Summer Break at the Senate Slows EB-5 Approval

This or any other blog entry not to be construed as legal or accounting advise. Please contact a lawyer to discuss your specific situation and a certified accountant. For more information about the EB-5 contact us or visit our Website .

Angelo Paparelli’s Blog published following Article:

Sunset of the EB-5: Senators Snooze, Americans Lose

The dog days of summer have arrived. Congress is on a five-week holiday, er, excuse me, a “Summer District Work Period,” as the House calls it. The economy is in the doldrums. Gross Domestic Productgrew a feeble 1.9% in the second quarter of 2008 from 0.9% in the first quarter. Foreclosures and bankruptcies are on the rise. Homeowners face unaffordable energy bills for gas, home heating and electricity. Civilian unemployment in July rose to 5.7%, up from January’s rate of 4.9%.

Amid the ashes of bad economic news, an immigration phoenix arises – the “Regional Center” program under the Employment-Creation EB-5 category for immigrants who invest $500,000 or $1 million in enterprises that directly or indirectly create at least 10 American jobs. According to Invest in the USA (IIUSA), an association of USCIS-approved regional centers, the EB-5 regional center program is estimated to create 400,000 new jobs through immigrants’ investments of $20 billion over the next five years.

Congressional Record: EB5 REGIONAL CENTER PILOT

This or any other blog entry not to be construed as legal or accounting advise. Please contact a lawyer to discuss your specific situation and a certified accountant. For more information about the EB-5 contact us or visit our Website .

Here is an exerpt of the text from the Congressional Record. Very interesting to look a little further into the process of pushing HR5569 through and getting it passed. Here the statement of California Representative: Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)

C-SPAN congressional Chronicles:

EB5 REGIONAL CENTER PILOT PROGRAM EXTENSION

Text From the Congressional Record

Today, we move to extend an immigration program proven to promote investment and to create jobs for American workers. H.R. 5569 would extend the EB-5 regional center pilot program for 5 years. Unless Congress acts, the regional center pilot program will sunset on September 30 of this year. 

Congress created the fifth employment-based preference, known as EB-5, immigrant visa category in 1990 for immigrant investors. To qualify for a green card, the investor must prove that the investment is in a commercial enterprise that will benefit the United States economy and create at least 10 full-time jobs. 

In general, investors must invest at least $1 million. However, that amount can be reduced to $500,000 if the investment is made in a rural or high unemployment area.

Approximately 10,000 visas have been made available in the EB-5 green card category each year. But the category has been underutilized ever since it came into being. 

To help further encourage this program, Congress created a temporary pilot program in 1993. The regional center pilot program allocates 3,000 visas each year, out of the 10,000 available, for EB-5 investors who invest in so-called designated regional centers. 

Under the immigrant investor pilot program, an applicant seeking EB-5 status must make the qualifying investment within an approved regional center. The requirement to create at least 10 new jobs, however, can be met by showing that, as a result of the new enterprise, such jobs will be created either directly or indirectly. 

The regional center program is vital for our economy. For example, in fiscal year 2007, a total of 806 investors and family members immigrated to the United States in the EB-5 category. 

That is not very many people, but even at that level, the EB-5 immigrant investor program is expected this year to generate an annual rate of $1 billion in aggregate immigrant investment, creating more than 20,000 new direct and indirect jobs. Usage of the program is expanding as new regional centers get approved. 

The regional center program helps get investment money to some of the Nation’s poorest communities, creating jobs and revitalizing communities. In Vermont’s poorest county, for example, a regional center investment has put $17.5 million into a ski resort at Jay Peak. This project is expected to create close to 2,000 jobs in the area, according to the New York Times. 

It is important that Congress reauthorize the EB-5 regional center program. The pilot program has been renewed several times, and is currently due to expire, as I said earlier, on September 30 of this year. This bill would extend the EB-5 regional center pilot program for 5 years, until September 30, 2013. 

When the subcommittee reviewed this bill, we had a discussion about looking at the level of investment and also the possibility of including venture capital-driven investments, where it’s really the patents and ideas that are creating the jobs. We hope to be able to work with the minority to further pursue those ideas at a subsequent date. It should not deter us from proceeding today with this program that has proven to be valuable to our Nation by creating jobs for Americans. 

I reserve the balance of my time.”

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