Is a Final Rule Coming on Changes to EB-5, Especially an Increase to the Minimum Investment Amount?
The answer: Maybe.
Currently, any change to the US$500,000 minimum investment amount in a Targeted Employment Area (proposed increase to US$1,350,000) would require the publication of the Final Rule for the related “EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization” regulation. This is currently listed on the “Fall 2018 Unified Agenda action dates,” but may or may not occur in November. In the past, the timetable for government action on the same regulation has been: February 2018 and August 2018. In both cases, the relevant U.S. agency, the Department of Homeland Security did not take any action and did not publish as per its scheduled timetable.
In addition, USCIS Director Lee Cissna, speaking in October, did not appear to think that the “EB-5 Modernization” regulations were on the brink of finalization. He said: “We’re just not ready yet. We’re still working on it.”
It’s good to note that even if the relevant regulation is published in November, is should (as a non-major rule) take effect not less than 30 days after publication and could even be extended longer than 30 days.
We do not believe the regulations will be published this November. We might know more following the USCIS most recent announcements public stakeholder meeting scheduled for November 19th.
