EB-5 Visa News

2010:Year in
Review
 EB-5 Visa News
2010: Year in Review
The complete collection of EB5info.com's monthly newsletters, including professional
commentary and documents that highlight EB-5 news, issues, and events in 2010
 Contents
Preface ... 4
January ... 5
February ... 19
March ... 25
April ... 30
May ... 37
June ... 47
July ... 56
August ... 67
September ... 74
October ... 84
November ... 98
December ... 112
Appendix A – USCIS-Approved EB-5 Regional Centers ... 122
Appendix B – Map of USCIS-Approved EB-5 Regional Centers ... 125
Appendix C – Top 10 Attorney Contributors ... 126
Appendix D – Top 10 Service Provider Contributors ... 127
Appendix E – Top 10 Advisor Contributors ... 128
Appendix F – Top 10 Firm Contributors ... 129
Appendix G – Top Q&A Contributors ... 130
Appendix H – Top 10 Resource Contributors ... 131
Appendix I – The Neufield Memo ... 132
Appendix J – The Startup Visa Act ... 141
Appendix K – USCIS Notice of Intent to Terminate Victorville Regional Center ... 148
Appendix L – USCIS Notice of Final Termination, Victorville Regional Center ... 157
Appendix M – Letter from Alejandro Mayorkas to Sen. Patrick Leahy ... 167
2010 saw explosive growth in the EB-5 program. The number of regional centers doubled again,
and is set to double in the upcoming months as a slew of entities flooded USCIS with applications
for designations before the new I-924 application fee went into effect in November. This process
came as capital to fund U.S. commercial enterprises continued to be scarce in the wake of the
credit crisis, causing many developers and project managers to seek alternative sources of capital
and look overseas for funding.

The number of investors applying for U.S. residency under the EB-5 visa program increased
dramatically as knowledge of the program spread and as other countries (principally
Canada’s) program for residency became much less compelling. According to USCIS, the
number of I-526 applications for residency nearly doubled from 1,028 in 2009 to 1,955, and
I-829 petitions to remove the green card conditions rose from 437 to 768.

Not all news, however, was positive. Concerns over the capability of many commercial
enterprises to create jobs as outlined in their operating agreements and according to USCIS
regulations dominated the discussion in stakeholder committee sessions and in the media.
Several EB-5 investors were denied their I-829 petitions and are facing removal from the U.S.
and loss of principal in their investments. These failures were caused principally either by
overly optimistic forecasts from developers who were not able to raise sufficient amounts of
capital in time to complete their projects or by material changes to original business plans
which may not have been disclosed to investors. The lack of a safety net by commercial banks
to provide lines of credit to entities with significant negative cash flow has proved difficult for
new enterprises and troubled business sectors seeking financing through the EB-5 program.

Many immigration attorneys are increasingly concerned with advising their clients on the
suitability of investments should project failure occur and are seeking ways to reduce their
potential liability, yet others are embracing the role of agent and finder despite the risks
involved. Issuers as well do not seem to be concerned with issues of rescission due to
improper solicitation, marketing, or the payment of fees despite guidance from securities
attorneys and regulators, or with issues of fraud by misleading investors with their agent’s
promotional activities. Investor actions against issuers, agents and promoters involved in
project failure, as well as scrutiny by securities authorities was not forefront in 2010, but that
may change as the number of EB-5 projects increases and several fail to achieve either their
immigration or commercial objectives in 2011.

As always, EB5info.com will be the source of information for the EB-5 visa program and we
would like to thank all of the professionals who contribute to our newsletters in an effort to
educate investors, attorneys and service providers in the field.

Best wishes to you all for a safe and successful 2011,

Michael Gibson
Managing Director
USAdvisors.org
 January
• EB-5 Projects Receive Substantial Nationwide Media Coverage
• Attorneys and EB-5 Advisors Comment on Trends in Immigration Law
• Washington Post and National Public Radio Document Growth and Evolution of the
EB-5 Visa Program
• Effort to Create "Startup Visa" for Foreign Entrepreneurs Gains Steam
• Immigration Law Firm Miller Mayer Releases EB-5 Program Video

Media Outlets Across the U.S. Report on EB-5 Visa Projects

The month of January saw many individual EB-5

projects around the country making headlines.
While several news stories considered projects
that have been in the making for some time and
are finally breaking ground, others provided a
glimpse of potential EB-5 initiatives and regional
center efforts currently in the works.

Here's a run-down of "in progress" EB-5 regional

center projects that made the news this month:
Giugiaro-Designed Concept Car
1. America's Center for Foreign Investment
(ACFI) – In a Montgomery, Alabama news conference that received lots of local attention,
Hybrid Kinetic (HK) Motors displayed a concept car – an Italian-designed "Quaranta" – the
likes of which it plans to produce in great numbers upon completion of an EB-5-funded
auto plant near the Gulf Coast.

It's possible the project could receive additional financing from the State of Alabama down
the line, but that will be "an uphill battle" said Governor Bob Riley in comments to the local
press. ACFI will have to show the state that it has received at least $1 billion through EB-5
or other financing before Alabama will even consider assisting HK Motors in its endeavor.

Commentary in the Montgomery Advertiser is skeptical that HK Motors, a Pasadena,

California startup, will be able to churn out the millions of cars per year it is predicting. Only
since the news conference has the company signed an agreement with the Italian designer
Guigiaro, who actually designed and produced the Quaranta in 2008.

2. Northeast Ohio Regional Center (NORC) – An article in Ohio's Daily Record profiled
Mike Steiner, a recently retired entrepreneur known locally for his success in the insurance
business, who be working with NORC to get its projects off the ground. According to the
Record, "Members of Woooster Growth Corp. viewed EB5 as a potential vehicle to
construct buildings" for a local "research park."

It is worth noting that NORC would not qualify for the $500,000 EB-5 investment since it is
not located in a Targeted Employment Area.

3. Noble Outreach – The Louisiana-based regional center made local headlines this
month for its groundbreaking on commercial property that will
include a restaurant, hotel, and "multipurpose conference center."
In what New Orleans City Business described as the razing of a
"pair of blighted buildings" in Algiers, Louisiana, construction of
the new facility is now underway.

According to Regional Center Principal Bart Hungerford, Noble

Outreach is "eyeing future projects in New Orleans East." The
regional center currently has an exclusive contract to handle all
Bart Hungerford (left) EB-5 investments in the New Orleans area.
and Col. Tim Milbrath
of Noble Outreach 4. Vermont EB-5 Regional Center – Jim Douglas, Governor of
Vermont and big EB-5 proponent, has "finalised a plan" with the
South Korean AnC Bio that will create the state's first EB-5 regional center. On the list of
projects is a facility that would "manufacture portable dialysis machines, cell therapy
machines, vaccines and other bio-medical supplies, as well as conduct cutting-edge
research and development," according to the local press.
Citizens and local government officials are hopeful that the initiative will bring over 200
biotech jobs to the region. Its construction is a $50 million endeavor, and the facility is
slated to open in 2011.

And here are the "potential" EB-5 projects that made press in January:

1. The Adirondack Economic Development Corporation in Saranac Lake, New York is

preparing its EB-5 regional center application, and the nearby Plattsburgh-North Country
Chamber of Commerce has placed formation of the North Country EB-5 Regional Center
on its list of priorities for the year.

The county wants to expand a terminal at the Plattsburgh International Airport, and it
believes EB-5 financing will prove a viable way to fund the expansion.

2. From the Colorado Business Journal comes a story on burgeoning EB-5 efforts in that
state, in particular the latest push by the development group Waveland Ventures to acquire
EB-5 regional center designation. Waveland would form the Colorado Regional Center,
which would solicit financing from foreign nationals to fund construction projects in rural
areas and ski towns. It looks like operator Chet Schwartz has been careful to pick these
locations because they qualify for Targeted Employment Area designation and can receive
the lower threshold $500,000 investment.

Also mentioned in the piece are the two

regional centers in Colorado that are
already USCIS-approved: the Rocky
Mountain High Regional Center and the
Colorado Intercontinental Regional
Center.

The former is "waiting for the economy to

improve" before it seeks investors.
Colorado Intercontinental, on the other
hand, is already working on plans to take
downed timber harvested in response to
Many EB-5 Regional Center Projects – New and the local beetle kill plague and process it
Old – Involve Ski Resorts. into cellulosic biofuel that will join corn-
based ethanol in diluting the quantity of
petroleum in the nation's fuel supply. The federal government mandates that a certain
percentage of the nation's fuel supply come from non-petroleum sources.

3. The St. Louis region is attempting to receive EB-5 regional center status in an effort to
fund "startups at plant and life science incubators and [send funds] into potential uses for
[an] old Chrysler plant." According to the St. Louis Dispatch, which reported the story,
EB-5 suddenly became a way to fund these endeavors as recession realities made it
harder to tap traditional sources of private financing.

The paper quotes Muzaffar Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, who
responds to criticisms of the EB-5 program as a "green cards for sale" scheme by noting
that 10,000 visas is not really such a large quantity. Even if the U.S. were to issue the
maximum number of EB-5 visas available each year, he argues, they would still only make
up a fraction of the visas awarded to immigrants annually.

4. A New York state legislator is proposing that his district seek EB-5 regional center status
so that it can invest more in local tourist infrastructure – in particular a hypothetical ski
resort called the Adirondack Club and Resort.

Such a project, as the EB-5 community is well aware, would not be the first time an EB-5
regional center was set up to develop a ski resort.

EB-5 the "Hottest Thing" in Immigration Law Practice?

Ever since the recession began, the market for H-1B nonimmigrant work visas has waned
significantly, and many immigration law firms that once considered the H-1B their bread
and butter are singing a different tune.

Demand for the EB-5 visa, which was once so obscure that few
immigration attorneys had experience working with it, has increased
substantially. Many major media publications – including the
Washington Post and Forbes.com this month – have covered the
explosive growth of EB-5 regional centers and the increasing number of
applications for EB-5 visas from foreign national immigrant investors,
and the explanation for those events usually goes something like this:
Bank aren't lending; developers need financing for their projects; they're
using the EB-5 program until the banks start lending again.

An article in this month's Legal Intelligencer, however, quotes Ron Klasko

immigration attorney Robert S. Whitehill who attributes increasing
interest in the EB-5 visa to "the diminished value of the American dollar compared to the
euro and the recent emergence of newly wealthy people in China, as well as in Russia and
other oil-rich countries."
While there was still little to no interest in the program until about 2006, by 2008 it was
becoming common to see regional centers represented at immigration conferences, the
Intelligencer reports.

The piece also profiles Ron Klasko, an immigration attorney who runs what the
Intelligencer describes as an "immigration boutique" – the Philidelphia law firm Klasko
Rulon Stock & Seltzer – and has been traveling the globe to promote the EB-5 program to
interested investors.

Klasko also works directly with CanAm Enterprises, which runs the two EB-5 regional
centers in Pennsylvania as well as one in Hawaii and another in California. CanAm
Enterprises recommends that their investors work through Klasko's firm, although the
investors are under no obligation to do so.

Comparing the individual EB-5 process to the regional center program, the Intelligencer
turns to Klasko:

Klasko said there are numerous advantages to the regional center EB-5 application
process compared to the individual EB-5 process.

First and foremost, he said, individual EB-5 applicants are usually required to invest
$500,000 more than regional center investors are unless the enterprise is located in a rural
or high unemployment area.

Also, Klasko said, it’s often very difficult for individual EB-5 applicants to prove that their
investments have directly created 10 new jobs.

"Most startup companies don’t have 10 employees," he said.

And for those individual EB-5 applicants looking to purchase an existing business and
restructure it to form an eligible new enterprise, the restrictions imposed by the USCIS have
"pretty much made that impossible."

"Our rules on expanding existing businesses are pretty tough to meet," Klasko said.
"Investors have to show net worth will increase by at least 40 percent, as well as adding 10
employees."

While it has been apparent to interested outsiders for the past year (if not longer) that the
EB-5 program has taken off and that many regional center operators are traversing the
glove in search of wealthy investors, what may not be apparent is the profound effect the
program's growth is having on immigration law practice. Many lawyers with no prior EB-5
experience are learning about the program.

Just a little over a year ago, the number of USCIS-approved EB-5 regional centers stood
at 20. Today, a quick look at the USCIS website shows 79.
ILW.com’s EB-5 Panel of Experts: Focus Changes to the USCIS/CSC
Interpretation of Indirect Job Counting
by Michael Gibson, USAdvisors.org

After publishing a story about the upcoming ILW.com "Investors For

Experts" panel discussion, I noticed that the agenda had changed
considerably from its original format reported here in December:
ILW.com hosting panel of EB-5 visa experts.

This should not come as a surprise to EB-5 practitioners because

of questions raised after an IIUSA / AILA EB-5 stakeholder’s
meeting with USCIS and California Service Center representatives
in December concerning job creation methodologies and the use of
RIMS II and other economic models in the counting of indirect and
induced jobs inside and outside of the EB-5 regional center.
Michael Gibson
For EB-5 regional centers that do not count or account for direct
jobs, these comments were unsettling and many would like
clarification on USCIS and CSC interpretation of the law. This subject of counting indirect
jobs has obviously taken on much more importance as can be seen from the change in
focus and subject matter from the initial announcement of the series:

December 17:

The third and final phone session will be covering EB-5 Regional Centers on January 21, 2010
(registration ends on January 20):

• Due diligence in selecting a regional center

• Employment methodologies
• Co-counsel and other experts

January 18:

THIRD Phone Session on January 21: USCIS On EB5

• Government Perspective On EB5 Program

• Follow up on Stakeholder Meeting and Dec 11 Memo

The focus has shifted from questions of due diligence and an internal discussion of job
creation methodologies to getting clarity from the USCIS/CSC representative on
comments made during the EB-5 stakeholders meeting in December. The question of job
counting and creation is of such great importance that the agenda of the call has been
completely changed.
The moderator of the discussion will be Lincoln Stone, who has chaired many such EB-5
panels before and is also instrumental in the submission of approved regional centers who
rely solely on the accounting of indirect and induced jobs, sometimes also referred to as
Capital Injection or Expenditure Methodology, so listeners should pay close attention as he
seeks direction from the CSC officials, in particular, Sasha Haskell, whose comments in the
stakeholder’s meeting caused the recent turmoil.

The economics expert on the panel will be David Andersson, EB-5

Regional Center Principal of the Whatcom Opportunities Regional
Center and member of AUBER: The Association for University
Business and Economic Research, and I am sure that he will offer
very valuable insight into the importance of this issue as he has
been a very strong proponent of the indirect only/capital
expenditure model for many years.

While many may disagree with the USCIS/CSC stance, I do believe

in the validity of their concern that actual jobs are created (not
simply transferred from within or created far beyond the targeted
area) and reasonable methodologies are used to prove their
creation. Lincoln Stone

Here's my impression of their stance: The EB-5 visa exists to allow foreign nationals to
invest and create a certain number of U.S. jobs in return for a green card, and that by
simply stating that since funds have been spent in a targeted region, by default, "x"
amount of jobs have been created.

I will use South Florida as an example of why I question this methodology (please forget for
a minute that neither Miami nor Ft. Lauderdale qualify as a TEA; this is an illustration only). I
can show beyond any doubt that billions of dollars were spent to build some of the most
beautiful hotels, condos and office space this side of Dubai.

At the same time, I can also show a vacancy rate of over 80% in many of these luxury
apartments, thousands of square feet of unoccupied Class A office space, and a doubling
of the local unemployment rate. There is no question that the money was spent, but where
are the jobs? By any definition, there was a huge loss of jobs (direct, indirect, and induced)
in all sectors of the economy despite a massive investment of capital (both equity and
debt). Fortunately, no EB-5 regional center investments were located in this area at the
time, but one can see the analogy for Centers located in other regions of the country that
might have experienced job loss despite capital being invested.

I can see where the capital expenditure method works in times of rising GDP and declining
non-farm payrolls, but I do see the possible need for evidence that direct jobs were
created (in the particular EB-5 regional center investment) when the opposite is true, if only
to verify that the foreign nationals' funds did indeed create jobs through the EB-5 regional
center’s investment. One can argue that on the macro level investment would eventually
create jobs, and that might be true in the long term, but unfortunately this is a program
with a very short timetable and high standards for removal of conditions at the I-829 stage.

