…for having the courtesy to comment on the video blog via my personal email as opposed to trackbacks.  All the suggestions regarding audio, camera placement, liposuction and Botox are being taken under consideration.Perhaps after you are all over the Jose the Vidiot part of this, I will actually start getting substantive commentary.  TTFN…(-;  Jose…

Listen up: recent chatter on AILA InfoNet as well as recent reports suggest a new targeted effort aimed at small company NIV petitioners.  Not only have there been recent adjudications which seem to ignore all prior policy on H-1Bs issued by companies in which the petitioner has an interest, but ICE is actually knocking on doors and investigating U.S. companies petitioning non-immigrant workers.Makes you feel safe, doesn't it?With the colossal immigration problems facing this country and the desperate need for comprehensive immigration reform, is it really sensible to deploy investigators to inspect on AMERICAN COMPANIES because they've gone through the giant ordeal of filing a non-immigrant visa?What a waste of money for taxpayers…for everyone.…

Look, I’m TRYING HARD here, guys.  I’m not really interested in naming names or getting people angry but I’ll tell you what: if some of the more BALONEY-laden EB-5 Regional Centers and lawyers don’t get a grip on the nonsense they spreading, I’m going to start blogging about them.  How’s this Miami Herald quote from a developer pitching the EB-5?: “In the worse case scenario, this project will make a lot of money”Well….no.  In the worst case scenario, the investor will lose his or her money, not get his/permanent residency, have to leave the U.S, and transplant their families back to their country after being led to believe that there was “no risk”.I first noted this whole thing when we were in Venezuela a few weeks ago.  Turns out a lot of other s…

In the past few months, I've had the opportunity to meet with a lot of folks with approved Regional Centers.  In the process, I've asked a lot of questions and spoken to some of the most sophisticated real estate developers, portfolio managers, and financial minds in the country.  I've learned a few things and I think they might be of interest to those of you who are considering an investment in an EB-5 Regional Center, as well as those of you who represent such potential EB-5 investors in one capacity of another.For the purposes of today's blog, I won't name names.  I have in the past and I most certainly will in the future.  In fact, the more I learn about EB-5 Regional Centers, the more comfortable I feel with some…and less so with others.&…

I've been representing foreign investors in the U.S. for 18 years.  So have many of my colleagues.  So why is it that the notion of "tax planning" is such a conundrum for most immigration attorneys?  The truth is that we, as immigration counsel, are "programmed" to steer most folks to legal permanent residency.  There are valid reasons, the primary one being that the majority of clients seek such status.  But a significant (and growing) number of foreign investors in the U.S. wish to preserve their foreign residence as primary…and have no desire on becoming subject to taxation in a country in which they do not intend to live permanently!It seems like on an almost-daily basis I'm approached by a client with substantial offshore assets…

A formidable number of weak L-1A visas were filed in Venezuela in the past decade, and it is small wonder the U.S. Nonimmigrant Visa team in Caracas casts a wary eye upon Intracompany Visa applications involving:a new U.S. enterprise with low job creation numbersa comparatively small Venezuelan parent/affiliatean entrepreneurial principal eager to see what he or she can do in the world's largest economyTo be blunt, the fraud was epidemic in the late 90's, and the only reason the situation has somewhat quelled is because most attorneys have come to belive that, with the above fact pattern, the consulate would likely deny the visa, notwithstanding the approved I-797.  (Not so, but more on that later.)For me, this situation once again became a timely topic when we recently visi…

When Roger, Melissa, and I got back to the office Monday from our incredibly exciting EB-5 Immigrant Investor seminar in Venezuela, I got a taste of the days of old.  We'd left Wednesday and returned Sunday afternoon, and none of us had gotten much sleep during and since the trip.  And despite the presence of a great team on top of the workload, upon our return to the office we were each bombarded with that unavoidable crush of activity which befalls each busy attorney who dares leave the office for a few days.  I thought back to my own business immigration practice, which I sold six years ago to my partner and friend, Lorenzo Lleras.  Lorenzo had joined my firm right out of law school and had grown to manage the firm far better than I ever had by the time he …

No, I’m not talking “tee time” at Ocean Reef (or “tea time” at Ocean Reef, for that matter.)  I’m referring to the EB-5 Investor Visa definition for TEA: “targeted employment areas”.  A “TEA” refers either a geographical area which has an unemployment rate of at least 150% of the national average OR a rural area.  Of the 10,000 annual visas set aside for EB-5 Investors, 3,000 of them are set aside for TEA cases.  Why is this important?  Because TEA designation drops the required EB-5 investment amount from $1 million to $500,000.And, as it just so happens, that wonderful paradise right in our own South Florida backyard, the Florida Keys (except for the City of Key West) meets the TEA definition, from the stretch connecting Key Largo to the tip o…