By José E. Latour
On Thursday, June 24, 2021, the objection of a single Senator (Republican Lindsay Graham) blocked Senators Grassley’s, Leahy’s, and Cornyn’s request for unanimous consent for the Senate to pass S. 831, the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2021. As I reported yesterday, the EB-5 Regional Center program is set to expire on June 30th, 2021; Senator Graham single-handedly derailed the possibility of extending the program without interruption and the Senate has now adjourned for the Fourth of July holiday.
Senator Grassley was furious over what he described as derailment of the bipartisan bill by “a narrow subset of big moneyed and corrupt interests has now shown that they would rather kill the program altogether than have to accept integrity reforms designed to clamp down on their bad behavior,” alluding to the many sins perpetuated by Big EB-5 prior to the 2019 reforms. Senator Leahy, in a more diplomatic tone, expressed assurance that given the bipartisan support of S. 831, they expect to pick up the matter after the holiday, describing the bill as “a careful, thoughtful compromise that will keep the EB-5 program alive and curtail the worst abuses”.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR INVESTORS SEEKING TO ENTER THE EB-5 PROGRAM AT THE $500,000 TEA THRESHOLD REINSTATED THIS WEEK BY THE CALIFORNIA FEDERAL COURT:
The June 30th deadline means that, until the program is restored/revived via any of the possible methods detailed in yesterday’s blog, the USCIS will not be processing new I-526s. As many of us writing about these developments have explained, there are a variety of possible resolutions and timelines. For the meantime, the $500,000 pre-2019 TEA level investment threshold remains in place. While many EB-5 Projects are aggressively marketing the $500,000 opportunity, it would appear that protecting the interests of said investors is not a priority…investors risk tying up their $500,000 only to subsequently learn they can’t proceed with EB-5!
AVS Regional Center is currently accepting Investor Eligibility Questionnaires for $500,000 slots in its new River Oak EB-5 Single Family Home Rental Community Development project. To protect investors from the current EB-5 uncertainties, all River Oak EB-5 investors will have 100% of their capital investment funds protected in escrow, with no capital investment distributed until the EB-5 program parameters are clear and the investor determines to proceed .
For immediate application to River Oak EB-5, please contact our Vietnam office hotline at 0938.61.30.62 or U.S. office at 1-786-866-9775.