The long term success of the EB-5 program, I believe, will mean that regional centers
should be able to demonstrate that U.S. jobs were created or saved. Simply showing that
the investor’s money was spent may not be adequate proof to our representatives in
Washington of what a valuable program this is or that American jobs were indeed created
or saved as a result of foreign nationals investing through the immigrant investor green
card program. Empirical evidence would discredit those who say this program is about rich
foreigners “buying” green cards by showing definitive proof that investment resulted in
expanded U.S. payrolls and a greater U.S. GDP.

Opponents of the program are likely to ask for empirical data that U.S. jobs were indeed
created, not simply transferred from one location to another, or that capital invested
resulted in increased U.S. GDP through production of goods and services and the creation
of employment. It is my belief that the indirect-only capital contribution methodology does
not adequately prove the creation of jobs. It may satisfy the requirements of the law as
Congress intended, despite concerns from the agency that oversees the program, but I
feel that if the program is to succeed there should be a realization that opponents of the
program (and immigration in general) may try to block efforts to make this visa program
permanent or expand the scope for investment unless the stakeholders here can positively
prove that jobs are created through immigrant investment.

What Happens When USCIS Breaks the Law?

From Charles Kuck, noted immigration attorney and Principal at the

Georgia Center For Foreign Investment and Development, comes
insightful commentary in the American Immigration Lawyers Association
(AILA) Leadership Blog. A long time member of AILA, Kuck comments
on the recent "Neufeld" policy memos issued by USCIS and the effects
they are having on the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program.

His comments have been echoed by many in the EB-5 community, in

particular EB-5 regional center principals and EB-5 visa attorneys, who
feel the direction and guidance from USCIS and California Service Center
Charles Kuck
officials is counterproductive to the intent of Congress when it
established the EB-5 visa program.
Here is an excerpt from “What Happens When USCIS Breaks the Law:"

The Neufeld memo on the EB-5 program, essentially makes that job creation program
unworkable, and the Neufeld Memo on the H-1B program, literally changes decades of
established policy on the most important visa allowing U.S. companies to hire foreign
nationals. The USCIS, without any input from the users of the program (really, there was no
input), has broken the camel’s back. Absent an immediate withdrawal of these memos, it is
quite clear that in order to keep these programs workable, additional action will have to be
taken. AILA USCIS HQ Liaison Committee has sent to USCIS Chief Counsel Roxana Bacon
a detailed letter explaining how the USCIS has fundamentally eviscerated the H-1B
program, and has clearly violated the APA. I strongly urge you to read it, to understand the
depths to which the USCIS has delved in its war on the H-1B program.

Kuck goes on to state that USCIS issued the said memos so as to "curry favor" with
particular elected officials who harbor concerns about both the H-1B and EB-5 visa
programs. While he concedes that instances of fraud do crop up in both programs, Kuck
also maintains that changing the rules in a way that jeopardizes "legal and correct"
utilization of the programs is not the best way to purge either of its fraudulent users.
USCIS, he believes, has no business punishing others for its own "failure to police" either
program.

Read Charles Kuck's complete article here.

Washington Post Explains Growth of the EB-5 Program, Affirms

Bipartisan Support

It was only "a matter of months," reports the Washington Post, before "more than 50
private and public enterprises were certified as [EB-5] regional centers, increasing the total
from 23 to 74." In a piece that focuses on the explosive growth of the EB-5 program, the
Post examines why the number of individuals coming to the United States with EB-5 visas
rose from 1,443 in 2008 to 4,218 in 2009.

The piecemeal "streamlining" of EB-5 processing procedures on behalf of USCIS together

with the recession and credit crunch have made the EB-5 program a more attractive
avenue for financing, the piece explains. Construction projects, in particular, are able to use
the program for funding during an era when banks aren't lending.
According to Michael Wallach of the Anacostia Regional
Center, the area in which his group is developing real estate
projects has the highest rate of unemployment and the lowest
income of any location in Washington D.C. Whereas getting
equity capital to an area like that would normally be difficult if
not completely impossible, the EB-5 program actually
provides an incentive to invest in such regions – the
opportunity to get a green card through an investment of David Morris
$500,000 as opposed to $1 million elsewhere.

The Post explains: Since "the primary motivation of the immigrant investors […] is to create
enough jobs to meet the visa requirement rather than to maximize the return on their
investment, they might prove less skittish" than a more traditional investor.

Also considered is the potential for fraud in an environment where regional centers are
springing up everywhere you look. Attorney David Morris, who was also quoted in the
piece, expresses concerns that the efforts of a few fraudulent operations soliciting funds
from foreign nationals could "poison the well" for legitimate organizations trying to take
advantage of the program.

EB-5 proponents, it seems, also fear that the process of seeing that all conditions are met
for regional center projects is still too slow. The Canadian immigrant investor program is
also seeing a record number of applicants, the Post reports, and its numbers are "three
times" that of the EB-5 program. A recent article on ABC News.com says that many
investors themselves "complain that EB-5 runs about as efficiently as the DMV," and some
have waited up to a year just to get denied and have to reapply.

Nevertheless, the EB-5 program enjoys bipartisan support. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and
Patrick Leahy (D-VT) have even banded together to try and make the Regional Center Pilot
Program permanent. As Leahy tells the Post, "At a time when we’re seeing so many of our
jobs exported out of the country, [EB-5] creates jobs in the United States."

And it's hard to argue to be against job creation. Recession or no recession.

NPR: Recession Fuels Growth of Immigrant Investor Program

National Public Radio’s Jennifer Ludden has produced a very balanced and informative
piece on the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program.
In the audio broadcast published this month, she speaks with an English investor about his
investment in the Marriott Hotel
project run by EB-5 principal
Henry Liebman of the American
Life Seattle Regional Center and
with EB-5 Regional Center
Principal Ron Drinkard of
America's Center for Foreign
Investment (ACFI).

The piece outlines the benefits of

the EB-5 program for both the
foreign national and the United
States as a job stimulus program,
America's Center for Foreign Investment (ACFI) but Ludden also mentions its
critics, such as Mark Krikorian of
the Center for Immigration Studies, who states that despite safeguards against fraud
enacted by USCIS after problems with the EB-5 visa program in the 1990s, it would still be
possible for fraudulent petitions to be approved.

Krikorian also believes EB-5 is a way for rich foreigners to simply “buy a green card."

Muzaffar Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute then notes that the majority of EB-5
investors have been from Asia, predominantly from China, and that despite the recent
upsurge in applicants, the visa program is still widely underutilized.

Brian Thompson, the American Life EB-5 visa immigrant investor from England, states that
if the program were better publicized, there would be more demand for the visas.
Currently, the program is relatively unknown outside of the United States.
The following two articles were written by Michael Gibson of USAdvisors.org in response
to recent attention given to the push for a startup visa bill in both the U.S. House of
Representatives and Senate. Both articles originally appeared on EB-5 Visa News.

Investors Try to Open Door for Foreign Entrepreneurs

From the Wall Street Journal comes a story EB-5 Visa News reported some time ago that
illustrates the efforts of a group of U.S. venture capitalists in organizing a grassroots
movement to modify the EB-5 immigrant investor visa so that foreign entrepreneurs can
come to the United States under a “start-up” visa program and obtain their U.S. green
card in exchange for creating U.S. jobs.

The proposal, which has recently gotten the support of several congressmen and senators
in Washington and lawmakers across the country, is similar to the EB-5 visa in that it
provides the investor with a conditional green card in exchange for his or her investment,
but unlike the EB-5 visa “pilot” or passive regional center program, the start-up visa
requires that the investor also be actively engaged in the formation of the venture and
creation of U.S. jobs. That would mirror more closely the traditional or “stand-alone” active
EB-5 visa, sometimes referred to as the "Million Dollar Green Card," but would allow the
foreign born investor to qualify for entry for a lower amount.

The effort is headed by very well known venture capitalists Brad Feld, Dave McClure, Eric
Ries, and others, and the effort is both well funded and organized. They are already using
their intimate knowledge of social media tools like Twitter to promote awareness and
understanding of the program, and have managed to send several thousand Twitter feeds
to members of Congress in support of their ideas.

This quote from their website illustrates the point that not only is foreign capital or equity
needed for the enterprise to be successful, but also the entrepreneurs themselves:

The United States has a similar program – the EB5 visa category, which allows immigrants
to invest $1 million or more and generate ten jobs as part of that investment. However,
that category is limited to investors, and not the entrepreneurs who are going to drive that
value creation. The impact of this visa category could be dramatically increased if we focus
on the entrepreneur who creates the business, as opposed to focusing solely on the
 investor holding capital. Small changes can dramatically increase the efficacy of this
program and increase our economic competitiveness in the future.

If you would like to know more about the Startup Visa, you can visit the website here.
Tracking of their campaign results can be found here.

Incubating Change to Immigration Law with the Startup Visa

Movement, EB-5 Visa Assessment From Silicon Valley

A slightly different angle from the IT/Tech

community on the Startup Visa was featured in a
story published by Tech Crunch in October of
2009. It is interesting to note the author's take
on the EB-5 visa’s limitations for Silicon Valley
entrepreneurs, especially concerning the two
year timetable for creating jobs and the fact that
capital typically comes from other sources (not
the entrepreneur):

First off, the EB-5 requires that an immigrant invests $1 million (or $500,000 under certain
circumstances) of their own money in a new business. This rule ignores the fact that tech
startups are often backed by venture capitalists, and it overemphasizes the role of money
instead of assessing a foreigner’s talent and ambition as primary factors. The EB-5 is also
only given to immigrants who can promise to create 10 full-time jobs within 2 years, which
doesn’t mesh well with the reality that successful startups (while creating plenty of new jobs
in the medium and long-runs) often maintain deliberately low head counts in the short-run.

This emphasis on allowing the foreign born entrepreneur to come in and create a company
that employs Americans through his or her hard work, effort, and ingenuity rather than
solely through the investment of capital is quite different from the current EB-5 immigrant
investor visa program.

At some point, the efforts of those involved in the EB-5 community will have to reach out
to these individuals to see if there is common ground and/or to carry the message to our
representatives in Washington that foreign investment in the United States is good for
creating jobs and increasing the standard of living for both the immigrant investor/
entrepreneur and American citizens as a whole.
Miller Mayer Releases Video Explaining EB-5 Program Basics

From New York immigration law firm Miller Mayer comes this video, which is arguably the
most concise description of the EB-5 visa program yet made available by any EB-5
practitioner. Thanks goes out to Miller Mayer for making this available.

Click to watch the video.

 February
• New EB-5 Regional Centers in Michigan, Washington Receive Approval
• Commentary Critical of EB-5-Funded Car Manufacturing Plant in Alabama
• Greece's Debt Problems May Mean Fewer European EB-5 Immigrant Investors
• National Visa Center Issues Annual Report: Visa Applicants by Country

New Regional Center in Michigan Has High Hopes for "Low-Risk"

EB-5 Investments

According to Jim Lynch, operator of the newly-minted and

USCIS-approved EB-5 Michigan Regional Center (EB-5 MRC),
he and other principals at the Saginaw, Michigan operation will
help foreign national investors "looking for low-risk
investments."

A press release issued by the center states that EB-5 MRC,

only the second EB-5 regional center in the State of Michigan,
has been approved to seek investments for a multi-county
region. Nine counties are listed in the release, and Lynch says
that he and associates are "eager to expand the authorized
area" and work with other counties toward creating jobs and
putting investment dollars to work.
EB-5 MRC will raise
EB-5 MRC has already met with several investors who are capital for biofuel
manufacturing.
interested in projects the regional center may pursue. USCIS
has approved the Michigan operation to solicit investments in biofuels, biotechnology, and
alternative fuels manufacturing and research facilities, and its team boasts many years of
experience in venture capital investment and new product development.

As Lynch notes, "There’s plenty of competition out there for investment dollars, and we’ll
be calling on our local EDCs, chambers of commerce, business authorities and investor
groups to help us sell mid-Michigan." Competition among regional centers – there are now
nearly 80 – has certainly grown fiercer since the dawn of the economic downturn and
subsequent hunt for alternative sources of financing.

Lynch continues, "We know that [mid-Michigan is] fertile ground to grow successful
businesses, but we need to prove it, and we will." EB-5 MRC will begin soliciting funds for
its projects in what is perhaps the most fertile ground of all for regional centers – The
People's Republic of China.

Commentary Skeptical of HK Automotive's Plans for EB-5 Visa

Project in Alabama

From Charles Child of Automotive News comes a very skeptical view of Hybrid Kinetic
Motors Corporation's plan to produce a line of “green” hybrid cars through the EB-5 visa
immigrant investor program. As EB5info.com reported last month, there was concern from
within Alabama about the large number of investors needed by
America’s Center for Foreign Investment (ACFI) before the State of
Alabama would provide any funding or incentives.

According to Child, the HK Motors project is little more than a "pie-

in-the-sky" fantasy, and its contention that the plant will produce 3
million hybrid cars per year is simply "absurd." Child compares that
number, which has appeared as a 2018 target production goal in
HK's promotional literature, with General Motors's 2009 sales of 2.1
million units.

Nor does Child accept that the quality of HK automobiles will rival
that of Mercedes Benz, an assertion that comes straight from the
lips of HK CEO Chuantao Wang.
HK Motors hopes to
build cars like this
Italian-designed Whether HK Motors will ultimately produce cars in as great a
Quaranta. volume and as of fantastic quality as its leaders contend may be
beside the point. The automaker is already soliciting funds from
wealthy Chinese investors through ACFI, the only EB-5 regional center in Alabama. If the
center is able to raise $1 billion in total capital investment, it's likely that the state will help
foot the bill.

HK Motors would not be the first Asian carmaker in recent years to build a plant in the
region. Hyundai built a factory near Montgomery in 2002, and KIA opened a facility just
across the Georgia border in 2007. Car manufacturing plants are labor-intensive
enterprises that bring jobs to communities. If there is a market for the product, there are
jobs for the taking.

Citing its use of the EB-5 program, Child says HK's "plans have little to do with making
cars." However, if cars are not made and no jobs are created, the potential for EB-5 would
not exist.

For now, the State of Alabama will wait and see if ACFI comes up with the funds.

Regional Center to Pursue Mixed-Use Development in Washington

State's 8th Largest City

A press release from Twin Development LLC outlines the group's plan to bring a mixed-
use development to Federal Way, Washington.

The project will be funded by the EB-5 visa

program during a time when "conventional
lending for large mixed-use projects has been
all but frozen," said Patrick Doherty on behalf
of the City of Federal Way. Turning to the
EB-5 program for funding is not uncommon
in today's climate, and more developers are
starting to see the program as a viable way to
raise the money not being leant by banks.

USCIS just granted regional center

designation to the city, which will operate
under the name Twin Development Regional above: Tacoma, Washington; Federal Way is
Center. The City of Federal Way has a roughly 15 miles from Tacoma.
population of 88,580, but the press release
claims it currently has "only 38,000 jobs."
Regional center operators have the support of Washington's governor, Christine Gregoire,
who has said "it is precisely the EB-5 foreign investor visa program that may be able to
provide [the necessary] source of financing" to get Twin Development's projects underway
and start creating jobs for the community.

The press release quotes Twin Development Co-Manager, Steve Smith: "This project is
further confirmation of the Pacific Northwest’s status as an international gateway. […] By
leveraging the opportunity presented by the EB-5 program, we can broaden access to
foreign capital sources while providing a lucrative opportunity for international investors."

Twin Development Regional Center joins American Life, one of the oldest, most
established regional centers, and Whatcom Opportunities in offering foreign nationals an
investment opportunity in Washington State.

Why Greece’s Problems May Mean Fewer European EB-5 Visa

Immigrant Investors

European leaders met this month to discuss

plans to rescue Greece from a financial free-
for-all which threatens to drag other European
Union countries, economies, and debt down
with it.

Comments in anticipation of help from EU

Police in Greece quell protests.
leaders, in particular from Germany, helped
the euro rise to $1.38 from a 9-month low
against the dollar. All eyes will be on the
outcome of the meeting today and what
package, if any, can be put together to stop
the euro from falling further.

