EB5 Investors Magazine is pleased to announce the Top 5 Attorneys in Specialized Fields. To be eligible, these distinguished attorneys are recognized as top attorneys in specialized EB-5 practice groups, which focus on EB-5 policy and lobbying matters, complex cases and immigration compliance.
For more information or to contact any of these professionals, we invite you to view their listings at www.EB5Investors.com/directories.
ROBERT DIVINE
Robert C. Divine chairs the immigration group of Baker Donelson with offices in 24 U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C. He served from 2004 through 2006 as the chief counsel and for a time, the acting director of USCIS. Divine is the author of “Immigration Practice,” a 1,600-page practical treatise on all aspects of U.S. immigration law. He served for seven years as a vice president of IIUSA, an industry association for EB-5 regional centers. He represents EB-5 developers, regional centers and individual foreign investors, balances immigration and securities considerations, and litigates when necessary.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE EB-5 INDUSTRY CHANGE FOR A BETTER FUTURE?
Congress must amend the law to protect all investors from expiration of the regional center authorization. Congress has failed to make the regional center law permanent, instead extending it in increasingly tiny increments of time over the past 29 years. Everyone must wait years to get USCIS adjudication, and investors born in China must wait a decade or more for visa numbers, which means they must live through numerous possible expirations of the law. While actual expiration (and denial of everyone waiting) is unlikely, it is unreasonable for the United States to attract needed investment without providing more assurance.
WHAT TRENDS ARE YOU SEEING WHEN IT COMES TO EB-5 LITIGATION OR ADVOCACY?
Investors are frustrated with their lack of choice when it comes to redeployment of their capital when the original project has repaid the NCE and they wait to finish their immigration processing. Some have threatened or even brought litigation. NCE managers should explore providing options for investors with different emphasis on risk, liquidity, etc. Prospective investors should evaluate redeployment procedures and commitments in offering documents.
CHARLES FOSTER
Charles Foster is the chairman of the Houston-based Foster LLP and leads the firm’s EB-5 practice group. For more than 30 years, Foster has represented multinational businesses in the field of immigration law and has been board-certified as a specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law since 1979. Foster has represented individual EB-5 investors since the program’s inception in 1990, and regional centers since 1992.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE EB-5 INDUSTRY CHANGE FOR A BETTER FUTURE?
The EB-5 industry and practice can have a better future only if Congress increases EB-5 visa numbers directly by adding substantially more numbers, or indirectly by not counting dependent family members and recapturing unused numbers as provided in President Biden’s U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021.
WHAT TRENDS ARE YOU SEEING WHEN IT COMES TO EB-5 LITIGATION OR ADVOCACY?
Expanding litigation and advocacy has become even more important during the pandemic with the ever-increasing backlogs in the adjudication of I-526 and I-829 petitions, and given the June 30, 2021 sunset of EB-5 Regional Center program and need for Congress to extend it for a longer period of time, and to provide greater investor protection as well.
H. RONALD KLASKO
H. Ronald Klasko leads the E-2 and EB-5 Investors Team at Klasko Immigration Law Partners. They have represented thousands of investors, over 50 regional centers, and many developers. Klasko currently chairs AILA’s Administrative Litigation Task Force and served five terms as chair of AILA’s EB-5 Committee. He is also a former national president and general counsel of AILA. He is the only person twice honored with the AILA Founders Award for his contributions to immigration law. He has been selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America© for over two decades. He is the North American Representative of the Investment Migration Council.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE EB-5 INDUSTRY CHANGE FOR A BETTER FUTURE?
The regional center program must be renewed by June 30 or it will expire. The pending legislation to extend the program for 5 years has some provisions with which I agree and some with which I disagree. My most important objections relate to one inclusion and one exclusion. The provision included is a restriction on judicial review of EB-5 applications unless administrative remedies are exhausted. This exists nowhere else in immigration law. The main exclusion is the failure to include quota relief, meaning that EB-5 quota backlogs will continue unabated. Either the number should be increased or derivatives should not be counted.
WHAT TRENDS ARE YOU SEEING WHEN IT COMES TO EB-5 LITIGATION OR ADVOCACY?
