The June 15, 2017 draft EB-5 policy contains a significant change. It says that once the investor files the I-829, they no longer need to maintain the investment beyond the two years of conditional permanent resident status, assuming of course that the needed 10 jobs were created. The investor need only sustain the investment for two years from the date they obtained conditional permanent residence.

This will have some impact on Regional Center investors due to the slow processing of I-829s (now averaging 30 months), as some investors will request funds back. However, most projects will require the funds be committed to the project for a certain time period (typically 5-7 years).

In some direct investor cases, the investor may wish to sell their business once the 2 years of conditional residence has accrued and the I-829 is filed.

Comments

These are “draft” policies. You may comment by June 28^th to:

publicengagementfeedback@uscis.dhs.gov

I will send a comment asserting that once the jobs are created, redeployment of funds to safe U.S. Treasury bonds should be permitted. I encourage everyone to also send a similar comment.