Published on 01/17/2017
Hello, I’m Vaughan de Kirby. As you know, I’m an Investment Immigration attorney based here in San Francisco. Last year, you may remember, I spoke about a letter from the Director of Homeland Security to Congress. In that letter, the Director said that the Director had, within the legislation, the power to change the investment amount, but it’d be better and more appropriate if Congress made that change.
As we know, as of this presentation, Congress has not made that change. We’re facing some changes at April 28th. We shall see at that time. But what’s important here is USCIS has come out and said we do plan, we propose to raise the investment amount. And it is substantial. Basically what they’re saying is for the Regional Center model that we’re most familiar with, is going to move to $1.35 million, that’s from $500,000 to $1.35 million. And if you’re doing the Direct Investment, it’s going to move to $1.8 million.
These are proposed changes. I see these changes as a clear administrative message to Congress to act and hopefully Congress will act this time and give us a number that will be easier to work with, and certainly more attractive to investors and people seeking Green Cards for their families.
What this tells us from your perspective as a potential EB-5 investor is now is the time to act clearly. Any further delay would be a mistake, because you’re going to be looking at a higher investment amount to achieve the same immigration benefits.
In all the presentations, I always say it’s important to have information, but it’s more important to know what to do with that information. Clearly my recommendation here is that you act now. If EB-5 is important to you and your family, now is the time to act. Thank you.