Questions and Answers > EB-5 Capital Fundraising

How can a regional center administer an ongoing EB-5 project?

Is it possible for a regional center to have a long-term, ongoing EB-5 project? E.g. if the regional center were to successfully create the required amount of jobs, help one group of investors receive I-829 approval, and then continue the project with a new group of EB-5 investors, and so on?

Answers

• Julia Roussinova

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on February 3, 2015

  Yes, it is possible that an NCE within a particular regional center can have projects with developers divided into multiple phases.

• Oliver Huiyue Qiu

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on February 2, 2015

  It seems you are asking whether the same JCE can be the investment vehicle for another batch of EB-5 investors after the first group of EB-5 investors have gained their residency. The key issue is whether the investments from the new investors will be spent on creating new jobs. If so, this model is possible. For example, the JCE is to build a resort with several buildings. The first group of EB-5 investors can fund the first building, then the second group can continue with a different building.

• John J Downey

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on February 2, 2015

  Yes, it is possible and there are ongoing regional center projects.

• James Cai

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on February 2, 2015

  Yes, it may even support multiple projects at the same time.

• Ed Beshara

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on February 2, 2015

  The ongoing project can be divided into phases. Each phase will be treated as a different but integrated offering with the first.

• Jinhee Wilde

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on February 2, 2015

  You are not making the EB-5 investment to a regional center and its operations, but to a particular job creating enterprise or project that the regional center develops along with a developer/partner. So, a successful regional center will do multiple projects with different partners, including a different group of EB-5 investors, to invest and create jobs - they will often number their groups by numbers and names of the different projects, such as Jobs Fund 1 and 2, and so on. Further, each project must stand on its own for a certain group of EB-5 investors and demonstrate that the jobs are created from those investors'' funds for that project.

• Salvatore Picataggio

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on February 2, 2015

  You can create phased EB-5 projects, but USCIS may count each phase as a distinct project and require new business plans and other documentation.

• Bernard P Wolfsdorf

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on February 2, 2015

  Yes, it is possible to have Phase 1, 2, even 3. All to be explained in the PPM.

• Daniel B Lundy

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on February 2, 2015

  Yes. This is more of a question of breaking up the project into multiple tranches or series. There would need to be a job allocation between them to detail how the jobs will be allocated to investors at the time of the I-829. Each tranche would carve out a two and a half year segment of the project (based on the USCIS policy that you must show at the I-526 stage that the jobs will be created within two and a half years of approval). Each tranche would have to have a business plan and economic report that details both the whole project and the portion of the project attributable to the particular tranche. You would have to ask a securities attorney, but I think that the project could either be structured with one new commercial enterprise and multiple offerings, or multiple new commercial enterprises. We have done this with various clients, and it is extremely common with large projects, such as the development of a master planned community over 10 or more years.

• Mark Szu-Yu Chang

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on February 2, 2015

  A successful regional center should be well run and profitable. Whether your center is able to sponsor more EB-5 applicants will depend on various factors. Please contact an attorney for an individual evaluation before you proceed further with any new EB-5 investors to make sure the immigration applications are successful.

• Yevgeny Samokhleb

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on February 2, 2015

  A regional center may generally continue to administer a project for as long as the project has a viable business plan to continue to create jobs. USCIS may request updated business plans and economic studies and other documents over time.