Published on 08/14/2015
Hello, I’m Vaughan de Kirby and today we’re going to talk about something that is becoming more and more important, and something that you’ll be reading about if you’re doing research on EB-5. This is something called exemplar approval.
Read the realted article: Exemplar Projects Explained
Now what exemplar approval is: when a regional center has made a separate, very detailed application to USCIS for this special approval. They must submit the proof regarding the new commercial enterprise, their business plan, their business organizational plan, and offering documents, as well as other information, to USCIS. If USCIS approves these documents in this submission, they give what is called exemplar approval. This is very important you as a consumer in EB-5. What it means is your application may, and I want to use that word may, actually be processed more quickly and that is because USCIS, generally speaking, does not have to look at the project documents so closely because they have already approved them. This means that the project documents and the project itself cannot change from what is presented in the exemplar approval. But it’s great for you because that means that only your source of funds documents are really the main focus of USCIS when they adjudicate your application.
Now, another factor which, we really don’t know for sure, this is something that as I tape this today, we really don’t know the answer to, but there is hope that what it will mean for exemplar approval is, in the future, the investment amount will be able to remain at $500,000. So in the future, if your application is not processed before the sunset of EB-5, you may still be okay if you are investing in a project with exemplar approval.
But again, this is not the law as I speak today, it is basically the law we are being told will be passed. But until it is passed, we don’t know. And it’s something you need to speak with your investment immigration attorney very carefully on. But I can say that if you’re selecting a project, look for exemplar approval. I hope this was helpful.