the USCIS and the Administrative Appeals Office, and I’m just appreciative of the opportunity to provide them more information about the value of this project to the local community,” he said.

Counsel for the government could not immediately be reached for comment.

The investors are represented by Jason D. Wright of the Wright Law Firm.

The federal government is represented by Kathryne Marie Gray of the DOJ.

The case is Gan, et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, et al., case number 1:16-cv-00711, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

https://www.law360.com/articles/927394/eb-5-investors-defend-hospital-investment-win-visas

Mentions

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

States

• New York