The fate of not only Greece, but Portugal and

Spain may also rest with whatever fiscal and monetary measures the stronger EU
countries can put together. Should these countries be unable to curb their massive budget
deficits and their GDP continue to stagnate, there will be further pressure on the euro as
investors unload European assets in favor of the stronger dollar, which would make
investment in the U.S. EB-5 immigrant investor program much more costly for any
potential EU investors.

According to Reuters:
 Fiscally fragile euro-zone countries like Greece, Portugal and Spain are under intense
pressure to rein in huge budget deficits, aggravated by a steep economic downturn and
billions of euros in stimulus spending. Their financial woes have hit investor confidence in
the European single currency bloc and even sparked speculation that a country could be
forced out of the euro area.

As EU countries struggle to retain their financial integrity, rising costs will make it unlikely
that even the lure of EB-5 visas will bring European foreign nationals to the U.S. in large
numbers. A much more likely scenario is that Asian nations in less dire financial straits than
the EU, in particular China and South Korea, will continue to send the largest number of
EB-5 recipients to the U.S.

EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa "Applicants by Country" Annual Report

Issued by the National Visa Center

The National Visa Center (NVC) has released

last year's totals for the number of approved
visa recipients as of November 2009.

Various visa categories were considered in the

NVC report, and the released figures show the
number of approvals during the last year. Totals
are grouped by country and include the
petitioners as well as "spouses and children
entitled to derivative status under INA 203(d)."

According to NVC:

Most prospective immigrant visa applicants qualify for status under the law on the basis of
family relationships or employer sponsorship. Entitlement to visa processing in these
classes is established ordinarily through approval by Citizenship and Immigration Services
(CIS) of a petition filed on the applicant’s behalf. The petitions of applicants who will be
processed at an overseas post are forwarded by CIS to the Department of State;
applicants in categories subject to numerical limit are registered on the visa waiting list.
Each case is assigned a priority (i.e., registration) date based on the filing date accorded to
the petition.

Here are the 2009 totals for the EB-5 visa:

• China-mainland born: 126 approvals (38.8% of total)

• Iran: 63 approvals (19.4%)
• Korea, South: 57 approvals (17.5%)
• All Others: 79 approvals (24.3%)
• Worldwide Total: 325 approvals (100%)
 March
• Bill with bipartisan sponsorship would "reform" EB-5 program and create a new visa
category for entrepreneurs.
• National Public Radio Profiles EB-5 Visas, California Regional Center
• Attorneys From International Immigration Services Publish Landmark Article on
Regional Center Pilot Program
• California Service Center to Host EB-5 Visa Forum for Immigration Attorneys

Senators Introduce Startup Visa Act to Create New EB-6 Visa

Category for Immigrant Entrepreneurs

In an effort to bring innovation and jobs

to the United States, Senators John
Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN)
have introduced a bill they hope will
encourage foreign entrepreneurs to start
their businesses here.

The Startup Visa Act, which has

received acclaim from the National
Venture Capital Association (NVCA),
would allow foreign nationals the
opportunity to obtain a U.S. green card
when they receive at least $100,000 in
Senator John Kerry
venture capital funding from an
American investor and acquire at least $250,000 in total financing. It would create a new
visa category for immigrant entrepreneurs, the EB-6, and individuals taking advantage of
the program would have to create at least 5 new jobs to actually receive permanent
residency.

EB-6 recipients would not be able to count family members employed by a new enterprise
toward the total of 5, but only U.S. citizens they employ. By contrast, the EB-5 visa
requires that an investment from a foreign national create at least 10 new jobs.

According to Dave McClure, who organized a trip to Washington in which Silicon Valley
venture capitalists lobbied members of Congress in support of the bill, "job creation is a
national priority. […] With the Startup Visa Act, we can create thousands of new jobs
immediately, and tens of thousands more as these new startups grow into the next
Googles, Yahoos, and eBays of their generation."

Business-centered media outlets were all abuzz with last month's introduction of the EB-6
bill. An article in BusinessWeek cites venture capitalist Jeff Clavier, who says investors
"sometimes shy away from even compelling pitches from overseas startups in part
because of visa-related hassles" endemic to the status quo. Clavier claims he would likely
"give more favorable consideration" to foreign entrepreneurs soliciting funds were the new
visa category approved.

Critics of the bill cite its potential for loopholes, in particular the possibility that foreign
entrepreneurs would get to stay in the United States even if their businesses fail.
BusinessWeek quotes Kim Berry, who heads the Programmer's Guild trade group: "We're
not opposed to the concept. We're opposed to the loopholes."

Of course, there is no guarantee that the Startup Visa Act would

bring scores of entrepreneurs to the U.S., although a press
release from the NVCA claims "close to 50 percent of current
venture-backed companies were founded by immigrant
entrepreneurs." And that's under current immigration law.

If the Startup Visa Act becomes a reality, it's also not exactly
clear whether it would "compete" in any way with the EB-5 visa
program. To obtain an EB-5 visa, an immigrant must invest at
least $500,000 of his or her own money in a U.S. business. The
EB-5 would seem to cater to a different class of prospective
green card recipient than the EB-6.

Whether the Startup Visa Act actually stands a chance of

passage is unknown. Inc. Magazine points out that
Senator Richard Lugar Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) has "introduced a similar visa-
reform initiative" in the House of Representatives, and some postulate that attention to the
issue in both chambers means some form of startup visa will receive approval by each.
Polis's bill, however, is bundled together with the House of Representatives'
"Comprehensive Immigration Reform" package, which is thought to be more controversial
than a separate startup visa bill.

NPR: EB-5 Program a Way to Get Financing in a Down Economy

According to National Public Radio, what "[sounds] like

a back-alley deal" between foreign nationals and the
U.S. government may be the best way to fund
construction projects when the banks are unwilling to
provide a loan.

Of course it's the EB-5 program that was the subject of

the NPR piece, which included an interview with Justin
Huang of YK America Regional Center in California.

Referring to a mini-mall project, Huang tells NPR, "In

Stephen Yale-Loehr
late ‘08, we got Bank of America to commit $50 million
on this project, and in ‘09 they just said we can’t help
you anymore." He and many others have turned to the EB-5 visa program as an alternative
to more traditional funding sources. YK America has already hired several Mandarin-
speaking employees, and it hopes to have at least one hundred by 2011.

NPR also quotes Stephen Yale-Loehr of Miller Mayer, who claims EB-5 is a "win-win-win"
for U.S. businesses, jobseekers, and immigrant investors. While the program has (and
likely always will) have some critics – the Federation for American Immigration Reform, for
example, calls EB-5 a "pay-for-play" system – more immigrant investors are utilizing the
program every year.

Sometimes the immigrant investors who actually stay in the U.S. are not the investors
themselves, but their children, notes NPR. Wang Wei, a 22-year old student, will be staying
in the U.S. because "his father is giving him a half a million dollars to invest in a mini-mall in
the city of El Centro."
International Immigration Services Attorneys Publish Major EB-5
Article

Brandon Meyer and Karen Caco, attorneys with International

Immigration Services, P.A., have published a must-read article on the
EB-5 Regional Center program in the prestigious journal, Immigration
Briefings. Their article is entitled “Spreading Like Wildfire! What
Explains the Explosive Growth of EB-5 Regional Centers?”

The authors interviewed numerous heavyweights in the Regional

Center field, including Henry Liebman of American Life, Michael Sears
Brandon Meyer of the Capital Area Regional Center (CARc), and several others in
order to gain greater perspective on the Regional Center program.

Mr. Meyer and Ms. Caco examine the growth of the Regional Center
program in recent years, offer theories on why growth is occurring,
and examine the EB-5 program from a historical perspective. This
historical perspective yields the not-so-comforting conclusion that the
EB-5 program is only as stable as USCIS wants it to be. Therefore,
political and bureaucratic risk in the EB-5 context should never be
Karen Caco minimized.

Mr. Meyer and Ms. Caco also provide a helpful overview of the process for establishing a
regional center in light of recent changes in the Regional Center program stemming from
the December 2009 USCIS memo.

“Spreading Like Wildfire” is the first installment in a two-part series written by Mr. Meyer
and Ms. Caco. The second installment, scheduled for publication in the next issue of
Immigration Briefings, will highlight day-to-day issues faced by regional centers and
attorneys who are actively practicing or seeking to practice in the EB-5 arena.

Readers interested in finding out more about this article should contact the authors
directly: Brandon Meyer (Brandon@ezusimm.com) or Karen Caco (Karen@ezusimm.com).

Download the article here: "Spreading Like Wildfire!"

USCIS California Service Center to Host EB-5 Visa Forum for AILA
Members

The USCIS California Service Center (CSC) has

scheduled an EB-5 forum for March 16, 2010 from
1:00pm to 3:00pm. The CSC will be providing brief
EB-5 updates and will open the floor for an informal
question and answer session with a panel of EB-5
managers, supervisors, and service center counsel.

The meeting will be held at the California Service

Center, 24000 Avila Road, Laguna Niguel, California
92677. AILA members attending the meeting should
meet at the south entrance prior to the meeting to be
escorted inside.

The meeting is open to all AILA members by RSVP only. If you wish to attend, please
RSVP with Robert Nadalin (robert@nadalinlaw.com) before March 8, 2010.
 April
• EB-5 Initiatives in California, Mississippi, Indiana, and New England Gain Traction
• The Startup Bill: Actual Language Now Available
• Experts to Host Seminar Focused on Essential Issues in EB-5 Practice

California's Inland Empire Region Vigorously Pursues "Foreign Direct

Investment"

Local government officials in California's

Riverside and San Bernardino counties are
utilizing new strategies to lure overseas
investment and create jobs. A piece in the
Los Angeles Times this month quotes
Riverside County Commissioner Tom
Freeman, who has been meeting with
officials from several countries: "We’re
rolling out the welcome mat. […] We’re
creating programs that encourage foreign
direct investment."

During the economic downturn, the so-

San Bernardino County, California called "Inland Empire" region in the
southern part of the state has had difficulty
creating enough jobs to bring its unemployment rate – currently 14.7% – below the
national average. But with low prices for industrial space, manufacturing jobs have
become more attractive. Many at the local level agree that courting foreign investment
dollars is a good way to breathe new life into the manufacturing sector.

The Times explains:

The United States is the world’s largest recipient of foreign direct investment, helped by its
open economy, stable government, rule of law and huge consumer market. More than
$300 billion of such investment flowed into the United States in 2008, according to the
International Trade Administration.

Foreign companies employed 605,600 California workers in 2007, the last year for which
data were available, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Nearly one-quarter of
these workers were employed in manufacturing.

Attracting new industries is key to the Inland Empire’s growth. The region, which comprises
the more populous parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, has shed 183,600 jobs
since December 2006, many of them in construction and logistics.

“The two most important sectors for us were arguably the ones that were hit the worst,”
said Marc Weidenmier, professor of economics at Claremont McKenna College. “This area
needs to develop other things.”

One example of a foreign company that has recently invested in the Inland Empire region is
Nepco, a South Korean manufacturer of picture frames. Reasons Nepco cites for its
decision to locate operations in a state with a reputation for being expensive include
proximity to 37 million consumers and good transportation systems to get materials
shipped in and goods shipped out.

Although wages in the U.S. are higher than they would be overseas, says Tommy Kim,
Nepco's U.S. Director of Operations, the company saves time by not having material sent
back to China before being shipped (again) to the U.S. and placed on a display shelf.

Like neighboring San Bernardino County, Riverside County recently passed a resolution
that would encourage foreign investment through the EB-5 program. California currently
contains more EB-5 regional centers than any other state.

Mississippi EB-5 Project Recruits Former DNC Chairman

According to the Mississippi Business Journal (MBJ), former Democratic National

Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe will be filling a key role at Greentech Automotive, a
company that makes hybrid vehicles.
Greentech announced several months ago its intention to build a manufacturing plant in
Tunica, Mississippi, a project scheduled to receive a substantial portion of its funding from
EB-5 investments. McAuliffe, known for setting fundraising records during his tenure as
DNC Chairman, will now be working to pump those EB-5 dollars into Greentech’s Tunica
project.

Will it work? Reporting for the MBJ is

Clay Chandler, who shows healthy
skepticism in his recent column,
"Familiar Name Among Greentech
Leadership." Chandler reports that
Greentech has been "surrounded by a
pile of skepticism (and rightfully so)
since news of the company broke last
fall. A lot of smart automotive folks think
the project is a pipe dream; honestly, it
probably is."

Having someone like McAuliffe at its

helm, however, may lend Greentech
Former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe
more legitimacy. The manufacturer of
hybrid cars wants to build a factory that
should cost somewhere around $1 billion to construct.

Although Mississippi governor Haley Barbour is likely "intrigued by Greentech," according

to Chandler, he has largely kept mum about the project. "I hope they’ll be able to put
together their financing," he recently told the MBJ.

Indiana Explores EB-5 Program Possibilities

With over 80 EB-5 regional centers now operating, few states want to miss out on the
opportunity to secure foreign investment dollars through the EB-5 program, and Indiana is
no exception.

The Ball State Daily News has just reported that Delaware County, Indiana will court foreign
national immigrant investors who want to receive a green card for themselves and their
families by investing in a U.S. business. The county will try to receive immigrant investor
dollars through its work with a company called Energize East Central Indiana, which seeks
investment in logistics, advanced manufacturing, and food processing and distribution.

For clarification on why officials believe EB-5 a

valuable way to raise capital investment in local
projects, the newspaper sites Michael Hicks,
Director of the Ball State University Center for
Business and Economic Research. According to
Hicks, "Indiana is well-suited to attract foreign
business because it’s one of the few states that
has remained fiscally solvent during the past year."

Though true, it remains to be seen whether that

fact will resonate with potential investors.
Indiana State House Competition among EB-5 regional centers is
growing fiercer every day, and travel to Asian
nations like China and South Korea to promote projects before groups of investors is
becoming more common. In some cases, high profile political figures – in particular,
governors – have even traveled abroad to promote the program.

According to the article:

Terry Murphy, vice president of Economic Development in Delaware County, said this
summer Delaware County officials will try to attract foreign business from Japan, China,
Europe and possibly Turkey.

“I only see a plus side to it,” he said. “New businesses will bring construction jobs here as
well. All the service industries will benefit.”

Murphy said initial job creation could result in job opportunities for students and those just
out of college.

So far no foreign companies are on board with the program, and Hicks said it’s hard to
speculate when the program will actually get started.

If Indiana is able to sell investors on its solvency and what Hicks terms its "trustworthy tax
system," foreign investor dollars via the EB-5 program may help curb the trend of static job
growth that plagued Central Indiana even before the most recent recession.
Seaway Valley Pursues EB-5 Regional Center for Six States

According to a press release published this month, holding company Seaway Valley
Capital Corporation is partnering with ACG Consulting to create a new EB-5 regional
center that will cover six states in the Northeast. In
what appears to be a large potential investment zone
(land in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine would be
included), the company plans to fund projects for
Hackett’s Stores, a retail sales outfit, and the Harbor
Brewing Company.

Seaway Valley would take exactly 49% interest in the

proposed EB-5 regional center, which would include
"certain new retail concepts" according to the release. Seaway Valley's Portfolio Includes
Harbor Brewing Company, on the other hand, the Harbor Brewing Company
develops "new restaurant concepts."

Here's what the press release says about ACG Consulting:

ACG Consulting is affiliated with ACG Companies (www.acgcompanies.com) and

possesses specialized expertise in the employment based EB-5 Program. It develops and
provides economic research and consultation services to clients nationally and is currently
working with a number of clients who in the aggregate are seeking to raise more than a
billion dollars in capital from foreign investors.

Seaway Valley is located in Sackets Harbor, New York, and the new regional center would
presumably have its headquarters at the holding company's current office address. There
are currently three USCIS-approved EB-5 regional centers in New York state.

Actual Language of the Startup Visa Act Now Available

For readers looking for the actual bill introduced by Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Lugar (R-
IN), it is now available here.

The following comments come from Will Herman, well known entrepreneur and incubator
of several startups:
 Simply put, anyone from anywhere
who starts a company in the U.S.
and is able to reasonably capitalize it
can get a visa to stay in this country
to develop their business here, on
American soil with American
employees, paying American taxes.

