Individuals looking to immigrate to the United States through investment are closely monitoring any changes to the EB-5 policy. On December 21, local time in the United States, both the House and Senate passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) to extend the federal government budget until January 19, 2018. This also means that the EB-5 Regional Center Program will once again be extended until January 19, 2018, as part of the CR. This legislation will officially take effect after being signed by the President of the United States.
As we know, the terms of the administrative reform plan from the immigration bureau are extremely stringent. Among them, the minimum investment amounts have increased significantly: for non-TEA areas, from $1 million to $1.8 million; for TEA areas, from $500,000 to $1.35 million. Such a substantial increase is enough to intimidate the entire EB-5 community. This is an unwelcome deal for both the urban and rural factions of Congress and the entire EB-5 sector, as no one wishes for the immigration bureau's administrative reform plan to be implemented!
It is well known that the current Director of the Immigration Bureau, Lee Francis Cissna, was previously a staff member for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. He has drafted nearly a hundred immigration-related policy documents and letters submitted to the Department of Homeland Security or Congress for Grassley, who has been a strong advocate for reform.
Therefore, the industry generally believes that the immigration bureau's "administrative reform plan" and the "final action date" being moved up is essentially a strategy by Grassley. His goal is to force all parties to reach a consensus to form a new EB-5 reform bill, thereby facilitating the early implementation of the EB-5 legislation. It is expected that a new draft of the EB-5 bill will be released after New Year's Day. Of course, this new draft will further amend the previously agreed-upon "2017 U.S. Job Creation and Investment Promotion Reform Act" (draft) between the urban and rural factions, and it is highly likely to become the basis for the final discussions on reform in Congress. It is anticipated that the provisions regarding the definition of "Urban Priority Investment Areas" and the allocation of 1,500 reserved visa quotas per year will continue to be retained in the new EB-5 bill draft.
It is not difficult to see that under the pressure of the immigration bureau's significant price increase proposal, Congress may accelerate the reform process of the EB-5 legislation. Therefore, which will be implemented first, the EB-5 reform by Congress or the immigration bureau, January 19, 2018, has become a critical time node for the reform of the EB-5 legislation, and we will see whether clarity emerges at that time. Everyone is watching closely!