Interest among investors substantially diminished since the investment amount was increased to $900,000/$1.8 million. Delays in petition adjudications are worsening, resulting in an increasing number of mandamus complaints filed in federal court. In many cases, the only way to get an adjudication is by filing a mandamus. Regional center terminations are increasing for a variety of reasons. The next year will likely see litigation addressing the impact of regional center terminations on investors. Regional centers are struggling to decipher and comply with USCIS policy on redeployment of investor funds. In some cases, they are litigating USCIS policy or lack of policy.
BERNARD WOLFSDORF
Bernard Wolfsdorf is a State Bar of California Certified Specialist in Immigration Law and former president of AILA, where he earned the Service Excellence award. Wolfsdorf is managing partner of WR Immigration, a Chambers USA Band 1 (California) top rated law firm with offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Monica, and Shanghai. Wolfsdorf has been selected as Immigration Lawyer of the Year by WWL and by Best Lawyers U.S. News and World Report. EB5 Investors Magazine has named him in its ranking for the fifth time. Chambers USA describes him as “(o)ne of the hardest-working immigration lawyers around.”
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE EB-5 INDUSTRY CHANGE FOR A BETTER FUTURE?
The EB-5 industry has been impacted by the failure of Congress to do its job. The program is plagued with slow adjudications, and long waiting lines such that investors are losing hope. Despite having brought in billions of critical dollars that have spurred growth and development in so many areas, and created hundreds of thousands of jobs, Congress will not act to provide a permanent program with sufficient visa numbers to meet the urgent need of investors. It makes no sense to require an investor to commit their capital and then wait years for a green card.
WHAT TRENDS ARE YOU SEEING WHEN IT COMES TO EB-5 LITIGATION OR ADVOCACY?
It is sad that investors must resort to litigation to get adjudication but with the USCIS latest publication of adjudication times, investors are saying “enough is enough” and the courts are being sympathetic in large part to the plight of investors. In terms of advocacy, I am concerned many are throwing their weight behind Grassley’s bill that does nothing to solve the problem other than add more bureaucracy to an already poorly–managed program. We need legislation that is bold and provides relief for those stuck in long waiting lines and ensures adequate and competent resources to adjudicate this program.
STEVE YALE-LOEHR
Steve Yale-Loehr is an Attorney of Counsel in Miller Mayer’s Immigration practice group. He brings more than 35 years of immigration law experience to bear in advising corporate and individual clients on a broad array of family- and employment-based immigration matters. He teaches immigration and asylum law at Cornell Law School as a Professor of Immigration Practice. He also founded and was the original executive director of Invest in the USA (IIUSA). He is listed in Who’s Who in America and is annually listed in Chambers Global, Chambers USA, and An International Who’s Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers as one of the world’s best immigration lawyers.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE EB-5 INDUSTRY CHANGE FOR A BETTER FUTURE?
First, the EB-5 industry must actively lobby the U.S. Congress for EB-5 reauthorization. Short-term reauthorizations don’t give potential investors confidence to invest; a long-term reauthorization of several years would. Second, the EB-5 industry should push USCIS to clarify key issues, such as what constitutes an acceptable redeployment. Third, the EB-5 industry should persuade USCIS to hold quarterly stakeholder calls with EB-5 experts so that emerging issues and trends can be discussed and resolved before they become major problems. Fourth, the EB-5 industry should work with USCIS to shorten adjudication times.
WHAT TRENDS ARE YOU SEEING WHEN IT COMES TO EB-5 LITIGATION OR ADVOCACY?
Because USCIS adjudication times are so long and because USCIS requests for additional evidence and denials continue to increase, EB-5 litigation is becoming more necessary. Finding a law firm that has EB-5 litigation experience is important. Advocacy on behalf of your EB-5 clients is also important. State Department consular offices are slowly opening up, but attorneys need to be aggressive to make sure their EB-5 clients are scheduled appropriately. Advocacy at the USCIS level is also important, as long-pending cases can slip through the cracks. A good EB-5 lawyer knows all the ways to advocate for clients.
EB5Investors.com Staff
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