When even a Senator can’t get the Director of USCIS to “unstick” inexcusable I-526 adjudication delays, it’s time to write the White House.  Let’s see if Mr. Obama is serious about his “Invest in America” agenda…or whether USCIS inaction will lead to an exodus of EB-5 investment capital and ghosts of jobs that never were… Dear Mr. President: I am a former Reagan FSO who has practiced investment immigration law for over 20 years.  I am also co-owner of American Venture Solutions Regional Center, a USCIS-approved EB-5 Regional Center in Florida, the only EB-5 Regional Center owned & managed by a Forbes 400 group.  The EB-5 program has been the most successful foreign direct investment (FDI) initiative in the history of the U.S.  Unfortunately, USCIS delays are costing local com…

There is one indisputably clear “job creation” impact of this whole EB-5 business:  it is sure opening one heck of a lot of new collateral businesses within and without the U.S.  Consider: While there were but a handful of immigration attorneys creating complex EB-5 Regional Center structures just a few years ago, we suddenly have hundreds of self-proclaimed experts all to happy to put together an RC. China has the only organized, government-licensed (if somewhat less than ethically pristine) immigration agency structure on earth, but there are suddenly of “immigration agents” in Russia, Brazil, you-name-it aggressively marketing their proven EB-5 results (??) to U.S. EB-5 projects The notion that there is this big, long-line of prospective EB-5 investors lined out the door of each of us…

There is one indisputably clear “job creation” impact of this whole EB-5 business:  it is sure opening one heck of a lot of new collateral businesses within and without the U.S.  Consider:While there were but a handful of immigration attorneys creating complex EB-5 Regional Center structures just a few years ago, we suddenly have hundreds of self-proclaimed experts all to happy to put together an RC. China has the only organized, government-licensed (if somewhat less than ethically pristine) immigration agency structure on earth, but there are suddenly of “immigration agents” in Russia, Brazil, you-name-it aggressively marketing their proven EB-5 results (??) to U.S. EB-5 projectsThe notion that there is this big, long-line of prospective EB-5 investors lined out the door of each…

Last June, I had the privilege of serving as discussion leader in Nashville at ILW’s annual EB-5 Summit, held in concurrence with the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association’s annual national convention.  During a morning break between sessions, my dear friend Sam Udani — the founder of ILW, the Web’s foremost resource on U.S. immigration law — leaned over and whispered something he’d said to me a year earlier, in New York:”Jose, never mind the expiration of EB-5; next year we are going to RUN OUT OF EB-5VISA NUMBERS!”It made sense the first time he’d said it in New York, I’d had time to think about it…and history was rapidly proving him right: we knew that FY 2012 EB-5 numbers were going fast compared to FY2011 (in the end, 7500+ EB-5 slots went in ’12, an increase of 3500…

I know, I know…I’ve been a terrible slacker blogger person.  BAD Jose.  I have been a rolling stone/flying MACHINE since the beginning of September and Immigration Insider has been dormant.  No more Global Entry booths in sight till next year and I’m actually going to remain in the U.S. for the rest of the year — longest time in U.S. in well over a year!  The plan is to get back into the daily habit of updating Immigration Insider before I am again China-bound on 1-1-13!But that’s for Monday.  Right now I’m on day 5 of non-stop EB-5 conference calls so I’ll leave you with this cool HLG ad for Lake Point seminar in Vietnam last month and my sincere wish that you have a great weekend! Lake Point Seminar for Vietnam Migration Agents…

[This article isn’t really about EB-5 or immigration; rather, it is one of my occasional detours into tangential subjects which are closely related to foreign direct investment in the U.S.  Just humor me….(-;] The global financial world, for the most part, remains very bullish on the Chinese currency, commonly known as the “yuan”.  Through purported “loosening” — a process where China’s all-controlling central bank trickles a bit of free market freedom into the artificially-priced currency — conventional thinking in currency circles would lead one to believe that it will rival the dollar as a global currency sometime soon.  Before I tell you why I don’t believe that can happen, let’s take a Wiki Moment to explain the yuan: The yuan ( /jʊˈɑːn/ or /ˈjuːən/; sign: ¥; code: CNY…

At 36,000 feet, 2 hours from Lahore.  Severe clear skies and staring out window for the last hour as we’ve turned SE over Kazakhstan, then Uzbekistan, and then Kyrgyzstan. Nothing but rolling dunes and bone dry flatlands. I mean nothing: not a shack, not a vehicle, not one tree, not a sign of human civilization, just a surreal brownish-gray moonscape which reminds me of the history, tribalism, and isolation of the peoples of this elusive part of the world.Finally: a settlement of one large building and 6-7 small ones, connected to who-knows-where via a razor thin road stretching forever…

Yesterday, September 13th,  the U.S. House of Representatives passed S. 3245 (412-3) – providing in part a three year re-authorization of the EB-5 Regional Center Program through September 2015.  (As I told you back in August, the Senate passed the bill on August 2nd.) Now that both chambers of the U.S. Congress have approved the extension, it goes to the White House for President Obama’s signature.  Here’s what this means to EB-5 investors:Although others online are reporting that the President is expected to sign it into law this week, a former State Department colleague who works in the White House says not to hold our breath:  the violence in the Middle East means their energies are on other priorities.  That being said, I would say that it is virtu…

My HLG Partner and our China Managing Partner Mikael Charette arrives this afternoon in Miami for a busy overnight stay.  He and I will be meeting with:Greg Denton to discuss marketing of hotel EB-5 projects in China.  Greg is a veteran in structuring venture capital deals in the hospitality sector and literally “wrote the book” on hotel asset management.  He is my collaborating partner on all hotel EB-5 deals I structure;Bianca Saltz, my partner in Private Placement Partners, our EB-5/VC marketing development company, to discuss integration of China-driven marketing for HLG-managed EB-5 projects and;my partners in American Venture Solutions EB-5 Regional Center and the owners of the Lake Point EB-5 Project to discuss Lake Point Capital Partners, the second and final EB-5 li…