We are anticipating the potential return of the EB-5 Visa Regional Center program at the end of September. It has been suspended since the end of June when the program lapsed. Congress was unable to agree to a reform and reauthorization bill. So the expectation is that it may be rolled back into the consolidated spending bill due by September 30.
The EB-5 visa program had been deliberately separated from this must-pass spending legislation last year in the hope that Congress would grapple with long-needed reform. For example, the need to bring more integrity to the EB-5 program and stamp out fraud.
If EB-5 visas are rolled back into the appropriations legislation in September, then it is likely to reopen with a minimum investment level of $500,000. This is down from $900,000 – the minimum investment level from November 2019 to June 2021. The price was pulled back down when a federal court rule that the November increase was unlawful.
There is support in Congress for putting the minimum EB-5 investment level back up – perhaps not as high as $900,000 but maybe to something in the $700,000 – $750,000. There is also interest in bringing the upper investment level (those outside of Targeted Employment Areas) down. The differential between TEA investments and non-TEA investments had been 100% (minimum investment outside a TEA is currently $1 million down from $1.8 million). This is one of the reasons Congress struggled to agree a reform proposal before the June 30 deadline.
Davies & Associates is holding a webinar on this very subject today with CMB Regional Centers in person in their Dallas office. Mark Davies, our global chairman, will be joined by Matt Hogan, VP Project Developments at CMB.
Topics will include
1. What is the latest news on the EB-5 Regional Center Program?
2. When will the EB-5 Regional Center Program be reauthorized?
3. Will the EB-5 Regional Center Program return at $500,000?
4. Will the investment threshold be going back up to $900,000?
5. Has this period where the Regional Center program has not been active for been good or bad for the program?
6. Do you think there will be a strong demand again for EB-5 if the Regional Center Program is continued at $500k?
Join us today or hang on for the recording in a subsequent webinar.
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