The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (“RIA”) introduced significant changes to the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, including changes to the establishment and oversight of Regional Centers.
A Regional Center’s establishment represents a strategic effort to stimulate economic growth by drawing in foreign investment and generating employment opportunities within a designated geographic area.
A business or development project (“Project”) that is sponsored by a Regional Center gains several key advantages. The most important is the ability to count indirect and induced job creation through economic modeling. This makes it easier for foreign investors in the EB-5 Program to show the creation of 10 jobs based on their investment. A Project can also pool multiple EB-5 investor’s capital for funding which allows developers to raise more foreign capital for its development project.
A Regional Center sponsored Project is now required to submit a comprehensive application in advance to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services which, upon approval, can also give foreign investors peace of mind that the Project is approved and will qualify EB-5 investors.
The RIA codified some additional rules for Regional Centers. “A regional center shall operate within a defined, contiguous, and limited geographic area, which shall be described in a proposal and be consistent with the purpose of concentrating pooled investment within such area. The proposal to establish a regional center shall demonstrate that the pooled investment will have a substantive economic impact on such geographic area.”
The proposal shall include “reasonable predictions, supported by economically and statistically valid and transparent forecasting tools, concerning the amount of investment that will be pooled, the kinds of commercial enterprises that will receive such investments, details of the jobs that will be created directly or indirectly as a result of such investments, and other positive economic effects such investments will have”
The proposal shall further include “a description of the policies and procedures in place reasonably designed to monitor new commercial enterprises and any associated job-creating entity to seek to ensure compliance with:
• All applicable laws, regulations, and Executive orders of the United States, including immigration laws, criminal laws, and securities laws.
• All securities laws of each State in which securities offerings will be conducted, investment advice will be rendered, or the offerors or offerees reside.
• Attestations and information confirming that all persons involved with the regional center meet defined requirements.
• A description of the policies and procedures in place that are reasonably designed to ensure program compliance; and the identities of all natural persons involved in the regional center.
These new rules are implemented to enhance the “integrity” of the EB-5 Program as is stated in the RIA title.
This is part of a series on the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022. To read more in this series, click here.