The Internet is abuzz with the USCIS posting a few days ago that the average processing time is 4.4 months to decide an application to create a new regional center. We have had three approvals in the past three weeks – with respective processing times of 5.5 months, 9 months and 14 months. Others report average processing times of 9 to 12 months. I take this recent processing time posting with a grain of salt.

Future of EB-5

One of my clients met with his congresswoman, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose, CA), who used to be chair of the House Judiciary Immigration Policy and Enforcement Subcommittee, and is a former immigration lawyer. My client asked Rep. Lofgren about the probability of the regional center statute being extended (it expires Sept. 30, 2015 – the direct EB-5 law does not expire). The congresswoman said she expects the statute to be extended with the investment amount indexed for inflation. The Polis EB-5 extension bill also contains an indexing for inflation provision.