CMB received great news this week, our Group 78 EB-5 partnership just received an I-956F approval! The I-956F is a new petition introduced by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) following the passage of the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 by Congress. Under the Reform and Integrity Act (RIA), Regional Centers are required to file an I-956F petition for every investment offering. Importantly, this approval also shows an ongoing commitment by USCIS to complete the timely adjudication of high-unemployment area projects.
CMB Group 78’s I-956F approval also marks another milestone in CMB’s long-term relationship with Hillwood Development Company. Group 78 featured the development and construction of warehousing/logistics projects in Southern California. This Group 78 I-956F approval is one of the first in the industry. It indicates that the USCIS has evaluated the associated EB-5 project and believes it will meet all the requirements of the program, primarily the Targeted Employment Area (TEA) and job creation requirements. The Group 78 investment is located in a TEA also known as a high-unemployment area, which after approval of their I-526E petitions, qualifies post-RIA investors for set-aside visas under the high-unemployment TEA category. Industry practitioners hope that the new I-956F petition process, along with the new associated I-526E petition, will help to reduce adjudication times for post-RIA investors.
Previously, the legacy I-526 petition was the first step in the EB-5 process. The legacy I-526 was adjudicated based on information related to both the EB-5 investor and the EB-5 project. Therefore, project-related information could potentially be reevaluated with every individual investor’s petition. In contrast, the new I-526E petition includes a field for an I-956F receipt number. In theory, once an I-956F petition is approved, post-RIA investors in that EB-5 partnership should see their I-526E petitions adjudicated based solely on investor-specific criteria as deference will be provided to the approved I-956F petition referenced in their filing.
This new adjudication process should be far more efficient, and it’s the hope of many in the industry that processing times will decrease substantially. We at CMB believe that this approval is a huge accomplishment for our Group 78 investors, and we hope to see more individual I-526E approvals in the near future.
CMB EB-5 partnerships have seen recent success at the I-829 staged. In the past month, we’ve been notified of the first I-829 approvals in CMB Group 46, CMB Group 51, and CMB Group 57. An I-829 approval is the single most important milestone in the EB-5 process and grants investors permanent residence in the United States. CMB has now achieved these approvals in 44 separate EB-5 partnerships and we maintain a 100% project approval rate with the USCIS.
If you are currently considering the EB-5 program, contact us today to schedule a consultation with our investment specialists. We have EB-5 investment opportunities available for subscription that qualify for set-aside visa categories under the RIA!
