Investor Visa Hopefuls Rush to File Before Safeguards Expire

Immigration attorneys are expecting applications for the EB-5 investor visa pathway to spike ahead of a key provision of the law expiring at the end of September.

The growth of the program, which allows foreign nationals to qualify for permanent residency by investing in businesses that create jobs in the US, reflects the absence of other viable pathways to a green card for Indian and Chinese nationals who face extreme backlogs.

More than 16,000 petitions have been submitted in the four years since Congress revived the EB-5 regional center program that allows investors to pool funds in large enterprises, EB-5 trade group Invest in the USA estimates. In just the first quarter of this fiscal year, more than 1,700 investors filed petitions for the program, driving more than $1.4 billion in new capital for US projects, the group said.

The Trump administration’s increased scrutiny of high-skilled immigration, including the H-1B program, has also helped put a bigger focus on the investor visa as a fallback for high-earning foreign workers.

But the looming Sept. 30 termination of safeguards for new investors is adding another layer of urgency for EB-5 petitions, say attorneys planning for a slew of cases this summer. Law firms are asking staff to hold off on vacations, or are even bringing on extra hands to handle a rush of applications from investors who may have been on the fence before now.

“It’s going to be busy,” said Andrew Diroll-Black, chief compliance officer at American Lending Center Holdings Inc. and a former official at US Citizenship and Immigration Services, where he helped lead the immigrant investor program.

Congressional Deadlines

While a standalone investment pathway is a permanent part of the program, Congress created the regional center option as a temporary pilot in 1992. Since then, large-scale enterprises operated by regional centers have come to account for the vast majority of EB-5 investments.

High-profile fraud cases though prompted calls for tougher oversight from Congress, and protracted negotiations by lawmakers led to a lapse in authorization in 2021.

When Congress renewed the regional center pilot the next year, it added new investor safeguards and oversight rules for regional center operators. It also raised investment thresholds to $1.05 million, or $800,000 for projects in rural or high-unemployment areas.

Significantly, for potential investors this summer, the five-year extension included a Sept. 30, 2026, “grandfathering provision” after which investors won’t be shielded from future lapses in authorization.

The temporary expiration of the regional center program in 2021 was followed by a steep dropoff in petitions and capital invested through EB-5. Filings dropped by more than 3,500 from the previous year, and didn’t rebound to previous levels until more than three years after the reauthorization law.

Although the regional centers have Congressional approval to operate for another year, many attorneys are treating the September expiration date as the more critical deadline, and say it’s unclear what the volume of petitions will look like in October.

Moreover, minimum investment amounts will rise in January, based on inflation, adding another impetus to file for the program soon.

“The first question I’m getting is ‘how quickly can you get this filed?’” Matt Galati, principal at the Galati Law Firm, said of his conversations with prospective EB-5 investors.

Rush to File

Few advocates for the EB-5 program expect the regional center option to go away after next year. The benefits of the capital and employment opportunities it’s injected into many states is clear to lawmakers, they said. But the slew of deadlines add uncertainty to new projects and urgency for investors.

“If they don’t get in for the grandfathering, they’re going to want to get in before the price goes up,” said Brennan Sim, head of global sales at regional center operator EB5 United.

But a mad dash to file petitions over the next several months could create drawbacks for investors. Less time to develop substantial petitions could result in “skeleton” cases with minimal details that will likely be rejected by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Joey Barnett, a partner at Wolfsdorf Rosenthal LLP.

“As you get closer to the deadline, people rush and they get sloppy,” he said.

Backlog Alternative

While interest in EB-5 has grown in places like Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam, it’s dominated by applicants from India and China who will feel the most pressure from upcoming deadlines.

A rising share of participants from those countries are already in the US when they submit EB-5 petitions, including more than 90% of Indians who have filed EB-5 petitions this fiscal year.

Many of those applicants have spent years pursuing careers in the US with temporary status through the H-1B program. But annual caps on employment-based visas available for a given country have fueled wait times for green cards that can last for years, or even decades.

For those with the financial means, the EB-5 program offers a potential fast-track to permanent residency. The 2022 reauthorization law also allowed applicants to apply for green cards, employment authorization, and travel documents at the same time that they submit petitions for the program, spurring participation from investors within the US.

More recently, job market turmoil in the tech sector and a slew of Trump initiatives targeting the H-1B program have made getting long-term status in the country even more pressing, said Carolyn Lee, an investment immigration attorney and founder of Carolyn Lee PLLC.

“Everything is getting harder. The avenues are getting tighter and narrower,” she said. “They need a way to secure means of maintaining their residency and livelihood in the US.”