EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program

Under this program, investors (and their spouses and unmarried children under 21) are eligible to apply for lawful permanent residence (become a Green Card holder) if they:

• Make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States; and
• Plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers.

This program is known as EB-5 for the name of the employment-based fifth preference visa that participants receive.

Congress created the EB-5 Program in 1990 to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. In 1992, Congress created the Immigrant Investor Program, also known as the Regional Center Program, which sets aside EB-5 visas for participants who invest in commercial enterprises associated with regional centers approved by USCIS based on proposals for promoting economic growth.

What You Need to Know:

1. Priority date retention

• Certain immigrant investors will keep the priority date of a previously approved EB-5 petition when they file a new petition.

2. Increased minimum investments

• The standard minimum investment amount has increased to $1.8 million (from $1 million) to account for inflation.
• The minimum investment in a TEA has increased to $900,000 (from $500,000) to account for inflation.
• Future adjustments will also be tied to inflation (per the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, or CPI-U) and occur every 5 years.

3. Targeted employment area (TEA) designations

• We will now directly review and determine the designation of high-unemployment TEAs; we will no longer defer to TEA designations made by state and local governments.
• Specially designated high-unemployment TEAs will now consist of a combination of census tracts that include the tract or contiguous tracts in which the new commercial enterprise is principally doing business, including any or all directly adjacent tracts.
• Provided they have experienced an average unemployment rate of at least 150% of the national average unemployment rate, TEAs may now include cities and towns with a population of 20,000 or more outside of metropolitan statistical areas.
• These changes will help direct investment to areas most in need and increase the consistency of how high-unemployment areas are defined in the program.

4. Clarified procedures for the removal of conditions on permanent residence

• The new rule specifies when derivative family members (for example, a spouse and children whose immigration status comes from the status of a primary benefit petitioner) who are lawful permanent residents must independently file to remove conditions on their permanent residence;
• The new rule includes flexibility in interview locations; and
• The new rule updates the regulations to reflect the current process for issuing Green Cards.