What are the time constraints for investors to invest in a regional center project in a TEA? When in the EB-5 project development can investors invest funds into the regional center?
The investment funds may be used prior to the filing of the I-526 petition; this has become a general term in the limited partnership agreement due to the long adjudication process of the I-526 petition. In terms of the TEA, an active TEA is required by the time the petition is filed or when the investment was made.
The processing time for processing of the I-526 is the main time constraint for EB-5 cases. It may now take over 22 months before you can secure approval of an I-526. In most instances, regional centers will accept your money anytime and keep it In an escrow account. Also, in some cases some regional centers will accept your money prior to filing your I-526 and put it in escrow.
In terms of when the money gets used by the project depends on your arrangement/agreement with the project. In some cases your invested funds can be placed in an escrow account with a condition on it being released upon EB-5 immigrant investor petition approval.
The investors can invest funds into the new commercial enterprise and the job creating entity in a TEA. The geographical TEA designation must exist either at the time of the investment or at the time of the filing of the I-526 petition.
Pardon the lawyerly answer, but it depends. EB 5 funds can be used before I-526 filings, upon the filing of the I-526, or once the I-526 is approved. Choosing one over another is based on the investors comfort and your financial needs, but a qualified EB5 attorney can help you with each method in regard to compliance with USCIS regulations.
Usually the investment is done prior to submitting the I 526.
When a project could receive EB-5 investor funds would depend on how the project was structured. As far as I know, all the regional centers want the EB-5 investors to fully fund into the escrow account before providing the I-526 business documents to file the case. Also, because USCIS is taking up to 20 months to adjudicate I-526 cases and most of the projects cannot wait that long to get the funding to proceed with their projects, many regional centers will release the funds from the escrow if they had the exemplar or three or more I-526 approvals in a particular group project/limited partnership. If USCIS goes back to approving I-526 cases within five to seven months as they used to a few years ago, then most regional centers may also go back to waiting until your I-526 gets approved before releasing your funds from the escrow.
