On July 27 of this year, a new proposal arrived unexpectedly. Pennsylvania Representatives Brian K. Fitzpatrick and Dwight Evans introduced a new bill, H.R. 3471, the "American Job Creation and Investment Into Public Works Reform Act of 2017."
The main content of this proposal is based on the previous draft text from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Goodlatte. The key points are summarized as follows:
1. Extension:
5 years, until September 30, 2022;
2. Minimum Investment Amount:
2.1 $800,000 for TEA projects + infrastructure projects + manufacturing projects;
2.2 $1.2 million for other projects;
3. Effective Date:
Effective immediately upon passage of the bill (or at least within 90 days), with exemptions for the following applications:
3.1 Applications filed before June 1, 2015;
3.2 Applications filed between June 1, 2015, and the effective date of the bill for projects that had an exemplar application filed before June 1, 2015;
3.3 I-829 applications filed before June 1, 2015, or those approved before the bill takes effect;
4. Visa Set-asides:
1,500 visas reserved for rural areas and 1,500 for priority urban areas, with visa set-asides beginning on October 1, 2016.
5. Definition of Priority Urban Area:
1. Unemployment rate higher than 150% of the national average; and
2. Poverty rate higher than 30% or median household income lower than 60% of the state or metropolitan area level;
6. Definition of TEA (Targeted Employment Area):
1. Priority urban area;
2. Rural area;
3. Military base closed within 25 years;
4. Outside of a metropolitan area, with a poverty rate of at least 20% or a median household income lower than 80% of the state or metropolitan area level;
Building on the core spirit of the Goodlatte proposal, this bill significantly expands the visa set-aside to 6,000, and in addition to reservations for rural and underdeveloped urban areas, it also includes government infrastructure projects.
Priority Urban Area
The concept of "Priority Urban Area" in the congressional reform draft has attracted strong attention. Addressing the "visa backlog" issue that currently troubles investors, it proposes the concepts of "Visa Reserved Area (VRA)" and "visa quota reservation," planning to reserve 2,000 green card slots annually for priority urban areas, allowing investors in these regions to "cut the line" and receive priority allocation of green card slots. The emergence of visa set-asides for "Priority Urban Areas" has truly become a significant historical window of opportunity to shorten the visa backlog.
Background Introduction of the Bill (Draft)
Jointly proposed by two senior senators from the Republican and Democratic parties;
EB-5 bill reform is not a dispute between the Republican and Democratic parties, but rather between the rural faction and the urban faction. This draft was reached on the basis of a compromise between the rural faction and the urban faction.
The bill (draft) defines a "Priority Urban Investment Area" as meeting any two of the following three conditions:
I) Unemployment rate higher than 150% of the national average;
II) Poverty rate of no less than 30%;
III) Median household income does not exceed 60% of the greater of the state or metropolitan area median household income.
The bill (draft) regulations on the use of Set-aside Visas quotas:
I). In fiscal year 2018, 7.5% of visa slots are reserved for investors in "Priority Urban Investment Areas" and "rural areas" respectively, meaning approximately 750 visas for each;
II). Starting from fiscal year 2019, 15% of visa slots are reserved for investors in "Priority Urban Investment Areas" and "rural areas" respectively, meaning approximately 1,500 visas for each.