What is an EB-5 regional center amendment?

It may include various reasons, such as change or addition of industries, change in economic model, change in organizational or ownership structure of a regional center, etc. Regional centers can also file amendment requests concurrently with requests for project preapproval, or an exemplar filing. This filing will allow USCIS to issue a preliminary determination of the project's compliance with applicable EB-5 requirements prior to individual investors filing their EB-5 petitions. Consult an experienced EB-5 immigration attorney for more detailed analysis.

There are several circumstances under which a regional center EB-5 can file amendments. It may be due to changes in the composition of the projects, or material changes in one or a few elements of the goals of the regional centers, just to name a few. In a situation where amendments had been filed, the right thing is to demand full disclosure of the amendments prior to investing with such regional center.

There can be different reasons for an amendment. If the center wishes to expand the geographic area that it may operate in, then they could seek an amendment. If the center wanted to add a new category or industry to their initial approval, they could also seek an amendment.

An amendment to an EB-5 regional center most likely would refer to amending either jurisdiction coverage of the EB-5 regional center or material changes in the terms and conditions of a particular project of the EB-5 regional center. The amendments are filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Generally, an amendment may be filed to seek changes in a regional center's geography, organization, project or organizational structure; however, some changes can sometimes be made without filing an I-924.

Amendments are used to add geographic areas and industry categories to the approved regional center designation, and to request that actual projects be preapproved and added to the regional center designation. These can be filed at any time with the proper supporting documentation, which should be prepared under the direction of an EB-5 attorney.