That’s a no-brainer you say? You

might be surprised to learn that the
country is routinely kicking
entrepreneurs out, telling them to
start their businesses elsewhere.

These aren’t people who are taking

away American jobs. They’re entrepreneurs – people who are creating new technologies,
services, products and . . . wait for it . . . jobs. It’s a meritocracy, folks, the best stuff wins.
Anyone is allowed to play. That is, for now, if you live here.

The new legislation is supported with over 100 signatures from leading venture capitalists
and angel investors throughout the country.  I’m honored that my name is included on the
list. Not because I’m an investor looking for more deals, but I’m an American with an
insanely strong desire to see this country continue to set the pace for the rest of the world
when it comes to opportunity and leadership.

Relatively speaking, the streets of the US are, in fact, paved with gold. I’d like to see us
keep it that way and to provide opportunities for even more Americans to be able to mine
it.”

Three-Part Seminar to Discuss EB-5 Investment Essentials

Click to see all current EB-5 Events.

Beginning Thursday, April 29, a number of EB-5 experts and practitioners will participate in
a phone seminar to discuss key issues surrounding the EB-5 visa program. Among the
topics to be discussed are EB-5 indirect jobs, direct jobs, and induced jobs, risks for EB-5
investors, a breakdown of the regional center/business structure, and changes made to
the EB-5 program since the 2009 USCIS memorandum.
Speakers will include Michael Gibson of USAdvisors.org, attorney David Morris, professors
John Barrett and Scott Barnhart, Melissa Krinzman of Venture Architects, and Jason Oleet
of Oleet & Co.

The following are summaries of each seminar session provided by ILW:

FIRST Phone Session on April 29: EB-5 Indirect Jobs? Induced

Jobs? Ask the Economist, "What are direct/indirect/induced
jobs?"

•Overview of USCIS approved models including RIMS II and IMPLAN

•Reality check on job creation claims by Regional Centers
•Coordinating business plan, econometric report, and reality during
I-526 and I-829 petitions
•Defining TEA's to claim $500,000 reduced investment threshold
•Questions and Answers
Melissa Krinzman
SECOND Phone Session on May 20: No – The Actual Business?
A Regional Center or a Regional Center Project

• Survey of Business/Structure Characteristics Used By EB-5 Projects

• Two biggest risk factors for EB-5 investors: job creation and capital preservation
• Independent business analysis and valuations/investment banking Issues
• Different Business Models: Commercial Real Estate, Manufacturing
• Different Investment Models: Loan, Equity, other
• Testing the Business Plan & Job Creation Plan
• Testing the Exit Strategy & Return of Capital plan

THIRD Phone Session on June 10: Change, Change, Change.

USCIS Issues 38 Pages of EB-5 Policy Changes (December
2009)
•What are the new EB-5 policies and adjudication standards?
•What policy problems has the Service fixed and what is now broken
•How a “material change” could result in an investor losing both
residency and an “age out” child under CSPA
•How a TEA today may not be a TEA tomorrow (failing to preserve
$500,000 investment qualification)
•USCIS burdens on investor not Regional Center/Project
Scott Barnhart •Using “Exemplar” I-526 Petition To Stop USCIS Second Guessing
 May
• EB-5 Road Trips: USAdvisors.org and International Immigration Attorneys, PA Visit
EB-5 Practitioners Across the U.S.
• USCIS Approves Northern California Regional Center
• Permanent Extension of EB-5 Program Sought in Immigration Bill
• New York EB-5 Project Profiled by the Wall Street Journal
• Leading Immigration Attorneys to Speak at EB-5 Visa Seminar in New York City
• USAdvisors.org to Publish EB-5 Regional Center and Attorney Directory

USAdvisors.org Visits EB-5 Practitioners Across the South and

Midwest

In late April, Michael Gibson and George

Wozencraft of USAdvisors.org set out on an
ambitious road trip, crisscrossing the U.S.A. for
the purpose of meeting with EB-5 regional
center operators and other EB-5 practitioners.
Beginning in Naples, Florida at an EB-5 visa
project being handled by America's Center for
Foreign Investment and arriving in Houston,
Texas during the last week in April, Michael and
George also managed to meet with the City of
Dallas Regional Center (Civitas Capital) before
heading to Memphis, Tennessee.
Along the way, they have accumulated film footage and conducted interviews with
investment immigration specialists involved in the USCIS EB-5 visa program. Wrapping up
their initial jaunt through the South by meeting with Memphis attorney Greg Siskand, the
two arrived in the Midwest, where stops in Illinois and Wisconsin included CMB Export
Regional Center in Moline, IL as well as the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of
Commerce (MMAC), both of which are active regional centers.

California Military Bases – CMB Export and

CMB Summit – handle some of the oldest,
most established EB-5 visa projects in the
U.S. With sites in San Bernardino and
McClellan Park, California, CMB's projects
focus on converting old military bases into
developments for civilian use. While at CMB's
offices, the USAdvisors.org duo met with Pat
Hogan, Kraig Schwigen, and Chan Freitag.

MMAC's headquarters, on the other hand, is

located within its EB-5 investment region.
According to the regional center's literature,
USAdvisors.org in Houston; George
Wozencraft (left), Michael Gibson (right) “the Milwaukee Immigrant Investment Zone
includes Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee,
Racine, Waukesha, Washington, and
Walworth counties,” making it one of the larger EB-5 investment areas in the Midwestern
United States.

USAdvisors.org wrapped up its Midwest tour with visits to Chicago, Illinois and East
Lansing, Michigan. In the Windy City, Michael and George met with Taher Kameli of the
Chicagoland Foreign Investment Group in addition to other immigration attorneys and
EB-5 practitioners. The stop in East Lansing included visits with attorney Bob Hood of
Willingham & Cote and Jim Lynch of the Michigan Regional Center Global Investment
Program. Based in Saginaw, the Michigan regional center is one of two in the state, and its
most recent press release states its mission to use the USCIS EB-5 visa program to
“rebuild the [Michigan] economy.” Mr. Lynch, no stranger to new product development,
has over two decades of experience in early stage venture capital investment.

In Chicago, USAdvisors.org paid a visit to The Cleveland International Fund, which is

among those regional centers most recently approved by USCIS for the EB-5 Visa
Program. The Fund is a project of The Cleveland Group, an established Ohio consulting
firm with a global reach and presence.

Since hitting the road, Michael also managed to participate in two installments of the ILW
“Investor Options for Experts” phone seminar series, topics for which included
methodology-related questions about direct jobs, indirect jobs, and induced jobs as well
as what a regional center is, how it operates, business models for the regional center, and
risk factors for EB-5 investors. Other speakers included David Morris, Scott Barnhart,
Melissa Krinzman, Jason Oleet, and John Barrett, all of whom are either immigration
attorneys, EB-5 service providers, or EB-5 visa specialists. This phone seminar series will
continue throughout the spring and early summer.

Other organizations visited by USAdvisors.org on its Midwest tour included the following:

• Barry Lichterman and Levitt Shell

• RCI First Pathway Partners; Bob Kraft (Milwaukee)

• Foster Quan, the nation’s second-largest immigration law firm (Houston); Attorneys
Charles Foster, Ignacio Donoso, and John Meyer

• Dunbar Harder, a full-service immigration law firm in Houston; Attorneys Ken Dunbar,
Terry Weir, April Thompson Nakanishi, Christin Burns, and Amy Donnelly Ashby

• Chuck and Christopher Randall; Randall Residence (Lawton, MI)

• Scott Zimmer and David Simmet; Air Advantage (Frankenmuth, MI)

• Clara Dematteis Mager, Marie Alsace Galindo, Michele Polito, Du Zhiguo, and Amy
Orlowski of Butzel Long (Detroit, MI)

• Svetlana Schreiber, Tom Gilbert, and

Michele Norton; Svetlana Schreiber &
Associates (Cleveland, OH)

• Law Offices of Adan G. Vega and

Associates (Houston); Attorney Adan
Vega

• Yu, South & Associates in Dallas;

Attorneys Abraham Yu and Becky Wu

• Law Offices of Nejla Lane

• Law Offices of Barbary Sussman Michael Gibson in Saginaw with Michigan

Regional Center Operators

• Adam Lewis and Vedder Price.

USAdvisors.org would like to extend its wholehearted thanks to everyone who met with
them during the months of April and May.

Immigration Attorneys Visit California EB-5 Regional Centers

It has been three years since USAdvisors.org

Director Michael Gibson and immigration
attorney Karen Caco first filmed EB-5 visa
projects, touring the country to lay down
footage of the then 20 existing EB-5 regional
centers. Now, with over 80 regional centers
to cover, both are pursuing individual tours in
order to obtain news, information, and
necessary updates about EB-5 visa projects
nationwide.

Ms. Caco, the Senior Attorney and Managing

Director at International Immigration Services,
From left to right: Brandon Meyer, Karen
Caco, Brendan Heafey (Bay Area Regional PA (IIS), acts as an advisor to U.S.
Center) businesses and foreign corporations planning
their investment and immigration strategies.
With over two decades of experience in
immigration law, she brings to the table a wealth of knowledge and experience when it
comes to the USCIS EB-5 visa program.

For this impending endeavor, she will film regional centers on the West Coast, in particular
the newly-approved Northern California Regional Center, where center principals Jake and
Stephen Weststeyn are planning an agricultural project that they anticipate will "generate
$170 million in economic activity" according to a recent press release.

Other stops in California include the Bay Area Regional Center, California Wineries &
Vineyards Regional Center, LLC, CMB McClellan Park, and the California Global Alliance
Regional Center.

The following is an excerpt from Karen Caco’s account of the first stop on the tour:

"Our first stop [...] was at California Wineries & Vineyards Regional Center, LLC ("CWVRC")
started and operated by Christina Lau. [The center includes] the geographic area of Napa
County [...] Christina was kind enough to meet with us for two+ hours and shared her
vision for this Regional Center. [...] A well thought out plan indeed."

Earlier this month, Ms. Caco's firm, International Immigration Services, PA, released this
press release:

Karen Caco of International Immigration Services, PA (“IIS”) has started her filming of EB-5
Regional Centers throughout the United States. The first filming will be done in Northern
California and starts next week. IIS Associate Attorney Brandon Meyer is accompanying
her.

They are filming 3 Regional Centers at this time; Northern California Regional Center in
Stockton, CMB, McClellan Park in Sacramento and California Global Alliance in Selma.

Remaining the only Attorney in the world to actually visit and film the Regional Centers and
their projects, this is the second trip for Karen Caco. The inaugural tour and filming was
undertaken in 2007 when there were less than 20 Regional Centers in the United States.
At the time, she completed the filming in collaboration with Michael Gibson. Today with
more than 80 Regional Centers, both have decided that it made more sense to divide up
the filming of these 80+ Regional Centers throughout the remainder of 2010.

Karen and Brandon will conduct interviews and collect film footage that will be used for
future DVD’s and media with USAdvisors.org. Filming the production for IIS is Javier Araujo
with 360 Image Design, a well-known professional artist, photographer and videographer.

Brandon and Karen recently wrote two EB-5 articles on business immigration; “Now for the
Hard Part: Attracting Investors to EB-5 Regional Centers.” Immigration Briefings (March
2010), and “Spreading Like Wildfire! What Explains the Explosive Growth of EB-5 Regional
Centers?” Immigration Briefings (February 2010), both published by Thomson Reuters.

Keep track of Karen and Brandon and their filming at EB5info.com and at
www.easyUSimmigration.com.

USCIS Approves Northern California Regional Center

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has just granted EB-5 regional center
status to the Northern California Regional Center, and the new center’s principals are
optimistic about bringing jobs and economic growth to the region.

According to an April press release, the center’s “first project, an agricultural development
project, will create a large impact on Northern California, generating $170 million in
economic activity both directly and indirectly.” Of course, no EB-5 visa project can get off
the ground without investors, but center principals, Jake and Stephen Weststeyn, feel that
the design of the EB-5 program holds promise for a region hit hard by the economic
recession.

“I think there is a lot of potential for our regional

center being in Northern California,” said
Stephen Weststeyn during a brief conversation
with EB5info.com. “It’s a region that could use a
lot of job creation.”

And the Northern California Regional Center’s

focus on agricultural development – it was
approved for agriculture projects – is an area in
which the center principals boast nearly a
lifetime of experience.

“We’ve been in dairy and ag,” notes Jake

Weststeyn, “It’s a family operation.”

As for acquiring investors, Stephen Weststeyn says there are tentative plans to take a trip
to China and participate in EB-5 seminars. “We’re probably going to focus most of our
efforts on Asia,” he says.

While traveling to Asian countries for the purpose of promoting an EB-5 visa project is not
the least bit uncommon in today’s environment, getting to this point has been a long time
coming for the Weststeyns and the Northern California Regional Center. It was two and a
half years ago when a Wall Street Journal article about the EB-5 program first snagged
their mutual attention.

After reading “a follow-up article in Forbes that piqued [their] interest,” according to
Stephen Weststeyn, they finally determined that a new regional center based in Stockton,
California would be an excellent way to utilize the program.

“In the early days, there wasn’t too much online about EB-5,” say the Weststeyns, “It was
through Michael’s [Michael Gibson of USAdvisors.org] DVD that we learned about the
program. He was one of the first people we got in touch with when we started all this.”

After making the decision to become a regional center under the EB-5 visa program,
navigating through the Department of Homeland Security’s approval process, and finally
getting the coveted letter of approval from USCIS, the Northern California Regional Center
is ready to become a viable force for economic growth in a region where there is a great
need for job creation.
“I think there is a lot of opportunity for our regional center in the area,” says Stephen
Weststeyn, “I think it will open things up for a lot of jobs.”

Permanent Extension of EB-5 Visa Program Sought As Part Of

Immigration Legislation

According to a statement from the desk of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), “Senators Reid,
Schumer, and Menendez have released a productive framework for the process of drafting
comprehensive immigration reform legislation.” Among the many reforms included in the
proposal is a permanent extension of the EB-5 Visa Program, which Senator Leahy
supports.

While perhaps little more than political PR, the statement is a

good indicator of the continued support enjoyed by the EB-5
immigrant investor program among several powerful legislators.

Here is the statement from Senator Leahy’s press room:

“Senators Reid, Schumer and Menendez have released a productive

framework for the process of drafting comprehensive immigration
reform legislation. I share their commitment to enacting key legislative
efforts including AgJobs, the Uniting American Families Act, the
DREAM Act, and a permanent extension of the EB-5 foreign investors
program, as part of comprehensive reform. These are sensible,
constructive and urgently needed measures that have had, and should
continue to have, bipartisan support.
Senator Patrick Leahy
“I remain committed to meaningful comprehensive immigration reform.
There is bipartisan agreement that reform is needed; there are
differences of opinion over how we can accomplish that. I remain seriously concerned with
proposals for establishing biometric identification requirements, and I will need to carefully
study the details of any such proposal. I also expect to carefully review proposals for
enforcement and border security. Meaningful reform must include a realistic path to
citizenship to allow us to bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows.

“I hope the outline released today will encourage discussions across the aisle, and that they
will lead to a bipartisan legislative proposal. All Americans are concerned with updating our
immigration laws, fulfilling our labor needs, and addressing the escalating violence along
our southern border. I hope we can come together to address these pressing matters.”
EB-5 Program To Fund Redevelopment Of Brooklyn Navy Yard in New
York City

This month, the Wall Street Journal reported that

the New York City Regional Center “is making the
[Brooklyn] Navy Yard its initial investment.” A 20th
century relic, most of which has sat unused since
the end of World War II, the Brooklyn Navy Yard
project should create nearly 3,000 new “green
jobs” through a combination of EB-5 visa
investments and additional funding from New York
City.

A 220,000 square foot space will be transformed

into a “Green Manufacturing Center,” according to
the Journal, and other changes to the property will
include “five new sound stages and a parking lot” for Steiner Studios, a TV and film
production company.

According to the Journal:

New York’s first regional center is making the Navy Yard its initial investment. There are 95
other regional centers across the country. New York has two others serving Buffalo and
upstate. California, with 26 regional centers, has the most in the nation.

The New York City Regional Center LLC wanted to target a project in an area with high
unemployment that would also have government support, said George Olsen, the group’s
managing principal.

