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Monday, February 27, 2012
Investors Sue South Dakota Regional Center
Investors in the South Dakota regional center are suing the center regarding payment of recruiting fees. EB5info.com reports.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:48 AM
Report: USCIS Scrutinizing EB-5 Regional Center Construction Projects
The Daily, a News Corp. online newspaper, reports on a new USCIS memo issued to EB-5 regional centers is reporting that USCIS warning them that they will more closely be examining job creation claims relating to construction projects. They're specifically questioning whether construction will result in jobs simply moving locations as opposed to new jobs actually being created. But the agency also sent a letter last week saying it would be demanding more evidence that certain types of projects, such as office buildings and retail space built for tenants, would actually create new jobs, rather than just provide a new building for existing jobs to move into.
A high-ranking source within the agency indicated that the move could impact 70 pending regional centers across the country that have these type of projects, and perhaps in the neighborhood of $1 billion in construction financing.
For some developers, that construction financing represents a huge discount from what they would have to pay if they were trying to obtain financing through a bank. Developers are not required to pay interest on loans from immigrant investors through the program, or to pay them back if the project fails.
The memo from USCIS can be found at eb5info.com.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:19 AM
Monday, January 2, 2012
CNN Reports on EB-5 Program
CNN has a report this week that provides a general introduction to the EB-5 program using the Jay Peak ski resort project in Vermont as an example. The reporter interviews a variety of people including the project developer, immigrants who successfully procured green cards through their investments, workers who found jobs as a result as well as one prominent critic of the program who thinks the investment threshold is too low and that the money should go to the US government rather than to private sector investments.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 5:20 PM
Monday, December 19, 2011
NY Times Report Questions NY State Designations of Targeted Employment Areas
A NY Times cover story has questioned the unemployment rate calculations that have allowed regional centers in New York City to qualify to accept investors at the $500,000 level reserved for high unemployment areas rather than the default $1,000,000 investment requirement. The report looked at a few projects in Manhattan and Brooklyn in seemingly affluent areas that appear to have lower than average unemployment rates as opposed to the 150% of national unemployment rate required to qualify for accepting smaller investments. The focus of the story seemed to be more on the state government agency that must approve an area as opposed to the regional centers themselves. State government officials contacted for the story claimed to be following federal guidelines and USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas, contacted for the story, indicated that the agency might need to more closely scrutinize how Targeted Employment Areas are determined.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:09 AM
Saturday, December 17, 2011
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