EB-5 VISA: $500,000 will be $1,350,000
On January 13, 2017,
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that governs the EB-5 Investment
Based Green Card Program through the USCIS, issued a Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking in the Federal Register that will dramatically change the current
program on or before April 28, 2017.
In the United States, changes are
implemented by either the Senate and Congress passing laws that are then signed
by the President or; Agencies (such as DHS) can issue changes under regulatory authority and place in the Federal Register
of Laws.
The DHS has, using its regulatory authority, announced the following important
changes to the regulations:
1) Increase
to the Investment Amounts: The DHS is proposing
to increase the minimum investments for new EB-5 petitioners, to reflect that the
program meets the present day dollar value of the investment. Projects that are in a Targeted Employment
Area (TEA), which is an area of high unemployment, will increase from $500,000
to $1.35 million. The DHS is also
proposing to make regular increases to the minimum investment amount every 5
years.
2) TEA Designations: Reform the
Targeted Employment Area (TEA) to ensure that designations comply with the
original intent of Congress. DHS allows
any city or town with high unemployment and a population of 20,000 or more to
qualify as a TEA. Currently, a state
designates the city or town as TEA. The
DHS proposes to eliminate the ability of a state to designate certain
geographic and political subdivisions as high unemployment areas, instead making the designations
directly.
3) Priority Date Retention: The
DHS proposes to authorize certain petitioners to retain their priority date of
an approved immigrant investor petition for use in connection with any
subsequent EB-5 immigrant petition. The priority date
retention would be a valuable change due to strong possibilities that the EB-5
visa category will remain oversubscribed in the future. The priority date is the date the petition
was filed with the USCIS. Typically,
when the high demand of visas exceeds the number allocated for the visa
category a priority date is considered more advantageous.
“This was an unexpected and swift ruling
by the DHS, as we had been anticipating changes proposed by the Senate and
Congress closer to the April 28th deadline.
The time is now to file for EB-5, while the minimum investment is
$500,000. until the comment period of April 11th” warns Dr. Jay Sheth, Managing Partner of
MCFI.
The EB-5 investment grants green cards to the
entire family which includes the investor, spouse, and any unmarried children
under the age of 21. For each investor
and their family, 10 jobs need to be created on their behalf to be eligible to
receive a permanent green card.
Investors can enjoy the benefits of living and
working anywhere in the United States, sponsor green cards for relatives,
travel abroad and return to the United States without an additional visa, study
in the United States at resident cost and after 5 years of eligible stay, apply
for United States citizenship.
With this new ruling of $1.35 million,
applicants are highly encouraged to contact the MCFI Regional Centers
immediately to initiate their petition filing before the April 28th deadline.. Dr. Sheth recommends to invest only in a
project that is approved by the USCIS, with other investors that have already
received green cards for their family. MCFI
clients
from India, China, Nigeria, Egypt, and Dubai, who have invested in USCIS
approved projects, have already received Green Cards and are living and working
in the United States.
Based on MCFI’s extensive experience, compiling
personal and financial documents takes the most time for the applicant to
collect, not facilitating the funds. In
order to initiate filing, applicants should be able to provide the following
documents for their immediate family:
Passports, Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificate, 6 months of Bank
Statements and 5 Years of Tax Returns.
After this information is gathered by working with the investor, MCFI
Regional Center forwards the documents on to an immigration attorney for review. Average preparation time for a petition
filing takes approximately 2-3 weeks once your appointed immigration attorney
reviews and submits the file to USCIS.
Appointed by USCIS in 2010, The Midwest
Center for Foreign Investment (MCFI) Regional Center has convenient offices in
Atlanta, Louisville, Kentucky and Houston, Texas. MCFI also has 2 offices in India located in
Ahmedabad and Baroda in Gujarat. MCFI’s
website is www.mcfiusa.com
MCFI
offers a wide range of investment opportunities such as a USCIS approved mixed
use development, a 96 bed hospital and an assisted living facility.
Our USA and India
teams from MCFI Regional Centers are available to answer any questions and can
provide assistance to applicants.
For more information on MCFI and the EB-5
program in USA, please contact Dr. Jay Sheth at j.sheth@mcfiusa.com, Leigh
Bodenheimer, at l.bodenheimer@mcfiusa.com or call 1-678-302-0707. To reach MCFI India, please contact Mitesh
Sheth at m.sheth@mcfiusa.com, or Jignesh Vora at j.vora@mcfiusa.com. MCFI India can be reached by phone or
Whatsapp at +91 99099 91381 or +91 98242 99776.
