Stalling Regulations Leave Investor Program in Limbo

The immigrant investor program, known as EB-5, is facing crisis point with lawmakers continuing to argue over changes to the program and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) making no move on regulations first proposed under Barack Obama’s administration.

Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Bob Goodlatte have continued to call for the regulations to be finalized by USCIS, which would deal with two of the main concerns of lawmakers, reworking the determination of ‘targeted employment areas’ and increasing the amount needed for the minimum investment. The new regulations would also result in the imposition of measures to defend the program against fraud. The EB-5 US visa program allows foreign nationals to get a green card if they invest at least $1 million in a commercial US enterprise that results in the creation of a minimum of ten new jobs, or $500,000 in a rural or high unemployment area.

The program’s regional center aspect has become the major issue, as it allows immigrants to pool their investments and have indirect job creation included as part of the US visa requirement. The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun targeting regional centers, which make up the bulk of EB-5 US visa investments, for fraud investigations.

According to New York-based Greystone EB5 Holdings director, Abteen Vaziri, the biggest problem with the program is that investors from China could have to wait 15 years to receive approval for their green cards after investing due to the per-country caps on available visas.