The unemployment rates in the neighborhoods that border the Navy Yard were 14.8% in
Bedford-Stuyvesant, 9.9% in Fort Greene and 7.9% in Williamsburg, according to figures
from the third quarter of 2009, the latest available from the Fiscal Policy Institute.

The Navy Yard currently houses 242 businesses and has 5,000 employees working in
industries such as e-commerce, manufacturing and film.

The paper also reports that the city is paying "an additional $81 million for infrastructure
upgrades." The $125 million raised through the EB-5 program will be divided nearly equally
between the Steiner Studios project and green jobs creation project.
Leading Immigration Attorneys to Speak at EB-5 Visa Seminar in New
York City

On Thursday, May 20, immigration attorneys Stephen Yale-Loehr

and Ron Klasko are leading a seminar at the Grand Hyatt Hotel at
Grand Central Station in New York City, the focus of which is the
USCIS EB-5 immigrant investor program. The New York City chapter
of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) is
coordinating the event.

Geared toward the immigration attorney needing to know more Stephen Yale-Loehr
about the EB-5 program, be it rudimentary knowledge or a more in-
depth understanding of particular EB-5-related topics, the seminar
will last from 6:00 to 9:00 PM.

According to Stephen Yale-Loehr, this seminar "will cover all aspects of the EB-5 program,
from basic to advanced issues."

An instructor at Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York, Mr. Yale-Loehr is also a practicing
attorney with Miller Mayer, LLP and a well-known name in the EB-5 community. For more
than a quarter of a century, Mr. Yale-Loehr has practiced immigration law and is often cited
as an expert when it comes to the USCIS EB-5 visa program.

Ron Klasko is a highly-respected immigration attorney and Managing

Partner at Klasko, Rulon, Stock & Seltzer, LLP. According to his firm’s
website, Mr. Klasko is “one of the most sought after” speakers in the
country when it comes to immigration law, and he, like Mr. Yale-Loehr, is
an EB-5 visa program expert.

Mr. Klasko currently chairs the AILA EB-5 Committee.

Ron Klasko
At the upcoming seminar, both attorneys will expound upon their
knowledge of the EB-5 visa program so that attendees can utilize what
they learn for practical applications in the field of immigration law.

“Attendees will gain an appreciation for the complexities of the program” as well as when
the visa is or is not appropriate for particular clients, says Mr. Yale-Loehr. Non-AILA
members can still attend the seminar for $50, which will be payable at the door.

For those considering attending the event who have additional questions about seminar
topics, discussions, or other matters relating to the event itself, Stephen Yale-Loehr can be
reached at swy1@cornell.edu or (607) 273-4200 x 318.
EB-5 Directory To Be Distributed AT AILA Conference, Other Events

Tuesday, June 1 is the last day for regional centers, firms, and other EB-5-related
organizations to sign up for the 2010 USAdvisors.org EB-5 Regional Center Directory. The
directory will be distributed at this year’s AILA conference, the EB-5 Investors Conference
in Boston this August, and a host of additional EB-5 events and seminars.

Net profits for the directory will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project. For additional
information or to sign up, see the EB-5 Directory page at EB5info.com.
 June
• Wall Street Journal and CNBC Cover the EB-5 Program Before a National Audience
• South Dakota EB-5 Effort Saved at the Last Minute by State Government
• Projects in Alabama and Michigan Receive USCIS Approval
• Victorville One of the "Most Successful" Regional Centers Declares Principal
• Western Governor Travels to China Seeking EB-5 Visa Program Investors
• List of Florida Regional Centers Continues to Grow

Wall Street Journal Declares Immigrant Investors "An Underserved

Market"
A recent entry in the Wall Street Journal's "Financial Analyst" blog
hones in on the EB-5 immigrant investor program, in particular the
opportunities it may create for financial services professionals in
the United States.

According to USAdvisors.org Managing Director Michael Gibson,

who was interviewed by the Journal, "Any financial services firm
that does not cater to these people is going be missing out [on] a
huge source of revenue over the next few years." Gibson, who
runs EB5info.com, points out how his clients often have net
assets higher than $5 million. These are people who not only open
up bank accounts and buy houses, but who "need a broad array
of financial services, including insurance and investments, estate
planning, tax services, and help planning for their children," he says.
And as the number of USCIS-approved EB-5 regional centers grows and more US
projects are funded by EB-5 dollars, a larger number of immigrant investors and their
families will be making use of the EB-5 visa. It is a niche market where growing demand
could spell opportunity for financial professionals willing to tailor their services to these
individuals' needs.

Greg Siskand, an immigration attorney with Siskand Susser, was also quoted by the
Journal: "I’ve not heard of the big Wall Street firms being involved in a major way in this
business, so I think it’s an area of opportunity."

For financial advisors who would like to enter the immigrant investor market, Gibson and
Siskand provide these recommendations:

• Leverage diversity and foreign language skills

“If they have foreign language skills and can cater to these individuals,” that’s a huge advantage,
Gibson notes.

• Investigate multiple Regional Centers

Since most centers haven’t been operating long enough to complete their projects or establish an
investment track record, Gibson said he fears that many projects marketed to investors “won’t be
successful commercially, or in terms of job creation.”

• Establish broader networks

Regional Centers and immigration lawyers are good sources of referrals for EB-5 clients, but they
rely on referrals, too. Many centers pay about $25,000 for investor referrals, Gibson said.

• Deepen conversations with clients

In closing, the Journal notes that investors who participate in the EB-5 program should be
prepared to have their funds tied up for several years. According to Siskand, there may
also be significant "uncertainty about the end of the process."

CNBC's Take on the EB-5 Visa Program: "If you want to come to
America, money talks."

CNBC profiled the EB-5 visa program this month, acknowledging both the regional center
platform as well as those investors who utilize the EB-5 program as individuals.
One immigrant investor interviewed for the special was Grant Fraser, a Canadian
entrepreneur and founder of Utah-based Navigator, which CNBC describes as an "award-
winning" computer software company.

"I probably would have started the

business, but without the ability to
get the green card, I probably would
have moved back to Canada," says
Fraser, whose company employs 48
Americans.

The CNBC piece also included

commentary from immigration
attorney Martin Lawler, who
describes the the EB-5 program as
"not well known." As Lawler also
points out, EB-5 "requires a lot of
capital […] The capital has to be at risk."

Click to watch the video on EB5info.com.

Hope not Lost for EB-5 Investors in South Dakota Agriculture Project

The South Dakota Banking Commission may have just saved several EB-5 investors from
losing their opportunity to obtain U.S. residency. According to American News, a small
group of investors will be able to make a short-term $30 million construction loan to
Northern Beef Packers, a South Dakota company, without obtaining a state lending
license.

An affidavit filed for Wai Yee Christine Ma, a Hong Kong

resident who directs a Cayman Islands-based company that
recently formed a special purpose entity – Epoch Star
Limited – for the sole purpose of making the loan, states
that going through a state licensing process would
effectively end the ability of Epoch Star Limited to make the
$30 million loan to Northern Beef Packers, which the latter
urgently needs. During a hearing with the South Dakota
Banking Commission, the loan was described as the "last
major piece" needed to revive a stalled beef plant project,
which happens to be a primary piece of South Dakota's certified program for producing
high-quality beef products.

Additional financing for the program has already come in the form of investments made by
wealthy foreign nationals participating in the U.S. EB-5 visa program. Were the State of
South Dakota not to allow an additional avenue for financing, the project may very well
become a financial failure, compromising the ability of investors to receive their green
cards.

The project, which began in 2005, involves the use of an empty building that currently "has
many liens and other claims against it," according to the press. Capital raised by the
original investors, among them EB-5 immigrant investors, is still insufficient to make the
new beef packing plant operational. The $30 million obtained from Epoch, however, should
be enough to convert the building in question into a beef packing facility and close any
gaps in financing.

At the hearing, Steve Sanford, the attorney representing Epoch, reportedly stated, "I think
we need to be grateful we live in a state where we can get this kind of thing done with
dispatch." EB-5 investors are likely to feel the same way.

ACFI's HK Motors Proposal Receives USCIS Approval

America's Center for

Foreign Investment
Regional Center may
now use EB-5 funds to
finance a hybrid car
manufacturing facility in
Alabama.

In a letter to the regional

center dated June 1,
USCIS states the photo courtesy of HK Motors
following: "Based on its
review and analysis of your proposal, USCIS hereby designates the Hybrid Kinetic [HK]
Motors Project A as an approved Capital Investment Project for the America's Center for
Foreign Investment (ACFI) Regional Center."
With the USCIS seal of approval, ACFI is free to move forward seeking immigrant investor
dollars via the EB-5 visa program. Its doing so, however, has not already been without
some skepticism from the press.

As a columnist for the Montgomery Advertiser points out, the project must receive at least
$1 billion in financing before the State of Alabama is willing to cut the regional center a
check. Since initial funding for the HK Motors project will largely come from the EB-5
program, the regional center will need to find an extraordinarily large number of investors if
it is to receive any additional funding.

According to regional center operator Boyd Campbell, ACFI understands that the "scope
of the HK Motors project is huge […] But we are moving forward because time doesn’t
stand still and HK Motors wants to build a fleet of next-generation motor vehicles using
next-generation ‘green’ technologies that are here today."

HK Motors is a Pasadena, California-based startup. It has yet to manufacture any cars, but
plans to produce up to 3 million hybrid cars per year in the United States. On display at a
press conference earlier this year was an Italian-designed concept car, the likes of which
HK would like to produce at the Alabama facility.

Michigan State Capital Receives EB-5 Regional Center Designation

USCIS has approved the city of Lansing, Michigan as an EB-5 regional center. According
to a press release from the Lansing Economic Development Corporation (LEDC), Lansing
Mayor Virg Bernero claims the "coveted designation" will allow the city to "attract and
leverage foreign investment that will help grow the city's economy and create new jobs."

With nearly 100 EB-5 regional centers now operating in the

U.S., the city joins a growing list of organizations created to
attract investment dollars from wealthy foreign nationals
interested in obtaining a U.S. green card. According to
LEDC, the city's EB-5 regional center will tentatively operate
under the moniker "International Business Investment
Zone" (IBIZ) as it seeks to finance projects in the sectors for
which it has received approval – information technology,
bioscience, advanced manufacturing, and higher education.

IBIZ will also work with the Lansing Regional Chamber of

Commerce (LRCC), the Lansing Regional International Trade Center, and the Lansing
Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) to facilitate the arrival of EB-5 funds from abroad.
Those involved with the regional center's operation have made the following statements in
reference to Lansing's approval as an EB-5 regional center:

"This is another home run for our regional business community," said Tim Daman,
President and CEO of the LRCC. "Mayor Bernero and the Chamber share a vision of
transforming the Lansing region into an economic powerhouse with global reach. The EB-5
program is a perfect companion to our successful efforts to designate Capital Region
International Airport as a U.S. Customs Port of Entry and Foreign Trade Zone."

LEAP President and CEO Denyse Ferguson said the city's EB-5 status will make the
Lansing region an even more compelling location to start a new business. "When you add
together all of the tremendous assets that already make our region a great place to live and
work, the EB-5 Regional Center sends a strong signal to the rest of the world that Lansing,
Michigan is open for business," Ferguson said.

Whether the presence of a third regional center in Michigan – the EB-5 Michigan Regional
Center and International Michigan Investments Regional Center have already received
USCIS approval – will help spur the state's struggling economy is yet to be seen. Interest
in the EB-5 program has increased significantly this year, and competition on the regional
center playing field continues to increase.

Victorville EB-5 Projects Among "Most Successful" in United States

Says Principal

Last month, the Victorville Regional Center in Southern California secured ten Chinese
investors for its project at a local airport.

Inland Development Group, the company with

which the city of Victorville has partnered for the
purpose of raising funds through the EB-5
immigrant investor program has obtained a total
of 21 investors in its project thus far, all of whom
are from China. Each investor put forward
$500,000 for the Southern California Logistics
Airport project in Victorville, raising a total of
$10.1 million.

In a statement to the press, Inland Energy

president William Buck Johns said the program in
Victorville is "one of the most successful [EB-5] programs in the country." 18 more
investors are already in the process of wiring an additional $9 million into the city's escrow
account.

Victorville's EB-5 funding will first go toward construction of a wastewater treatment facility
integral to the operation of a nearby Dr. Pepper/Snapple bottling plant and Plastipak
plastics facility. This is the cornerstone of larger efforts to fund development near the
airport. The city's goal is to raise $25 million through the EB-5 program by November, and
each investor is putting it closer toward achieving that goal.

On June 15, Johns will travel to Asia on another of several trips he has been making to
secure additional EB-5 investor capital for the city of Victorville. In addition to China, Johns
will pitch the project to prospective investors in other countries, including South Korea.

Idaho Governor Travels to China to Promote EB-5 Investment

The state of Idaho is making an effort to secure investment dollars via the EB-5 visa
program, and many Chinese investors have already committed.

Earlier this month, Governor Butch Otter traveled across China pitching the Idaho State
Regional Center's cornerstone project--an existing gold mine in the Boise Basin near Idaho
City. The regional center and Westlink, its Chinese partner, have already secured 120
investors who will be pumping a total of $60 million into the project in exchange for U.S.
green cards.

The visit was not limited to Idaho's effort to

obtain EB-5 investments, but also served as
a platform for the governor to push for the
increased presence of Idaho businesses in
the Asian nation. Otter managed to meet
with Yi Xiao Jhun, the Chinese Minister of
Commerce, on behalf of Melaleuca, an Idaho
company that sells health and wellness
products. With Otter's blessing upon the
company, Yi agreed to consider licenses that
would expand the Melaleuca's Chinese
operations.

According to Steve Wood of Oxyfresh, an Idaho company that sells dental, pet, and
healthcare products, "Every company we met wanted to do something with us." Oxyfresh
and several other Idaho companies were represented by Otter on his most recent China
visit.

List of South Florida EB-5 Projects Continues to Grow

The municipality of Jupiter, Florida may

see an influx of money from the EB-5
program. The Palm Beach Post is
reporting how, with domestic sources
of financing growing more scarce in
the down economy, some South
Florida businesses are looking to
foreign investors to raise capital.

Artist's Rendering of Harbourside Place

A $127 million Jupiter development
known as Harbourside Place (pictured)
is among the new ventures seeking investment from abroad, and it will use EB-5 as an
incentive for receiving those funds. According to the paper:

The ambitious project would include retail, offices, boat docking and a hotel, with a rooftop
bar and pool. Harbourside is slated to rise at the northwest corner of Indiantown Road and
U.S. 1. Construction is expected to begin by the end of the year.

Normally, a project of this nature would obtain partial financing from banks. But with banks
continuing to fail at a record pace, and remaining ones forced to set aside capital for
souring loans, Harbourside's developer has had to be creative. So the developer is asking
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to approve the creation of an EB-5 center in
Jupiter.

Nick Mastroianni, who would become an operator at the regional center if it receives
USCIS approval, expects the project to create around 2,000 jobs.

In addition to construction of Harbourside, Mastroianni hopes investment in the new

regional center will spill over into the biotech manufacturing vertical. Two biotech
companies already operate nearby, and Mastroianni believes more than 5,000 jobs could
be created over the next 7 years once the ambitious development comes to fruition.

The Palm Beach Development and Finance Center, the Palm Beach Post notes, is another
EB-5 regional center already operating in South Florida. It seeks to raise capital for projects
as diverse as solar technology, security systems for the military and government entities,
and home goods. While there is a lot of interest in the regional center, attorney Al Zucaro
acknowledges that it has not yet secured any investors.

EB-5 projects are most attractive, says Zucaro, when they are both real estate-based and
endorsed by local governments.
 July
• Victorville Regional Center Receives "Notice of Intent to Terminate" From USCIS
• Immigration Attorney Critiques "Creative" Job Counting Methodologies
• Chinese Media Outlet Profiles the EB-5 Program
• EB5info.com Launches Russian Language Site
• EB5info.com Editor Note – Jose Latour's "Immigration Insider" Blog

USCIS Threatens to Revoke Victorville's EB-5 Regional Center Status

According to the Victorville Daily

Press in Victorville, California,
the Victorville Regional Center,
approved last year by USCIS,
has just received notice of the
federal government's "intent to
terminate" its EB-5 regional
center status.

