Brian has done it again: with an All Star roster of speakers, his San Diego EB-5 event is proving to be another invaluable experience for those of us in this sector. As participants were greeted with the beaming smile of Aijun Cheng (Chief Investment Officer of Kantex Oil & Gas, LLC, currently initiating Regional Center formation via our own EB-5 Resource Center team) at the registration desk, it was apparent that this was anything but another dull, half-hearted event. It's not often you get to see a big roomful of people eager to discuss a subject, but this is the dynamic environment Brian has been able to recreate yet again.
The morning started with my good friend Michael Gibson of USAdvisors making a call for support of IIUSA, the EB-5 industry group. WIth the Pilot Program due to sunset relatively soon, the need to make the EB-5 program a permanent part of the U.S. immigration landscape is pressing. Next up was Fragomen's David Hirson, who I had the privilege of meeting for the first time. His presentation was full of insightful observations from the perspective of the world's largest immigration law firm…something valuable to all of us, attorneys and non-attorneys alike.
My friends Roger Bernstein and Karen Caco will be speaking on the EB-5 petition process and consular processing next, and after lunch we'll have an afternoon full of input from the Chinese agencies who continue to fuel the bulk of EB-5 investment dollars which make their way to the U.S.
As always, the best part of Brian's seminar is the networking and contact development opportunities incumbant with the event. Ours is a small community, and the opportunity to share war stories with others who are seeing the ongoing mutation of EB-5 adjudication practices is priceless. Imagine getting into a jaunty "my RFE is bigger than your RFE" debate with a colleague! (True story.)
Word of a Regional Center approval from a seminar participant causes impromptu applause from the audience; I smile, realizing as always that RC approval is not the finish line.
It is only the starting gun.
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