【ARCFE News】 PRESIDENT BIDEN SIGNED OMNIBUS BILL & MORE HIGHLIGHTS YOU NEED TO KNOW

03/17/2022 by ARCFE U.S.

On Tuesday March 15th, President Biden signed the $1.5 trillion Omnibus spending bill that include the EB-5 Regional Center (EB-5 RC) program reauthorization along with the EB-5 Reform Bill. This means that EB-5 RC is officially back and all new regulations immediately go into effect. However, USCIS will not be processing new EB-5 RC application until May 15th. This is due to the language of the new laws are relatively ambiguous. USCIS will need 60 days from the reauthorization date to analyze and release information on how the agency interpret the language, and how they will process EB-5 cases.

Watch President Biden Signed Omnibus Bill Here >>

USCIS WILL NOT BE PROCESSING NEW APPLICATION IN THE NEXT 60 DAYS

Even though there have been some analyses of the reform bill released to the public, we expect that some details might change depending on how the USCIS will interpret the language. We can expect the USCIS to issue a short statement in the upcoming days confirming that they acknowledge the reauthorization of EB-5 RC program and the EB-5 reforms, and that they will be releasing their interpretation soon. You can read our summary of the changes below:

 

Read Our Summary of EB-5 Changes Here >>

SOME ADDITIONAL HIGHLIGHTS WORTH NOTICING:

[sf_icon image="fas fa-arrow-right" character="" size="small" cont="no" float="left" color="#036CB2"] The new law requires USCIS to be more efficient in processing EB-5 cases. The agency will need to study how much financial and human resources they need to do so, and raise funds through increasing the application fee.

[sf_icon image="fas fa-arrow-right" character="" size="small" cont="no" float="left" color="#036CB2"] USCIS may require Regional Centers to re-register their company and their projects with USCIS first, before their investors can submit their EB-5 application. 

[sf_icon image="fas fa-arrow-right" character="" size="small" cont="no" float="left" color="#036CB2"] The new law requires 10% of jobs created through RC projects to be direct jobs. Jobs created by tenants can count towards job creation as long as they can prove these are new jobs. (For example: Coffee shop rent a commercial place within the building. This coffee shop is a completely new branch and not an existing branch that relocates. The number of employees work at this coffee shop can be count towards direct jobs.) Regional centers are still waiting for specific requirements from USCIS in terms of how direct jobs are defined (i.e. direct payroll W-2 jobs or construction jobs can be counted).

[sf_icon image="fas fa-arrow-right" character="" size="small" cont="no" float="left" color="#036CB2"] Redeployment is necessary in order to maintain the at risk requirement until the investors have had the Green Card for two years. However, only jobs created from the initial investment can be counted towards the job creation requirement. Redeployment has to be active commercial risk investment, cannot be stock/bond/etc. investments. The new law also removed the geographic restrictions for redeployment, meaning an investor originally invested in California can now make their redeployed investment in New York.

[sf_icon image="fas fa-arrow-right" character="" size="small" cont="no" float="left" color="#036CB2"] As we have mentioned in the previous article, there will be an increase in investor protection, including: Grandfathering, increase Regional Center regulation, and Innocent Investor Protection. Innocent Investor Protection will not only allow investors, who suffer termination or debarment of their regional center, New Commercial Enterprise (NCE) or Job Creating Entity (JCE), to reinvest in another project, but also protect the children's age (even if the time of making the reinvestment, the children is over 21 years old.) 

[sf_icon image="fas fa-arrow-right" character="" size="small" cont="no" float="left" color="#036CB2"] Investors who are currently in the U.S. can choose to do concurrent filing, where they file for adjustment of status (I-485) and immigration petition (I-526) at the same time if the priority date is "CURRENT". Those who violate their status can also choose to do concurrent filing as long as their violation period is less than 180 days. 

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