Where It All Started: Individual EB-5 Via Smart U.S. Investment

Folks, as the USCIS continues to sit on thousands of long-delayed I-526 EB-5 investor petitions, a Chinese riptide of exasperated investors and agents is threatening the foundations of dozens of U.S. projects relying on EB-5 capital as part of their capital stack. As this is happening, more and more investors are looking at the individual EB-5 investment, based on faster adjudication times, the elimination of econometric analysis (which is triggering more than 50% of the RFE substance we are seeing these days), and simplicity of direct employment. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida is working very hard to get USCIS’ I-526 adjudication in gear as these delays are costing Florida companies millions of dollars and thousands of unrealized America jobs — the raison d’etre of EB-5 – continue to b…

The End of the Innocence: INTERPOL Complicity in Political Persecution

In my most recent two decades of law practice, I have dealt primarily with high net worth individuals who are living in unstable places in the Middle East, Far East, Latin America, and former Soviet states.  And as I have so often written in Immigration Insider, while the opportunity to secure U.S. residency through an EB-5 investor visa is a great option for many, there are a certain percentage of very high net worth clients for whom the U.S., with its regimen of global taxation on all income generated worldwide, for whom a green card makes very little sense.  These are the folks form whom we explore options like a St. Kitt’s passport investment and other alternative jurisdictions. After not hearing the word “INTERPOL” (which stands for The International Criminal Police Organization) fo…

An Apology to CBP For Yesterday’s Blog Title

I’ve received two phone calls this morning from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  The first was from an old CBP friend who was incredulous over the events of this past weekend, which I relayed in yesterday’s Immigration Insider as “My Weekend on the U.S. Border: CBP or KGB?”  The second call, in contrast, was from a very angry, semi-literate self described “CBP professional” who, between expletives, stated he had been there during my prospective investor’s illegal detention and I had totally “miscontruded” (had him repeat that to make sure I heard correctly) the facts in my blog.  After Saturday, the tone and language was hardly a surprise but receiving that second call on my personal cell phone was extremely uncool.  How did he get my number?  Why did they copy my U.S. passpor…

My Weekend on the US Border: CBP Gone Awry

This past weekend, as I have so many dozen times before, I entered the US with a group of  Mexican nationals with valid U.S. B1/B2 visas for the purpose of exploring various EB-5 Regional Centers in Southern Texas.  As always, I explained that the prospective investors all needed I-94s as we would be going further than 25 miles from the border.   As the officers processed the I-94s, one of the prospects, a former Mexican state official  (although he is not my client, I am omitting his name out of respect for his now-traumatized family), was taken behind the waiting room; an hour later we were advised that his visa was being cancelled and he would be allowed to return to Mexico.   Fair enough.  But over the course of next four hours, he was instead arrested, denied access to counsel …

Michael Harris’ Great Article on Obtaining EB-5 Regional Center Status

Michael Harris, my friend, longtime collaborator, and former Padawan has written a comprehensive article on the pros and cons of establishing or acquiring an EB-5 Regional Center…MUST reading for all you developers out there being seduced by the sweet siren song of U.S. immigration attorneys promising long lines of eager Chinese investors, checkbooks in hand…(-; Michael Harris’ “The EB-5 Highway”…