Aside from being bad news for

anyone involved in Victorville's
projects, the fact that USCIS
Excerpt from USCIS "Notice of Intent to Terminate" has taken such action is
unusual if not totally
unprecedented in the history of
the EB-5 visa program. It appears that problems at Victorville have to do with allegations
the center targeted investors by marketing projects not considered viable EB-5
investments by USCIS.

There was a total of four projects, all of which are in question to some degree. USCIS sent
a letter to Victorville's attorney stating that at least three of the projects probably were not
viable, but that the regional center went on to promote the projects anyway. The first
project involved construction of a power plant, but the city defaulted on the equipment
needed to build it.

Another was a railroad project that was

supposed to connect the Southern California
Logistics Airport (SCLA) to the Burlington
Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) rail line. It appears
the city spent $30 million on site work to
prepare for the railroad connection despite the
fact that BNSF had already made it known that
it did not intend to connect its line to SCLA.

Then there were proposed infrastructure

improvements at SCLA, a project that never
had a budget.

The only project that Victorville claims to have

marketed to EB-5 investors, however, is a
wastewater treatment facility that is currently
under construction and will accommodate the
needs of a nearby Dr. Pepper-Snapple bottling
plant. That project, in fact, is the only one
currently displayed on Victorville Regional
Center's website.

But USCIS says it never received a business

plan for the wastewater project and that the Excerpt from USCIS "Notice of Intent to
Terminate"
financing plan for the facility seems to have
changed significantly over the course of the
past year.

In a statement to the Victorville Daily Press, Victorville Economic Development Director

Keith Metzler maintained that all of the projects are still "active," but merely delayed.

Although there is still much to learn about Victorville's troubles, it may be a couple of
months before the final word comes from USCIS. The city just sent several hundred pages
of documentation to the federal government in an attempt to make its case, and it is
awaiting a response.

Information about the regional center's troubles began leaking when Inland Energy, the
company that received a contract from the city to raise money for regional center projects,
fell short of the $25 million it pledged to raise by May of this year. So far, Victorville has only
received $3 million of that amount.

Victorville Regional Center Responds to USCIS "Notice of Intent to

Terminate"

On behalf of Victorville Regional Center, attorney David Hirson sent this letter to Michael
Gibson of USAdvisors.org:

Dear Michael,

The following are some of my comments on the

press articles released by the two local
publications in Victorville over the past two
weeks in connection with the Notice of Intent to
Terminate (NIT) issued by the USCIS to the
Victorville Regional Center (VRC).

From my personal perspective I am not sure

what triggered the Notice of Intent to Terminate
(NIT). One would have hoped that one
government agency would have made a
courtesy call to the other and the issue would
most likely have ended there. The biggest
‘offense’ in this whole saga was that the
Construction Site, Victorville EB-5 Victorville Regional Center reflected four projects
Project in its web site marketing materials.

Of the four only one, the Victorville Wastewater Treatment Facility (VWTF) was
actually marketed to potential investors. The City of Victorville (City) and the
Southern California Logistics Airport Authority (SCLAA) have been extremely
conservative and set high standards to be met in handling their Regional Center
and in dealing with the investors. I have personally attended many meetings and
had discussions about the program with City Council members, City officials and
members of the board of SCLAA.
 The other three projects were not immediately ready for receiving investment
money. The other projects are not proceeding at this time and are put on hold to
allow for an improvement in the economy. They are not ‘defunct’ but simply
delayed. Immediately upon receipt of the NIT all the web site was amended to
reflect this, thereby removing the main tangible cause for complaint by the USCIS.

The other issues were also puzzling. USCIS had approved an I-526 for an investor.
In that package as with all subsequent filings, business plans and econometric
reports were filed. The NIT challenges this while stating “…. Although a review of
the regional center proposal and three Form 1-526 petitions appears to indicate
that this project is a viable commercial venture, …..”. Subsequent to the NIT the
Adjustment of status for the first approved I-526 investor was also approved for the
investor and his family.

The RFE for another I-526 investor cases did not deal at all with the business plan
issue or the alleged missing econometrics report. Only issues relating to source of
funds and a date of birth clarification were raised. Based on my review of the
response to the NIT filed by the City, I am confident that this unwarranted “cloud”
will be removed very shortly.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns that you may
have.

Thank you.
David
David Hirson, Partner,
Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP.
Fragomen Consular Practice (FCP)
18401 Von Karman Avenue, 2nd Floor
Irvine CA 92612-1596
+1.949.660.3504 (Direct) +1.949.261-0209 (Main)
+1.949.279.2156 (Mobile) +1.949.261.2821 (Fax)
dhirson@fragomen.com http://www.fragomen.com

Waffling Like a Roadside Diner: The CSC Addresses Creative Job

Counting Methodologies
by Brandon Meyer, International Immigration Services

When I attended the EB-5 Stakeholders Meeting at the California Service Center (“CSC”) in
March 2010, a regional center principal asked a question something along the lines of:
 In the venture capital (“VC”) world, out of ten projects, VC firms expect nine to fail and
maybe one will be the next Google. Since this is accepted business practice, can I count
jobs using this same approach? Meaning, if four of my regional center projects fail (which,
of course they won’t) and project five creates enough excess jobs to satisfy the job creation
requirements for the investors in projects one-four, will this work? Likewise, can an
investor’s money be divided among the five projects or must it all go to one project?

The answer provided at the March 2010 meeting was an

unequivocal “no” to both questions. I thought this was a
reasonable answer. Thinking this to be reasonable and settled
EB-5 law, I had a hard time understanding why the regional
center principal who asked this question was so incredulous
about the response. Now I understand why.

Apparently, “creative” job counting methodologies are

creeping back into regional center’s designation applications.
In some instances, regional centers believe that their well-
meaning and well-intended, but questionable, job counting
approaches were actually approved by USCIS, when in fact
their attorney failed to clearly explain this newly creative Brandon Meyer
approach, which also happened to be missing from the
business plan and other materials that were submitted to USCIS. The regional center,
reasonably believing that USCIS has blessed their reinvention of the wheel, proceeds to
circulate marketing materials to whoever is interested in seeing them. In approximately two
to three years, the regional center hopes to deploy their creative job counting approach
when their investors reach the I-829 stage. Unfortunately, having good intentions and
engaging in best practices are sometimes mutually exclusive.

Having seen this pattern on a couple of occasions when representing individual investors
in their I-526 regional center petitions and having been met with various levels of denial
and resistance when I raised this issue with the regional center, I decided that I would seek
a reiteration of the definitive answer provided in March 2010. The July 28, 2010 CSC
Liaison Meeting was my chance, but this is where things get interesting…and even less
clear.

During the Q&A session of the July 28, 2010 CSC meeting, I asked the following
questions:

Let’s assume that I’m a prospective regional center investor. I want to invest in a regional
center with projects 1-5. Must my $500,000 be invested in one of these projects, such as
Project 1, or can my money be equally divided among Projects 1-5? Consequently, at the
I-829 stage, let’s say my funds went to Project 1, which fails to create jobs. If Project 2
creates excess jobs, can I utilize jobs created by Project 2 to lift my conditions?”
I expected to receive three quick “no’s” to these questions and that this would be the end
of the matter. Instead, I started getting a meandering, waffling response of “well, it
depends on whether the different projects are separate or related, subsidiaries, the
particulars of the project, yada, yada, yada. This waffling continued for a couple more
minutes before it was abruptly cut off under the guise that I was intentionally asking tricky
questions that were case-specific and otherwise trying to trick the CSC into making policy
in the field. Thus, it was all my fault and I should feel bad for committing some type of sin!
Nothing could be further from the truth. I was merely seeking reiteration of what had been
said in the past. Nevertheless, CSC did reveal that these questions were being considered
at USCIS headquarters for definitive guidance, the timetable for which was unclear.

Therefore, maybe some type of a more creative approach will be blessed as compliant at
some undefined point in the future under certain circumstances that have yet to be
determined. So what does one do in the meantime until this guidance is released,
remembering that USCIS spent eight years mulling over regulations to deal with the 800 or
so stalled EB-5 cases impacted by the 2002 amendments? After all, life must go on while
bureaucrats mull over the fate of the world.

Here are the lessons I believe should be drawn from these experiences:

Bottom line to regional centers:

If your project is solid, there is no need to reinvent the wheel and come up with a highly
creative approach to job counting. The project will create the requisite jobs. Creativity is
good for the art gallery, but it’s just inviting problems in the future in the regional center
context.

Bottom line to attorneys representing regional centers:

Creativity is good for the art gallery, but it really isn’t helping your regional center client in
the future. Perhaps you think you’re doing your regional center client a favor by blessing
the creative approach, but if the history of the EB-5 program tells us anything, it’s that a
“by-the-book” conservative approach wins the race. Don’t be afraid that advocating a
conservative approach will result in the prospective regional center taking their business
elsewhere. Telling a client what they want to hear may win the business, but it’s not good
practice.

Furthermore, creativity and envelope pushing is just exposing regional center investors and
their attorneys to a potential future of pain and disappointment. The I-829 denial that was
used as an example for the June 2010 EB-5 Stakeholders Meeting makes this point
crystal clear.
Bottom line to attorneys representing individual investors in regional centers:

When reviewing a regional center’s

business plan, partnership
agreement, escrow agreement,
marketing materials, offering
memorandum, etc; if something
looks wrong, it probably is. Do not be
afraid to raise your concerns with the
regional center. While everybody
wants to be on good terms with
regional centers, you represent the
individual investor. The promise of
endless case referrals from a regional International Immigration Services Attorneys with
center (which are frequently made, Principals at the California Global Alliance Regional
but rarely fulfilled) should not deter Center
the attorney from representing the
best interests of his or her client.

If the regional center’s explanation is unsatisfactory, you may wish to have a serious
discussion with your client (within SEC guidelines, of course) about whether he or she
wants to proceed with an investment in that regional center. If the regional center fails or
something else happens that the investor finds unacceptable, you will get sued along with
the regional center if you failed to raise your concerns with the regional center or the client.
It’s just not worth the risk.

Conclusion:

While USCIS seems to waffle on whether a creative approach might be acceptable and
may waffle on the circumstances under which a creative approach might also be
acceptable, what is the point in finding out the hard way that a creative approach is not
compliant with the EB-5 program?

Again, I refer the reader to the I-829 denial featured in the June 2010 EB-5 Stakeholders
Meeting. Conservatism may have a bad name on Air America (which went bankrupt and
was quickly forgotten), but sometimes it may be a better approach to EB-5 practice. I
hope that this essay does not come off as too sanctimonious or as the random missives of
the naïve and unseasoned. However, nobody benefits from a return to the bad old days of
EB-5 practice that characterized the period from 1998 to 2006. Pushing the envelope too
far will get us back there faster than any of us can imagine.
China Daily Interviews Idaho Regional Center Operator, EB-5 Service
Provider Brian Su

In a new profile of the EB-5 immigrant investor program,

China Daily's English-language website notes both the
increasing popularity of the program as well as the growing
competition among regional centers resulting from that
popularity.

According to the article, China recently outstripped South

Korea in EB-5 participation with nearly 2,000 foreign
investors utilizing in the program last year compared to 900
from South Korea. This reality, along with the ever-
increasing number of regional centers vying for EB-5
investors, has led to an unprecedented level of regional
center marketing activity in China.

For details about recent changes in the program, China

Daily speaks with Brian Dickens of the Idaho Department of Commerce:

The Idaho state government regards China as one of its major potential markets for the
program and has hired Chinese market specialists to help sell the state as an investment
destination.

Dickens made his third trip to China, bringing along Idaho governor C.L. “Butch” Otter to
promote the regional centers.

Idaho launched its first regional center in December last year and the second in January. It
has not had any success story yet out of the program. But the centers are still new and
hopes are still high.

“It will happen soon,” said Dickens.

China Daily also points out how emigrating to the United States is a "popular move"
among China's wealthy citizens, although moving to countries like Canada or Australia is
often a less tedious process. Despite the difficulties, it appears there is still an allure
particular to the United States that motivates Chinese people of means to bear any
hindrances inherent to the immigration process.

For clarification on Chinese interest in emigrating to the United States, China Daily
publishes commentary from EB-5 service provider Brian Su:
 “The US is still a huge attraction to Chinese people and is always the first pick for the most
capable investors,” said Su. “And the EB-5 program can be a fast track to a US green
card.”

In major Chinese cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, wealthy Chinese are
often invited to glamorous EB-5 promotions events, where high-level state officials greet
them. […]

“It is a risky investment,” [Su] said. “The number of regional centers is

growing too fast and they can barely control the quality of the projects.”

Sima Muroff, an operator at the Idaho State Regional Center who

was also contacted by China Daily, acknowledges that one of the
primary concerns of the EB-5 investor is not whether he or she will
receive a return on any investment, but whether the project is sound
enough to create the 10 jobs necessary for the investor to qualify for
a green card. Even so, Muroff claims his regional center is the first in
Brian Su the country to offer "an insurance program designed to repay
investors their original investment amount in case the projects do
not generate enough profit to cover the original capital costs."

Whether such an incentive pays of for Muroff is yet to be seen. Additional comments from
Dickens indicate that the majority of Chinese individuals interested in EB-5 are "not
sophisticated investors." They are, instead, "entrepreneurs who start private companies or
those who made their fortune from China’s real estate bubble."

Investors like these prefer to invest in "familiar industries," according to China Daily, like
"real estate and retail trade."

EB-5 Investor CLE Conference: Friday, August 27, 2010, Seaport

Hotel, Boston, MA

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has provided the following invitation:

Though greatly underutilized, the EB-5 immigrant visa may be the answer for clients who
lack other options as a result of our broken immigration system. This comprehensive one-
day program provides exceptional training in EB-5 investor law for practitioners at every
level.
 The morning sessions are split into two tracks. Track I,
designed for the new EB-5 practitioner, will provide an
overview of the law, recommend a protocol for determining
whether EB-5 is an appropriate client strategy, and will
delve into the details of preparing and filing an EB-5 case.

If you are a seasoned EB-5 veteran looking for in-depth

analyses of sophisticated legal issues, you will begin your
day on Track II, where you will consider country-specific
issues presented by a panel of experts, and hear about the
many challenges immigration lawyers face as U.S.
businesses attempt to use the EB-5 category as a tool to
raise capital. The two tracks merge for a series of joint
sessions in the late morning and afternoon. Special
attention will be given to the effect of recently-issued USCIS
memoranda on EB-5 adjudications and practice.

Registration Information:
AILA Member: $475
AILA Member's Paralegal: $475
Nonprofit AILA Member: $325
AILA Law Student Member: $275
Government Rate: $475

Nonmember Attorney $675

Nonprofit Nonmember: $475
Nonmember Law Student: $375

CLE Credit:

This AILA conference has been filed for MCLE and specialized credit in appropriate jurisdictions.
Participants must designate the state(s) for notification on the registration form and sign the official
record of attendance for the state(s) on site. Number of credit hours awarded for each state will be
available at the conference. Eligible participants can receive up to 8.4 CLE credit hours.

EB5info.com Now Available in Russian

EB5info.com now has a Russian counterpart with a ".ru" URL. To be exact, EB5visa.ru is
the address, and it's still a "young" site according to webmaster Igor Kasyanchuk, who is
responsible for its creation and maintenance.
When everything is set up,
says Kasyanchuk, the site will
be visible in Yandex, the
popular Russian-language
search engine, and should
include complete translations
of everything published on the
English site.

Of course, the purpose of a Russian-language site with information about the USCIS EB-5
visa program is to begin making news, events, and contact information for EB-5
practitioners more globally available. According to Kasyanchuk, the creation of EB5visa.ru
may, in the future, serve as a template for creating versions of the site in other languages.

Get EB-5 Updates From an "Insider"

Many an EB-5 attorney maintains a web presence, and in that regard Jose Latour is no
different. Unlike some reading material focused on immigration law, however, Latour's
"Immigration Insider" blog offers a perspective on investment immigration that is fresh and
colloquial.

