USCIS Stakeholder Call

The USCIS had an EB-5 stakeholder call on Tuesday, November 7. There were a few interesting comments and developments:

• The USCIS EB-5 unit has new leadership. The leader and her team seem to have a new attitude. They say they are developing a system to speed up adjudications. We have heard this before but she discussed this in a bit of detail, not vague goals.
• The USCIS economist stated emphatically that the EB-5 funds must land at the JCE project before being used to pay off bank loans. This will probably be litigated in court, as at least one project is having trouble with this policy.
• USCIS’s goal is to issue new EB-5 regulations by April 20, 2018. USCIS’s proposed rule is to increase the investment amount to $1,350,000 in a TEA. Speculation from Washington is that the amount will be $925,000 in a TEA. We will see if Congress first decides a new amount with a new RC extension bill. These rules may also alter the TEA rules.