MORE EB-5 VISAS FOR VIETNAM? MAYBE…

The brilliant Suzanne Lazicki published a new article last week explaining the massive increase in FY2021 total US immigrant visa numbers which has triggered a buzz of questions within the EB-5 community.  I’m writing this to give AVSEB5 and LatourLaw clients and readers in Vietnam a brief summary on how this development may impact Vietnam EB-5 investors.

I haven’t written much about EB-5 because American Venture Solutions Regional Center closed out the last EB-5 Limited Partnership of our flagship Lake Point Project last year, just before long-past-due USG reforms finally put an end to all the fake TEAs relied upon by 95% of the EB-5 deals on the market.  Since USCIS approved AVSRC in 2011, we’ve been the one and only RC to exclusively offer our EB-5 investors projects 100% owned and operated by U.S. Forbes 400; not ONE other EB-5 Regional Center can say that.  And while almost everyone else in EB-5 was building high-rises in America’s richest neighborhoods, our EB-5 deals quietly transformed the economy of one of the poorest parts of South Florida, making AVSRC the most successful TRUE TEA ONLY Regional Center in the U.S. We wrapped all that up after nearly a decade of consistent investor approvals and full capital divestment of our loan-based investors achieving permanent residency. Since January, AVSRC has been quietly working with our trusted Forbes partners to put together what we will soon be announcing: AVSRC’s new loan-based, new-construction, single-family-home rental community EB-5 project group, this time via the same group’s powerful property investment division. 

So here’s a snapshot of the situation and why it matters for Vietnam EB-5:

• The U.S. government fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30^th; on October 1, 2020, the 2021 fiscal year begins, meaning the annual allotment of visas from all categories are released by the Department of State.  Normally, that total means 140,000 visa slots per year.
• The new October Visa Bulletin, however, indicated that for FY2021, that number will INCREASE – almost DOUBLE – to 261,500…making everyone’s eyes open wide.
• The process of how visas are allocated between family and work categories is super complex – you can read Suzanne’s article linked above if you want to go into that rabbit hole – but, in a nutshell, President Trump’s many efforts to stymie legal family immigration resulted in unused family visa “trickling down” to the employment based category and ultimately making more visas available for employment based categories like EB-5.
• According to Suzanne’s math, this boils down to the availability of about 18,500 EB-5 visa slots for FY2021 (almost double the annual 10,000 allotment of prior years.)

So how does this affect Vietnam EB-5 investors or those considering EB-5 in the future?  The answer is “we can’t know for sure but it should mean shorter EB-5 waits for all backlogged countries, i.e., Vietnam, India, and China”.  But whether that actually happens depends on a lot of unknowns. For example, COVID has frozen visa processing in many US embassies and consulates worldwide; how soon will they get back to usual immigrant visa processing is anyone’s guess.  But if:

• The global COVID situation settles down AND
• Trump loses the election (presumably meaning that his anti-immigrant executive orders will terminate when he leaves the White House on Dec. 31) OR
• Trump WINS but, since he can’t run a third turn, stops trying to stymie legal immigration to energize his anti-immigrant base during FY2021…

…THEN we can HOPE that between the re-opened consulate immigrant visa sections, the National Visa Center’s scheduling, and the relatively few folks who adjust status to EB-5 in the US at a local USCIS office, those 18,500 EB-5 visas WILL get issued before September 30, 2021.  If that happens, Suzanne predicts that this “could shave almost one year off the expected visa wait times for Vietnamese and Indian investors…”

For all Vietnamese EB-5 investors, this is obviously good news.  But it is GREAT news for the savvy Vietnamese investors who are relying on LatourLaw to coordinate their entire U.S. family migration process via our bespoke 3 faceted, seamless U.S. residency solution:

1. Grenada CBI
2. E-2 via Managed Franchise Investment
3. EB-5 Transition to Permanent US residency.

Through Latourlaw’s bespoke migration planning, we are helping dozens of smart Vietnamese investors plan their family’s US transition, managing all aspects of the process and US business, and relocating families via solid E-2 investments, settling them in their new lives in the U.S. in less than one year.   More importantly, through careful oversight of the E-2 investment, we protect the family’s E-2 status AFTER they are in the US, renewing it as needed – remember, E-2 visas can be renewed indefinitely as long as the E-2 business continues to operate — until their EB-5 priority date is current.  As in “no matter how long it takes!”

Yes…it IS a delicate ballet… but one we’ve been performing successfully and painstakingly for hundreds of international families for almost 3 decades now.  So contact Monica if you want to dance….(-;

JEL

Attorney José E. Latour

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