the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022

The EB-5 Reform.

At midnight on June 30, 2021, the congressional authorization for the EB-5 regional center program investor category expired. U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS) stopped approving green cards for people in the expired category who had applied to adjust their status to permanent resident in the United States. Consular officers also stopped issuing immigrant visas for people who were processing at U.S. embassies or consulates abroad.

Processing resumed on March 15, 2022, when the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 became law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022. Visa numbers can be allocated now because Congress preserved the eligibility (“grandfathered”) people who filed an immigrant investor petition before President Biden signed the new law. Congress authorized the regional center program through September 30, 2027, although the program provisions do not take effect until May 14, 2022.

Immigrant investors are the fifth employment-based preference category (EB-5) that Congress established in the Immigration Act of 1990. Generally, an immigrant investor applicant must invest at least $1,050,000 in a “new commercial enterprise,” which will create at least 10 full-time jobs that meet certain requirements.

The new law requires that the applicant expect their capital to remain invested for at least two years. A lower minimum amount, now $800,000, applies for investments in targeted rural and high unemployment areas, and in a new category of infrastructure projects.