The EB-5 Regional Center Program: Rise of the Phoenix

Nicolai Hinrichsen, Stephen Yale-Loehr and Adam Schaye, Mar. 21, 2022

"...Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the regional center program has been resurrected.  On March 15, 2022, President Biden signed a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill that included the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (the “2022 EB-5 Act”).3 The 2022 EB-5 Act extends the regional center program for five years, until September 30, 2027. It also makes major changes to the regional center program. Highlights include:
• Increasing the minimum investment amount to $800,000 for projects in targeted employment areas (TEAs) or “infrastructure projects.” Otherwise, the investment amount is $1,050,000;
• Permitting concurrent filing of adjustment of status applications with I-526 petitions;
• Establishing age out and project failure protections for dependents and investors in certain circumstances;
• Enacting grandfathering provisions permitting USCIS to continue to process EB-5 petitions if the EB-5 regional center program lapses in the future;
• Codifying that USCIS, not States, are to designate TEAs using only single or adjacent census tracts;
• Requiring a fund administrator for most EB-5 projects;
• Imposing myriad regional center reporting requirements, participant restrictions, and sanctions on bad actors;
• Establishing an EB-5 Integrity Fund to finance USCIS investigations and site visits in the United States and abroad; and

• Requiring promoters and migration agents to register with USCIS and disclose fees earned from investors and regional centers.

This article describes generally how the 2022 EB-5 Act affects existing investors, future investors, regional centers, project developers, and overseas migration agents."

© Copyright 2022 by Nicolai Hinrichsen, Adam Schaye, and Stephen Yale-Loehr. All rights reserved.