Questions & Answers

How can an EB-5 project be moved from one regional center to another?

How can ownership of an EB-5 project be switched from one regional center to another? Does it make a difference whether it is an exemplar project or not? If this is feasible, what should we pay attention to when going through this process?

Answers

• Charles Foster

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on March 20, 2018

  An EB-5 project cannot be removed from one Regional Center to another without careful consideration. First, of course, it would take the mutual consent of all pertinent parties including the initial Regional Center, the owner or EB-5 project developer and of course the other Regional Center as well. A careful analysis of the project documents as well as the legal consequences would have to be made to make sure that by transferring the EB-5 project from one Regional Center to another would not adversely affect any of the investors irrespective of where they are in the process, i.e. an initial investor or an investor with an approved EB-5 petition. This would obviously constitute a material change and it would also be necessary file an amendment with the USCIS as well. This transfer would not be undertaken unless there were compelling facts that required that such transfer be made, which would normally mean that for whatever reason the original EB-5 Regional Center had or was in the process of lapsing.

• Mark AM Catam, Esq

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on March 19, 2018

  I would be concerned about switching an existing project to a new regional center for two reasons (i) there has not been a very clear guidance from IPO regarding this (ii) it could be determined as a material change.

• Jinhee Wilde

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on March 19, 2018

  Normally, regional centers do not own the projects unless everything is vertically integrated, which is not advisable to the investors. If you are a developer and you wish to work with another regional center, that is up to you.