EB-5 Redeployment And The New USCIS Policy Guidelines

It seems as though the EB-5 Program is a moving target. First, we received notification in August of 2015 that loans could be repaid before I-829 final adjudication after the required jobs have been created, provided that funds were then deployed in an "at-risk" activity. Then the Policy Guidelines attempted with great difficulty of trying to clarify what "at-risk" means. One could argue that their examples and statements both directly and through footnotes created more confusion than clarification.

The main takeaway from the new USCIS Policy Manual Guidelines (the Policy Guidelines) is the pronouncement that many immigration attorneys thought was already the law that the EB-5 investment could be returned to the petitioner once the two-year conditionally residency period had expired and the requisite jobs have been created. On one hand this is a big victory for the EB-5 Program. No waiting the extra 2 years to 30 months (based upon current wait times) to receive a