Congress Passes Legislation to Reauthorize the EB-5 Regional Center Program – CMB Discusses What That Means For InvestorsMarch 14, 2022
The EB-5 Regional Center Program (EB-5) will be officially reauthorized 60 days from the passage of the Federal appropriations package for FY 2022. The legislation, named the “EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022”, is great news not just for new investors interested to immigrate to the United States, but for the thousands of investor families that have been waiting in limbo due to the sunset of the program in June of 2021.
CMB Regional Centers, a leader in the EB-5 industry, has been working closely with others in the industry and law makers to establish long-term reauthorization and integrity reforms since 2015. Pat Hogan, CMB’s CEO and Founder, is one of the longest serving board members with IIUSA, the largest trade organization involved with the EB-5 regional center program. His work was essential to achieve this result.
CMB has always lived by this motto: take care of the investor first, and we will both achieve success. The new EB-5 legislation establishes important integrity and transparency measures for the industry, and protects the thousands of immigrant investor families with pending EB-5 petitions, allowing them to continue on their path to permanent residency in the United States.
This new legislation implements many changes to the program that every current and prospective investor should understand:
Changes to the EB-5 Regional Center Program:
- The Regional Center Program will be reauthorized through September 30, 2027 (5.5 years).
- The legislation includes ‘grandfathering’ for all investors who have an I-526 on file, or who file or have filed their I-526 petitions prior to September 30, 2026. Those investors will be able to complete the EB-5 process, even if the regional center program were to lapse again.
- The new minimum investment level will be $1.05 million, which will be reduced to $800,000 if the project is located in a qualified high-unemployment or rural area, or is an infrastructure project.
- The new investment amounts will take effect immediately, but the regional center program will not be officially reauthorized for 60 days. During this time, regional centers and regional center investors will not be able to file new petitions with the USCIS.
- The minimum investment amount will be automatically adjusted for inflation every fifth year beginning on January 1, 2027 for the higher dollar amount, and the lower amount will be calculated at 75% of the higher amount.
- New visa set-asides have been implemented: 20% of all visas will go to investors who invest in projects that qualify as rural, 10% will be reserved for high unemployment areas investments as defined under the new law, and 2% will be for infrastructure projects.
- Investors that are already in the United States on another visa can now file their I-526 and their adjustment of status petitions at the same time.
- New integrity measures are established that will protect investors by adding more reporting requirements for regional centers and their operators, and requiring disclosures of all fees paid.
Prospective investors that are interested to move forward with a new regional center investment have 60 days to begin their due diligence on potential investment opportunities. In the next 60 days, you will need to determine what immigration attorney will handle your case, and make the important decision of what regional center you want to invest with and what project you want to select.
CMB has an over 20 year history of assisting EB-5 investors and their families with their immigration pursuits. To date, nearly 6,000 investors from 103 countries have chosen CMB for their EB-5 investments. CMB’s 78 separate investment partnerships maintain a 100% project approval rate when adjudicated by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). CMB continues to work with the same strong developers that have the same commitment of maintaining a successful track record.
CMB has EB-5 projects available that meet all the requirements of the newly passed legislation that reauthorized the EB-5 regional center program. These EB-5 investment opportunities involve the construction of logistics facilities and have long term leases already in place with Fortune 500 companies in the e-commerce industry.
Available units in CMB EB-5 partnerships may subscribe fast. We encourage all prospective EB-5 investors to select an immigration attorney and begin the due diligence process now.
To learn more about the EB-5 Investor Visa, or CMB’s current EB-5 offerings, please contact us to schedule a free initial consultation with a CMB Investor Relations Manager. Our contact information is email or +1-309-797-1550
CMB engages Prevail Capital, LLC, a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and a member of FINRA and SIPC, to be the administrative placement agent for all CMB EB-5 partnerships.