Broken water or Broken Visas…

When Roger, Melissa, and I got back to the office Monday from our incredibly exciting EB-5 Immigrant Investor seminar in Venezuela, I got a taste of the days of old.  We'd left Wednesday and returned Sunday afternoon, and none of us had gotten much sleep during and since the trip.  An...

Jose E. Latour Oct 14, 2009

TEA Time in the Florida Keys

No, I’m not talking “tee time” at Ocean Reef (or “tea time” at Ocean Reef, for that matter.)  I’m referring to the EB-5 Investor Visa definition for TEA: “targeted employment areas”.  A “TEA” refers either a geographical area which has an unemployment rate of at least 150% of the national ...

Jose E. Latour Oct 13, 2009

EB-5: It’s About Job Creation, Stupid

Our immigration seminar in Venezuela went off without a hitch and we met some great folks.  Despite Venezuela’s political complications, it was interesting to see that whatever one’s leanings, the same pragmatism seems to permeate the private sector of what is still a thriving petro-dollar econ...

Jose E. Latour Oct 12, 2009

EB-5 Regional Center Forum Debuts

Yesterday, Bernstein Osberg-Braun and De Moraes' first EB-5 Immigrant Investment Forum went off without a hitch in our Miami headquarters.  In addition to some pretty stellar performances by Karen Caco (of counsel to the firm and one of the country's most experienced EB-5 at...

Jose E. Latour Oct 07, 2009

“Give a Damn” Lawyering

If you count my time as a visa officer in the State Department, I have been immersed in immigration law for 22 and a half years now.  I was thinking about the lawyers I've met over that time, and they range between the Jedi Masters of immigration law to public menaces who should be disbarred retroac...

Jose E. Latour Oct 05, 2009

My Visit to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp- 10 Years Later

  I have tried and tried hard to find a hard copy of this article since I wanted to make sure that Loyola University's Blueprint for Social Justice got credit for the reprint, but all I can find is this low resolution scan of the article.  Accordingly, the text of the original article is below. Sinc...

Jose E. Latour Oct 03, 2009

Dishonest Filipino Recruiters A Threat To U.S. Employers

It was a very steamy day in Manila, Philippines, on July, 1995, and I was even more uncomfortable than I usually am in a suit and tie.  I was seated at the office of the director of the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), having been invited via a common contact at the U.S. embas...

Jose E. Latour Oct 02, 2009

All Abuzz About Regional Centers

The momentum is palpable: Roger and I are spending the better part of our days dealing with three sets of inquiries:1- U.S. Developers and Project Managers considering an EB-5 structure to finance their projects with foreign capital;2- Attorneys and Investment Advisors with foreign clients who are i...

Jose E. Latour Sep 30, 2009

Cause and Effect: Illegal Cuban Migration is Down

The Miami Herald reported this morning that the number of Cubans attempting to illegally enter the U.S. has dropped dramatically in the past year.  Based upon what the U.S. Coast Guard has seen, the reason is that "fewer undocumented Cubans are leaving the island for the United States, not...

Jose E. Latour Sep 29, 2009

EB-5 Investor Visas: Congressional Intent Manifested 20 Years Later

The following is an excerpt from the testimony of distinguished immigration attorney Stephen Yale-Loehr before the U.S. Senate's Committee on the Judiciary, July 22, 2009:"Congress created the fifth employment-based preference (EB-5) immigrant visa category in 1990 for immigrants seeking t...

Jose E. Latour Sep 25, 2009