Duncan Hill is marketing director at Davies & Associates LLC. Duncan is not a lawyer and nothing in this blog constitutes legal advice.
The clock in now ticking. The minimum price of an EB-5 visa is to increase by 80% to $900,000 as of November 21, 2019. Anyone wishing to lock in the current $500,000 rate should act fast.
A key requirement of the program is to document that the funds used to pay for EB-5 have come from legitimate sources, and this can take time. In India, our largest market, it takes an average of two months to prove source of funds, which effectively narrows the window to a deadline of late September.
The $900,000 rate is only for investments made in areas of high unemployment, which are so-called “Targeted Employment Areas” (TEAs). The price of investments made outside these areas will rise to $1.8 million from the current $1 million.
What constitutes a TEA is also likely to change when the new rules come into effect in November. Currently, individual states determine their own TEAs, but from November, this will be determined by the Department for Homeland Security instead. This change is designed to prevent wealthy districts being packaged together into a TEA with poorer ones.
The increase is not as steep as initially feared. The industry had been expecting the minimum investment level inside a TEA to increase to $1.35 million. This figure would have taken account of inflation since the program started in the 1990s. However, the US authorities opted for the lower level to maintain the same differential with EB-5 investments placed outside a TEA.
With an expected rush of applications over the next few months, anyone able to afford the higher rate may prefer to wait. By conducting due diligence on your Regional Center project or direct investment, you maximize the chances of having your money returned along with your Green Card – whether it be $500,000 or $900,000.
Davies & Associates continues to position itself at the forefront of the industry and we have been quoted in India’s leading newspapers on this issue. This includes the Times of India, the Hindu, the Financial Express, and the Hindu Business Line.
Indian-born clients also have the additional complication of visa retrogression, so we recommend discussing this with us directly. We will have a large team in India over the next few months helping our Indian clients with EB-5, as well as discussing alternative and temporary options such as the L1 visa, Grenadian Citizenship by Investment, and the E2 visa.
Outside of India, we have a large team of multi-lingual attorneys working with our global clients on their source of funds and I526 filing.
Contact us as soon as possible to maximise your chances of locking in the current EB-5 rules and rates.