While we at EB5Info.com want to thank Jose Latour for providing

such frequent and well-informed commentary, we'll also go ahead
and post a "disclaimer" that the views and opinions presented by
"Immigration Insider" belong to its author and are not necessarily
our own. That said, merely pointing out that some regional centers
handling EB-5 investment visa projects offer more potential for the
investor than others, a matter often discussed on his blog, is far
from a radical suggestion. That some regional centers are more
Jose Latour transparent than others is also well-documented.

A typical update on "Immigration Insider" may include coverage of investment immigration

news, EB-5 regional center observations, or general commentary on the politics of
immigration in the United States. So thanks again, Jose, for keeping the updates in our
inboxes and for rarely holding back an opinion. Regular updates from immigration
attorneys and others in the EB-5 community are always welcome as they help keep us
informed about what's happening in the EB-5 visa marketplace.
 August
• How Might a USCIS/Department of Commerce Partnership Affect the EB-5 Program?
• Idaho Governor Promotes Regional Center Projects Abroad
• EB-5 Project Helps Transform Washington D.C. Neighborhood
• Why China Doesn't Like Seeing its Wealthiest Citizens Leave the Country
• Suburban "Sportsplex" in Illinois Receives Help From Foreign Investment

USCIS Proposes Partnership With Department of Commerce to

Manage the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program
by Michael Gibson, USAdvisors.org

Thanks to the alert eyes of Jeff Carr of EPR/

EB-5 Economics who brought to our attention a
newly released memo from USCIS titled
“Alternative to Comprehensive Immigration
Reform.” The memo, which was posted on ABC
News, has several recommendations for the
agency should comprehensive immigration
reform not get passed by Congress this year.

Of interest to the EB-5 visa community are recommendations on how USCIS and the
Department of Commerce (DOC) could work together to improve the outreach of the EB-5
immigrant investor visa program to prospective EB-5 foreign national investors. The memo
is fascinating as the subject of a USCIS/DOC partnership to promote the EB-5 immigrant
investor visa program has been the subject of a number of stakeholder discussions. This is
the first time, however, that an actual plan has been put in writing and proposed to a large
audience.

Seeing that the memo addresses a potentially enormous legislative and national problem
should comprehensive immigration reform not occur this year, the fact that the EB-5
immigrant investor visa program even gets mentioned is big news for EB-5 investors,
practitioners, and stakeholders.

On Page 5, Section B: To Foster Economic Growth:

Partner with Department of Commerce (DOC) to administer the EB-5 Immigrant Investor
Visa Program

The paragraph mentions how the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program requires foreign
nationals who invest in the United States to create at least 10 jobs to obtain LPR status.
Then it states:

Due to a number of factors the EB-5 program has been underutilized and, as a result, job
creation under this program has been limited. USCIS views the EB-5 visa program as an
important tool in assisting the U.S. economy as our country continues to recover from the
recent recession.

Currently, an opportunity exists for USCIS and the DOC to work together in promoting the
EB-5 Visa Immigrant Investor Pilot Program (Pilot Program). The goals of the Pilot Program
and the goals of certain DOC components, such as Invest in America, seem to provide a
natural starting point for agency collaboration. OPS proposes setting up a working group
with the DCO to determine how DOC might assist USCIS in making the EB-5 program
more accessible to foreign investors through administrative efficiencies and promotion.

The memo goes on to describe how such a working group can

operate, and it lists the implementation method, resources/
consideration & target date. For instance, under Resources/
Considerations it specifies that "DHS and USCIS leadership agree that
the partnership with DOC would be beneficial to USCIS as well as the
EB-5 stakeholder community.”

As for implementation, the memo emphasizes that rules would need

to be made to “codify joint administration of the EB-5 Visa Program
once parameters are agreed upon between the two agencies.”
Michael Gibson
As for the target date, the memo mentions that such date is to be
determined, also stating in parentheses, "We can begin cooperating with Invest in America
immediately. Allow 3-9 months so that the low hanging fruit can be harvested first."
Although this proposal is controversial within the EB-5 visa stakeholder community, it
appears as though a partnership between USCIS to manage the visa portion of the
program and DOC to manage the commercial operations, compliance, and promotion may
be beneficial to increasing awareness among potential EB-5 immigrant investors and
providing oversight of regional center operations.

EB-5 Visa Program a Gold Mine in Idaho, Literally

The State of Idaho is currently

engaged in a full-fledged effort to
create jobs via the USCIS EB-5
Visa Program.

Its cornerstone project? Reopening

a gold mine that was abandoned
during the Great Depression.

This month, an Idaho Statesman

article provided a lengthy profile of
efforts by Idaho Governor Butch
Otter and the Idaho Regional Center, which was established by real estate investors in a
project called Blackhawk on the River, to secure Chinese investment in an old mine that
sits on private property near Placerville, Idaho. Along with Taiwanese businessman
Raymond Ku, who has experience in the Asia-U.S. immigration process, Otter already has
at least 20 investors on board, which means the Idaho Regional Center has raised around
$10 million. The State hopes that EB-5 will ultimately bring $60 million to Idaho every year.

Incidentally, Otter's interest in EB-5 is due, in large part, to "Project 60," an effort "aimed at
increasing Idaho's gross domestic product to $60 billion," according to the Statesman.
The first time Idaho tried to start a regional center, it created the tech-focused InvestIdaho,
an undertaking that, in the words of Brian Dickens of the Idaho Department of Commerce,
"[isn't] going anywhere" due to the fact that the regional center is not located in a Targeted
Unemployment Area and cannot qualify for $500,000 EB-5 investments.

Idaho became interested in the gold mine project when Sima Muroff, Principal Manager for
Blackhawk on the River, learned of the potential that may lie in land recently acquired by
Don and Candy Miller, a wealthy Idaho couple. This from the Statesman:
 In 2005, the Boise North End couple had bought a ghost town called Quartzburg, about
three miles outside of Placerville, with the idea of turning it into a recreation or
second-home development.

The Gold Hill Mine there was first opened in 1864 but has been abandoned since 1938.

At the sale closing, the previous owner told Don Miller he had some papers with
information about the property. Miller was presented with a garage full of documents - the
entire record of all mining and exploration at Quartzburg since 1863. The documents
offered a road map for geologists looking to reopen the mine.

"It would be worth $30 million to $40 million if you had to go out and collect it today," Don
Miller said.

He worked with the Colorado School of Mines to analyze the documents and the
information. The most remarkable find was that the piles of tailings sitting on the property
since the mine closed in 1938 weren't tailing at all.

Instead of a pile of waste, Miller was sitting on 180,000 tons of rich ore that had been
mined and left unprocessed. It is valued at more than $50 million, he said. Best of all, the
ore has few contaminants and has not leached heavy metals into the ground.

A mutual friend at the Cascade Bank in McCall referred the Millers to Muroff. He and his
partners bought into the Gold Hill Mine and it became the centerpiece of the Idaho
Regional Center's investment.

If Muroff and Governor Otter can reopen and exploit this mine with the
help of foreign investment capital, it will be a success story for the
EB-5 visa program, which, as the Statesman also notes, "has
produced mixed results."

With nearly 100 EB-5 regional centers operating and so few projects
actually getting off the ground relative to that number, a successful
gold mine in Idaho would certainly show that the EB-5 program can
work as it was intended and be a win-win situation for Americans and
foreign national investors.

According to one EB-5 immigrant investor questioned recently by

China Daily, "Gold is always precious. Times change, but it keeps its
value."
Transformation of D.C. Neighborhood Receives Help From EB-5

The Washington Post is reporting that a "new Giant

grocery store and mixed-use development in
[Washington D.C.]'s Shaw neighborhood" has received
$5 million from foreign investors. More specifically, it's the
EB-5 visa program that has made the project possible.

According to Angel Brunner, who is working with the

Anacostia Development Corporation to raise money from
foreign national immigrant investors, residents of Angel Brunner
Washington D.C. "have half the number of grocery stores
that our suburban neighbors have." She goes on to tell the Post that any development
initiative in D.C. that involves a new grocery store is a "good opportunity."

Brunner, who is a former official in the city of D.C.'s National Capitalization Revitalization
Corporation, is heading up the project with her partner, immigration attorney David Morris
of the Visa Law Group.

The new D.C. development is receiving a $100 million loan from the Department of
Housing and Urban Development, and Brunner says that the amount of funding to be
raised through the U.S. EB-5 immigrant investor program may ultimately match that figure.

Dubbed "CityMarket," the development is a 1-million square-foot plan that will take up a
two-block area between 7th and 9th streets and O and P streets. The first phase will
include 395 apartments, the Giant grocery store, and a hotel with nearly 200 rooms.

All told, the project is valued at $260 million, according to the Post.

The EB-5 Investment Visa and "Naked Officials" – Regional Center

Marketing in China

When asked how the Chinese government feels about the USCIS EB-5 investment visa
program, EB-5 service provider Brian Su's response is simple and to the point: They don't
like it.

Although it's true that the Chinese State Council made a statement last month proclaiming
the government's respect for a "citizen's choice for immigration," Su notes, China's recent
request that all high-level officials and Communist Party leaders register their family
members living overseas belies the fact that it's not completely comfortable with such
emigration – in particular with foreign government incentives like the EB-5 visa program.

"There's a new term in Chinese," Su explains. A "naked

official" refers to a high-ranking party member living in
mainland China whose wife, children, and personal assets
all reside abroad. This official is said to be "naked"
because he has nothing of great value left in the country
other than himself. Last month's call for these officials to
register their family members underscores the
government's concern that wealth is leaving the country.

The rise of high-ranking individuals with this status is just

one factor that has the government worried, however. In
July, the Guangdong Provincial Exit and Entry
Administration issued a warning about the EB-5
investment visa program stating that the projects are risky
and advised migration brokers and potential investors to
exercise caution when considering the large volume of
EB-5 visa regional center projects and investment
immigration initiatives now being marketed.

This statement comes in response to growing EB-5

regional center marketing efforts in the country, particularly
in the Pearl River Delta Region where EB-5 visa project promotion is widespread and
frequent. According to Su, too many regional center projects are being marketed, and the
government is "sending a message" that "[regional centers] have to disclose all necessary
information to their clients."

As for whether such a warning will discourage potential investors from investigating the
EB-5 visa program, Su isn't worried.

"People are still interested," he says. "I don't think there will be any significant impact on
the interest." But for regional centers "following the rules," he adds, "it's bad news."

Bad news or not, more EB-5 visas were issued to Chinese immigrant investors than to
those from any other country in 2009, and it's unlikely the government's fear of wealth
leaving the country will put a large damper on regional center marketing efforts or Chinese
interest in investment immigration any time soon.
EB-5 Program Breathes New Life Into Plan for Suburban Sports
Complex

Developers in McHenry County, Illinois first looked to the

traditional bond market when they tried to fund construction of
a new sports complex. But when the market fell in 2008, they
were forced to investigate alternative avenues for financing.
What they found was the EB-5 Visa Program.

Now the Lakewood Village Board in Lakewood, Illinois has

given the new "Sportsplex" its seal of approval, and the
Chicagoland Foreign Investment Group (CFIG) is in charge of
raising foreign investment capital. According to the Northwest
Herald in McHenry County, CFIG Regional Center Operator and
Chicago attorney Taher Kameli says "about 45 people" have
already showed interest in putting up money for the Sportsplex.
Taher Kameli
Kameli says that CFIG recently raised $8.5 million for the Aurora
Memory Care Center, an assisted living establishment in suburban Chicago. "Based on my
experience, I don't see any issues to raising these funds," Kameli tells the Herald.

The Sportsplex will be built in two phases and will cover 165 acres in McHenry County.
The Herald adds the following:

Given recent immigration debates, project developers and planners are quick to defend the
EB-5 program.

"Not many of the investors will live in McHenry County. They may live somewhere else in
the U.S.," Kameli said. "But their money creates jobs in McHenry County. That’s what
residents should care about."

Managing partner for the complex [Lou] Tenore said it was a way for potential new citizens
to speed their progress.

"It doesn’t guarantee citizenship," Tenore said. "They just don’t have to sit in line."

The Sportsplex initiative has also received permission to sell $18 million in recovery zone
bonds received through the federal stimulus package. That funding, along with EB-5, will
bring in money for the development without having to pay back debt to any banks.
 September
• Regional Centers in Colorado, Montana, Washington, and Utah Make News
• Victorville Regional Center Receives Second Termination Notice from USCIS
• New EB-5 Visa Projects in Florida Focused on Mixed-Use Development
• New York Deal May Become the Most Expensive EB-5 Project on Record

Colorado EB-5 Visa Projects "Sensible Development Deals," Says

Principal

Could Colorado be the next success story for the EB-5 visa program?

Chet Schwartz thinks so. As

Managing Director of the
newly-approved Colorado
Regional Center, Schwartz
believes his outfit's
development-centered
investment immigration
projects will appeal to foreign
investors for one simple
reason – they stand on their
own merits. Ski Slopes in Vail, Colorado

"They're good deals," says Schwartz. "They're sensible development deals."

But with the number of USCIS-approved regional centers edging forward each month, the
competition for immigrant investors' attention may be stepping up. This summer, USCIS
approved the nation's 100th regional center, a noteworthy leap from the roughly 80 or so
approved centers listed on its website at the beginning of 2010.

As Schwartz points out, however, only a handful of those regional centers appear to be
active, which may leave a larger opening for more serious newcomers eager to have the
EB-5 visa program fund new initiatives.

An attractive destination for EB-5 visa investors?

When it comes to whether the state of Colorado holds any particular appeal to the
immigrant investor, Schwartz is confident.

"We think there is some appeal to the international community," he says, noting that
"Colorado and the world-class ski areas" are not exactly unknown locales in other parts of
the world. Compared to some parts of the country, he adds, "Colorado has a little more
pizzaz."

And the projects themselves? One is an existing

initiative – a mixed-use development in Vail –
which is "already pretty far along," according to
Schwartz. Were the Colorado Regional Center to
find the EB-5 visa investors it's looking for, those
dollars would help spur the venture forward.

Another project is planned for Aurora, a Denver

suburb where a new hospital complex is
currently under construction. New developments
near the complex would be the recipients of
Downtown Vail, Colorado
immigrant investor funding, and Schwartz says
the regional center is currently negotiating with
developers.

As for selling investors on its proposed initiatives, the regional center is aware that alleged
instances of "over-marketing" EB-5 visa projects to foreign investors has the Chinese
government issuing warnings about the program. But Schwartz says he isn't worried.

"I'm not concerned about it," he says. "We're trying to find [sales] contacts who are honest
and straightforward."

Development projects already seen through by Waveland Ventures LLC, Colorado

Regional Center's parent company, are listed on the center's website.
Scouting out a TEA

Given the current high rate of unemployment, it may come as a surprise that finding a
Targeted Employment Area (TEA) in Colorado is easier said than done.

"The good news for Colorado is that the unemployment rate isn't as high as the national
average," says Schwartz. That's why the regional center received approval to take on EB-5
visa projects all throughout the state – in particular those rural areas with populations low
enough to qualify as TEA's.

"We're focusing a lot of attention on areas in the mountains," he says. "There is still some
zeal for development in the mountains."

If the Colorado Regional Center is successful in its attempts to use investment immigration
as a catalyst for new development initiatives in the Centennial State, it will join the relatively
small percentage of regional centers in the United States actively managing EB-5 visa
projects.

Victorville Receives Second Termination Notice from USCIS

The San Bernardino County Sun reported this

month that USCIS has sent a second "Notice of
Intent to Terminate" to the Victorville Regional
Center.

Earlier this year, Victorville became the first USCIS-

approved regional center to receive such a notice,
and the second letter, dated August 10, states that
most of the jobs the regional center was generating
do not have any direct link to the $30 million
wastewater treatment plant that is the centerpiece
of its EB-5 investment portfolio.

Regional Center CEO Keith Metzler has now mailed

a letter and more than 50 pages of supporting
documents to USCIS and remains confident that the
Southern California Logistics Airport
regional center is well within the bounds of what is
required by the EB-5 program.
According to the Sun, Metzler says in his letter that "Had it not been for the commitment
by the city of Victorville and its redevelopment agency to build the (wastewater treatment
plant), the jobs generated by (Dr. Pepper Snapple) and Plastipak would not currently exist."

Metzler is referring to new jobs created at nearby industrial facilities that depend on the
wastewater treatment plant.

