EB-5 Changes Imminent as Washington’s Dysfunction Continues

I am sitting in Doha, Qatar, waiting for my connection, and it just dawned on me that this whole business of trying to predict the future of EB-5 has become less of a “science” and more of an interpretive study in human dynamics since the launch of this most-unpredictable Trumpian era.  We are all s...

Jose E. Latour Jan 15, 2018

WSJ Reports SEC Investigation of Big EB-5 China Activities

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (i.e., the SEC, the U.S. federal agency responsible for governing how investments are offered by U.S. issuers) is investigating the real-estate company run by the family of President Donald Trump’s senior ...

Jose E. Latour Jan 06, 2018

EB-5 TEA Investment Likely to Leap from $500K to $1.35M in early 2018

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the agency responsible for administering regulatory changes in the federal government, has updated its projected timeline for new EB-5 regulations from April 2018 to February 2018.  While I mentioned this already to readers, a lot more discussion has b...

Jose E. Latour Dec 30, 2017

A “Modest Proposal” for the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Office (IPO) Leadership

As evidenced from USCIS’ comments made during the Nov. 7th stakeholder meeting, the agency continues to struggle with a massive backlog of I-526 petitions and no immediate solutions is in sight.  As the most astute independent observer of the EB-5 industry, Suzanne Lazicki’s most recent blog delves ...

Jose E. Latour Dec 30, 2017

NO WORRIES! What “Unauthorized” EB-5 Means in January 2018 Visa Bulletin

Happy Holidays, Readers!  AVS EB-5 has been getting calls and emails from all over the world regarding the just-published January 2018 Visa Bulletin issued by the State Department.  In it, instead of simply showing the projected backlog for China EB-5 investors, it reads across all worldwide regions...

Jose E. Latour Dec 18, 2017

2 More Weeks of EB-5…For Now!

Congress voted yesterday to extend the budget for two weeks and EB-5 gets yet another brief extension.  The Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Senate are still tinkering with a number of issues which are more politically pressing than EB-5, and the two week extension was agreed upon ...

Jose E. Latour Dec 08, 2017

EB-5 Renewal: The Silence is Deafening

As the brilliant Suzanne Lazicki pointed out in her posting today , the EB-5 Regional Center program has received an astonishing 7 short-term extensions in the past two years, and it's been a good five years since Congress did anything meaningful to improve the program.  The TEA abuse and unlawful k...

Jose E. Latour Nov 29, 2017

2018 EB-5 Cutoff Date for Vietnam? What You Need to Know

If you are a Vietnamese investor thinking about EB-5, you’ve probably heard about the potential of a so-called “cutoff” which could leave new investors facing long delays.  I’ve told you several times that I thought this was more marketing hype but now that the mighty Charles Oppenheim, Director of ...

Jose E. Latour Nov 04, 2017

Congressional Heat on Kushner and Big EB-5

On June 1st, 2017, Senator Patrick Leahy and Representatives Zoe Lofgren and John Conyers, Jr. wrote a joint letter to Laurent Morali, the president of Kushner Companies, indicating in the opening that they: “…are concerned about recent reports detailing Kushner Companies' use of the EB-5 Regional C...

Jose E. Latour Jun 09, 2017