EB-5 Program Has Been Extended

Dated: September 30^th, 2019

Mr. Andrew Cuevas, Esq., is the President of Cuevas, Garcia & Torres, P.A., and Vantage Property Title Company. Mr. Cuevas has been practicing law since 1993 in the area of Business Immigration Law and Commercial transactions, including commercial and residential real estate transactions and business acquisitions for foreign investors. Cuevas, Garcia & Torres, P.A. has offices in Miami and Orlando. If you have any questions regarding this article or any other questions, you can contact Mr. Cuevas at (305) 461-9500 or at [email protected].

The EB-5 Regional Center Program, which was due to sunset (expire) on September 30, 2019, is now extended through November 21, 2019. As of September 28, a Continuing Resolution was passed by Congress and signed by the President to not only extend the funding of the federal government to prevent a government shutdown, but it also includes language to extend the EB-5 Regional Center Program through November 21.

The program extension through November 21st coincides with the effective date of the new EB-5 Modernization Regulations, which increases the investment amount, changes who has the authority to make TEA designations, and implements stricter TEA requirements, among other things. The current minimum price for an EB-5 investment is $500,000, which will increase to $900,000, effective November 21st.

If you are considering obtaining the U.S. Permanente Residency through the EB-5 process, you should be aware of the upcoming price increase. Proper planning is important if someone’s goal is to move forward under the current rules. Not only does the investor need to identify a project, complete due diligence, submit offering documents and fund the EB-5 project, but they also must file their I-526 petition before November 21st in order to ensure adjudication under the current rules of the program. In the new regulations, it states that anyone that invests into an EB-5 project and files their petition prior to November 21st will be grandfathered under the current rules of the program as they exist today.

This article is solely a partial explanation of all the issues related to the topic of this newsletter, and is not to be considered legal advice. Persons interested in obtaining more information should consult with their legal counsel to obtain explanations of all issues addressed herein.