Wednesday, August 28, 2019
The next EB-5 Regional Center Program sunset date is September 30, 2019. The industry experts widely believed that the EB-5 Regional Center Program will be included in the Congressional appropriations bills and will be passed without reform. However, it will come up again for reauthorization in few months, when the next omnibus bill is going to be voted.
With the implementation of the EB-5 Modernization Regulation (RIN 1615-AC07), it is possible that the Congress may actually spend time establishing reforms to the program. In reality, the EB-5 Program desperately needs changes to the visa cap and the per-country limit. Without these changes, the backlog may still grow. Currently, two additional rules are in early stage in the Rulemaking process. They are:
• RIN 1615-AC11, the Regional Center Program Regulation, which proposed changes to regional center designation and process.
• RIN 1615-AC26 EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Realignment, which is going to solicit public opinion on proposals would increase monitoring and oversight, encourage investment in rural areas, redefine components of the job creation requirement, and define conditions for regional center designations and operations.