What kind of legal credentials should an EB-5 regional center hold?

A regional center will need to have, at a minimum, all organizational/formation documents and business license, USCIS designation letter, including any amendments if applicable, and all offering documentation for the particular project in which you intend to invest, such as private placement memorandum, limited partnership or limited liability company agreement, subscription agreement, project documentation, comprehensive business plan. Past track record of successful projects with I-526/I-829 approvals and return of capital to EB-5 investors is also an important factor.

As an investor, you can ask a regional center just about any questions. It is impossible to produce a laundry of documents that you should ask. However, it is highly advisable to consult an attorney who can help investigate and do necessary due diligence investigation on any regional center.

At a minimum, am EB-5 regional center must have a valid USCIS designation letter. You should conduct a close and careful evaluation of all of the offering documents for the particular project, or better yet, hire a third party expert to conduct due diligence for you. There are various aspects to consider to reduce immigration and financial risk, but keep in mind that EB-5 requires that your capital is at risk in the new commercial enterprise. A regional center with a good track record and a long successful history is a good sign. While past performance is not a guarantee of future success, it is an important factor to consider.

If you want to work for a credible EB-5 Regional Center, first and foremost you would want to make sure that their Regional Center has been approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. You can determine that by getting the documentation directly from them or going online to determine same; that is fairly basic. In addition, you would want to make sure that they have a successful history of marketing one or more EB-5 projects. You would want to determine how many EB-5 projects they have represented and how many EB-5 Investor Petitions on Form I-526 have been approved and how many Petitions to Remove Conditions on Form I-829 have been approved. Equally significant is the number of denials. You would also want to check out their website and look at the quality of the projects that they have represented, assuming that they are a Regional Center that represents third-party projects or if they represent their own projects, all of the previous answers would also be relevant.

U.S. business people who desire to operate a regional center must submit a detailed paper filing with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS must approve this application. This approval by USCIS is the only official qualification to operate as a regional center.

The regional center should be able to provide the USCIS regional center designation notice/letter, along with any success track record documentation as well as financial standing documentation.

The regional center has a designation approved by the USCIS. The regional center will have an approval letter from the USCIS stating the geographical areas and industry classifications covered by the designation. You should not just ask about the designation, you should also ask about the EB-5 project documentation and its compliance with the immigration laws and policies.

Regional center offering documents are what you need to receive to review the project before investing. You may also want to see their track record of doing EB-5 projects successfully. As EB-5 program has enjoyed more than 12 years of prosperity, there are several regional centers who have had great success track records in I-526 and I-829 approvals as well as return of principal investment amounts back to the investors. While past successes are not a guarantee of future successes, the fact that they were able to consistently do the projects successfully means those regional centers know what they are doing and have learned from past mistakes by themselves or other regional centers and have a better chance of success in the future.

You can find a list of qualified regional centers on USCIS website. However, this is only the beginning as many of the fraudulent transactions you may have read about were all under the guise of an authorized regional center. I recommend you retain a qualified EB-5 investment attorney and only invest in a project that has the supervision of an SEC registered broker-dealer.

Regional centers do not require any credentials beyond USCIS designation to operate as a regional center. You can check designation on USCIS website. You should retain qualified professionals to help you perform due diligence on regional centers.