
we speculate and wonder about the changes that might occur to the Program once Congress passes new legislation.
The EB-5 Regional Center Program is a pilot program and requires re-authorization
by Congress every 3 years. It is possible for the program to be briefly extended beyond the three years sunset until Congress comes up with a bill to reauthorize the Program. These extensions took place already on several previous occasions since September 30, 2015 (when the program was last set to expire.)
For now, we predict Congress will settle for another short extension – perhaps only a couple of months- while they define the details of a deeper transformation for the program. If and when the program is reauthorized, one of the main changes we expect to see is the increase in the minimum investment requirements from $500,000 to $800,000 for a TEA and from $1 million to $1.2 million for non-TEAs.
For those clients who have already filed their I-526, we expect the new program will allow for the grandfathering of their petitions, so that they will not be affected by a potential increase in the minimum investment requirements.
For those who have been holding on their decision to file, we suggest to do it before new changes are introduced with the hopes that their I-526 will be grandfathered and the existing minimum requirements will still apply.
For more information, contact us at Schonberg & Timerman, PL.