Dated September 1, Metzler's letter also states that the new notice "jeopardizes the ability
of the Southern California Logistics Airport Industrial Wastewater Treatment Facility to
sustain jobs created as it prohibits the ability of the SCLA (wastewater treatment plant) to
refinance its construction debt."

USCIS does not appear so sympathetic, however. In its letter to Victorville, it asserts that
"neither the Dr. Pepper Snapple plant nor the Plastipak plant appear to have a relationship
with the wastewater treatment plant other than being parties to agreements to be
consumers of the services of the wastewater treatment plant […] It would appear that your
regional center asserts that any newly created public or private entity that provides a
commodity or service to commercial consumers, such as a wastewater treatment plant,
power plant, solid waste disposal center, etc., would in effect be able to claim credit for the
jobs created by the commercial consumers of its services."

Regional center operators, however, seem confident in their assertions that the regional
center has nothing to fear.

William Buck Johns of Inland Energy, the developer awarded the contract to seek out
immigrant investors, tells the Sun they're "expecting the green light from USCIS any day
now." The article goes on:

Johns said other companies planning a move to the SCLA and create jobs will be utilizing
the wastewater treatment as well. In addition, the Victorville Federal Prison will also be a
user of the plant.

Johns said the regional center is still actively marketing the EB-5 program to investors, but
said it is dire that the matter be cleared up with the federal government.

“It’s just a clear misunderstanding by the USCIS. We’re well within the bounds of the
program, and this is one of the more successful EB-5 programs in the country.”

With so many new EB-5 regional centers opening their doors, seeing one in danger of
having to shut them is certainly an anomaly. If USCIS and Victorville cannot come to an
agreement, 28 committed investors are likely to lose their chance for a green card.
EB-5 in Montana? The Governor Says Yes.

Montana may be hopping on the EB-5 regional center bandwagon.

Its governor, Democrat Brian Schweitzer, made a few comments to
a local television station in Missoula indicating his support for the
program.

"As we attract new capital to Montana, we create new jobs in

Montana, so new capital, new jobs, good for Montana," said
Schweitzer.

The governor was meeting with ALPS CEO Robert Minto, who
updated him on plans to open a regional center in Big Sky Country. According to the
KAJ18 television channel, he "hopes to have the first projects funded by late 2011 or early
2012."

See the network's video at kaj18.com.

American Life, Inc. Shares New Promotional Video

Jo Hwang of American Life, Inc. has

published a new video his regional
center is using to promote its SODO –
Home Plate Center EB-5 visa project in
Seattle.

According to American Life’s website,

the property at 1501 1st Ave. will
undergo development for new retail,
office, and parking facilities, an endeavor to be funded by EB-5 visa capital investment.
The site is located in Seattle’s SODO district, which sits directly south of downtown.

American Life Inc. began funding development projects in the SODO district in 1996 and
became eligible for immigrant investor funding ten years later with the formation of
American Life Ventures. The group now oversees 10 USCIS-approved regional centers
participating in the EB-5 visa program.
Utah's Mountain States Regional Center Focused on the Hospitality
Industry
Approved August 11, Mountain States Regional Center is the first to appear in the state of
Utah.

In reference to EB-5 investment in development projects, Regional Center President and

CEO Heath Westfall tells the Salt Lake City Tribune, "We're excited to be at the forefront of
this." Westfall is a former venture capitalist working with Stephen Studdart, a veteran
political advisor who is also collaborating with the Orem, Utah-based regional center as it
exploits the EB-5 visa program for immigrant investor capital.

Since 2006, Westfall has worked with Z.H. Lodging, a

company that operates Marriott-branded properties,
according to the Tribune.

The paper explains:

Mountain States Center’s focus is on the hospitality

industry, particularly attracting investment in Marriott-
branded properties developed and/or operated by Z H
Lodging, a company Westfall has worked with since 2006.

But it also is authorized to pursue foreign investments that could be used in Utah and other
parts of the West in fields as varied as horse ranch development, high technology,
healthcare services and innovation, entertainment, education and infrastructure.

Without providing details, Westfall said “we have several projects around the state that are
in the pipeline. We anticipate having all of the funds put together for our first project in 60
days.” He added that center officials have been in discussions with investors in China, the
Middle East, Japan, Russia and several other countries.

If Westfall is trying to get foreign investors to fund Marriott-branded properties, he will join a
fairly large group of EB-5 regional centers seeking funds for new hotels and other
development initiatives in the hospitality industry.

Jimmy Buffett-Inspired EB-5 Visa Project Profiled by South Florida

Newspaper

Will a beach bum-themed resort in Florida attract EB-5 investor capital?

Lon Tabatchnik, a South Florida developer
who plans to raise $75 million from 150
investors through the EB-5 visa program, is
confident that it will. The completed project
would be a Hollywood, FL beach getaway
named after the popular Jimmy Buffet tune,
"Margaritaville."

According to South Florida's Sun Sentinel,

Tabatchnik plans to break ground on the
development in 2012.

In its article on the Margaritaville project, the

paper notes some common controversies regarding the EB-5 program in general, but
balances those with commentary from a Florida immigration attorney:

“The United States gets about 1 million immigrants a year. EB-5 is open to 10,000 a year,
who are high net-worth individuals, generally well-educated with no criminal record,” said
immigration lawyer Larry Behar of Fort Lauderdale. “Is that the kind of immigration we
want? You’re darn right.”

Behar has developed a specialized EB-5 unit with a staff of eight who do legal work for
proposed regional centers, help market the approved centers and help foreign investors
obtain the visas.

He recently returned from a trip to China with the governor of Idaho to tout mining ventures
in Idaho approved as an EB-5 regional center. And he’s now seeking approval for what
would be the largest EB-5 regional center nationwide: a $250 million cancer treatment
hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Along with the highly-publicized Hollywood Florida retail/residential development being

touted by the newly-approved Gold Coast Florida Regional Center, the Margaritaville
Resort is likely to be among Florida's larger development-centered EB-5 projects being
marketed to foreign investors. Like the Gold Coast Florida initiative, Tabatchnik has
suggested that the resort will create thousands of new jobs.

"Some EB-5 investors worry if they’ll meet employment requirements," he tells the paper.
"But a hotel creates jobs immediately, and we've found some investors are more
comfortable when government is involved."
Miami Herald Takes a Look at Possible Florida EB-5 Project

The Miami Herald ran a story this month about the Great Southern Hotel, which it
contends was once "a landmark of Hollywood's [Hollywood, FL] Young Circle." It seems
that the hotel has sat idle for some time but is now about to get a "$100,000 face-lift."

Raelin Story, spokeswoman for the city of Hollywood, tells the Herald that "the project is a
compromise between the owner and the city to clean up decaying property - at least what
the public can see - while it sits empty awaiting redevelopment.

That redevelopment would come in the form of a project funded

by EB-5 investment under the auspices of developers Chip
Abele and Mo Abbas of the Gold Coast Florida EB-5 Regional
Center.

Abele announced in 2003 that his group would be razing the

hotel and building a mixed-use development in its place. In a
recent conversation with EB5info.com, however, Abele stated
that redevelopment of the property where the Great Southern
Hotel currently sits is still not an active project, EB-5 or
otherwise, but is merely in the pipeline.

The Florida Regional Center Issues First Press Release

The Florida Regional Center has

received USCIS approval and will
begin raising immigrant investor
funds for a Palm Beach County
initiative. Its first EB-5 visa project
is a new town center development
in Jupiter, Florida called
Harbourside Place (pictured),
which the center says will provide a
“gathering place” much like a traditional downtown.

The regional center’s EB-5 visa project is located in a TEA and is stated to be worth $144
million, $80 million of which it plans to receive from immigrant investor visa funding. The
center’s marketing material states that the project should create 400 more jobs than
required.
Nicholas Mastroianni II, President of Allied Capital & Development of South Florida, LLC
and new managing principal at the regional center has experience in the real estate and
development market, and past projects have included subdivisions, town home
developments, commercial facilities, and mixed use sites. USCIS approval of the Florida
Regional Center brings the total number of EB-5 regional centers in Florida to 15.

Here is the text of the press release:

Decision Green Lights Overseas Investment Opportunities in Harbourside Place

Jupiter, FL Development Project

Florida Regional Center, www.FLRegionalCenter.com, the U. S. government-approved

entity that provides investment opportunities in Florida real estate development projects for
foreign nationals through the U.S. government EB-5 Visa Program has been given full
approval as a designated regional center by the United States Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS). The approval gives the green light to the agency’s Harbourside Place
development project in Jupiter, Florida.

Nicholas A. Mastroianni II, Manager, Florida Regional Center, said, “Not only is this a major
milestone for the Florida Regional Center and Harbourside Place, but it is a life raft for Palm
Beach County and the Town of Jupiter; the economic stimulus this will bring to the area is a
necessity. We have been promoting this project for months and we can now begin to file
I-526 applications for interested foreign investors.”Harbourside Place features an
entertainment plaza and outdoor amphitheatre, retail space, restaurants and eateries, office
sites, 4-star hotel accommodations and marina. This full-scale development encompasses
a thrilling range of opportunities for business, visitors and residents.

About Florida Regional Center and the EB-5 Visa Program

Each year, the U.S. government reserves 3,000 green cards for foreign investors who invest
in designated regional centers through the EB-5 Visa Program. These initiatives enjoy full
government support as they stimulate the economy, generate at least ten jobs per
investment, and promote community development while providing direct access to green
cards for foreign investors and their families.

The Florida Regional Center will bring the benefits of the EB-5 Visa Program to the
business community of Palm Beach County. Regional center projects must be approved by
the U.S. government and the main criteria is that each investor’s contribution will create ten
sustainable jobs for U.S. workers in a designated geographical region.

For more information on Harbourside Place and other Florida Regional Center projects, visit
www.FLRegionalCenter.com or email us at info@FLRegionalCenter.com.
New York Project May Raise Largest Figure on Record for EB-5

According to the Wall Street Journal,

New York developer Bruce Ratner is
headed to China next month to see if he
can use the EB-5 visa program to raise
money for an enormous project in
Brooklyn known as "Atlantic Yards." The
centerpiece of the project, which is
estimated to be worth around $4.9 billion
according to the Journal, is a new arena
for the New Jersey Nets.

Although Ratner is only seeking about $250 million of that amount through the EB-5
funding element, that figure would still be among the largest amounts ever raised through
the immigrant investor green card program – possibly the largest.

It also seems Ratner received some guidance from New York City officials who, impressed
by the successful Brooklyn Navy Yard project being handled by the New York City Regional
Center, have urged Ratner to use the EB-5 visa program as a source of financing for his
own ventures.

It remains to be seen whether Ratner's trip to China or any subsequent efforts to exploit
the EB-5 program for his Atlantic Yards project will culminate in the largest figure ever
raised by the program for a single initiative. The plans, however, are ambitious. The Journal
is also reporting that construction of 16 residential towers – also part of Atlantic Yards – is
planned for next year.

The New York City Regional Center does have a hand in the project as "sponsor," the
paper states, but the Atlantic Yards project still needs approval from the federal
government before it can use any of the $250 million it is able to raise through the
program.
 October
• USCIS Shuts Down Victorville Regional Center
• USAdvisors.org Forges Partnership With Chinese Media Company
• Atlantic Yards Project a Hit With Chinese Investors
• Chinese Public Security Bureau Issues Warning About EB-5 Investments
• Northern California Regional Center Principals Comment on the Dairy Industry, China
• Gold Coast Regional Center Operator Speaks With EB5info.com
• Former DNC Chairman to Use EB-5 Funding for Mississippi Project

USCIS Orders Victorville Regional Center to Close its Doors

For the first time ever, USCIS has shut down an operational
EB-5 regional center.

On October 20, the federal government sent a final letter

informing the Victorville Regional Center that it was pulling the
plug on the regional center's ability to participate in the EB-5
immigrant investor program. This comes after at least two
other letters from USCIS to officials at the regional center
detailing concerns over job creation methodology Victorville
was using to justify its EB-5 visa projects.

USCIS and the "Termination" Saga

Approved by USCIS on June 19, 2009, Victorville received from

the feds an unprecedented "Notice of Intent to Terminate" in May of this year. Among
USCIS' chief concerns were changes made to the business plan for one of Victorville's
projects, a wastewater treatment facility that would service a nearby Dr. Pepper-Snapple
bottling plant.

Other EB-5 visa projects in Victorville's pipeline also caused skepticism among USCIS
officials, most notably the construction of a power plant for which the city of Victorville
defaulted on needed equipment costs and a railroad project that never came to fruition.

In August, the regional center received a second termination notice calling into question
the jobs it was counting toward totals needed to satisfy the USCIS requirement that 10
jobs be created per green card issued. It seems the regional center attempted to include
jobs created at the bottling facility among its totals since the plant was a consumer of the
service provided by the wastewater treatment utility – methodology ultimately deemed
faulty by USCIS.

According to USCIS' second termination notice:

It would appear that your regional center asserts that any newly created public or private
entity that provides a commodity or service to commercial consumers, such as a
wastewater treatment plant, power plant, solid waste disposal center, etc., would in effect
be able to claim credit for the jobs created by the commercial consumers of its services.

Victorville's Response

In light of continued requests that Victorville demonstrate it was able to raise money for its
EB-5 visa projects according to criteria approved by USCIS, city spokeswoman Mariana
Gitmore told the Victorville Daily Press Tuesday that the regional center was unable to do
so.

Speaking on behalf of the regional center, attorney David Hirson (pictured) sent the
following statement to EB5info.com:

Victorville Regional Center I, LP wishes to place on record that it

regards the termination of the Victorville Regional Center (VRC) by
the USCIS as bad in law and incorrect on the facts. The only issue
that the USCIS had in terminating the VRC was the methodology
used by the economist for proving the number of jobs to be created.  
Notwithstanding the position of the USCIS, the VRC has obtained an
additional third party economist report which satisfies more than the
minimum number of jobs that are to be created. The VRC is about to
file a formal motion to reopen and a positive response, namely the
reinstatement of the VRC, is expected very soon thereafter.

While Victorville, California's local paper reports that the regional

center's website, vveb5.com, was still active upon receiving the USCIS notice, it now
appears that all marketing for the center's projects has ceased. Access to the website is
"Forbidden."

That the 28 investors who have already agreed to invest in Victorville's projects are eagerly
awaiting any news of the regional center's appeal goes without saying.

USAdvisors.org Partners with Chinese Media Group

Chinese television is putting the spotlight on the US EB-5 visa program.

A new partnership between USAdvisors.org,

Michael Gibson on China Stock TV
sponsored by regional centers, this partnership provides a new way for interested foreign
nationals to obtain information.
which provides due diligence services to
EB-5 investors, and China Stock TV, a
division of the FuDong Cultural Dissemination
Company, LTD that broadcasts news to an
audience of over 100 million Chinese
investors, will bring information on EB-5
regional center investment initiatives to
viewers across China. As the current format
through which potential Chinese investors
receive information about regional center
projects involves individual seminars

In an interview with the network, USAdvisors.org Managing Director Michael Gibson

explains how most Chinese investors receive information from television as opposed to
other print or media sources. This would be the first time the US EB-5 visa program has
received major attention from a respected finance-focused media network in China.

Watch Michael Gibson's interview on EB5info.com. An accompanying video explains the

FuDong Cultural Dissemination Company's media services and national influence.
US EB-5 Practitioners to be Featured on Chinese Television

As part of its partnership with the China Stock TV

news network, USAdvisors.org will film and
conduct interviews with attorneys, securities
analysts, service providers, EB-5 regional centers,
and project managers in many major US cities from
November of this year through February 2011.

The focus of the interviews will be to give Chinese

investors a source of correct information, best
practices, and issues of concern regarding the EB-5 visa immigrant investor program from
professional practitioners – in other words, not filtered through the Chinese agent/broker
market. We are inviting a select group of knowledgeable professionals to discuss topics
related to the process of applying for and investing in EB-5 projects. Their comments will
be broadcast to a large audience of Chinese investors.

USAdvisors.org will visit the following cities on these dates:

Miami, November 22-26, 1633 North Bayshore Drive, Miami, Florida 33132,
Marriott Biscayne Bay Hotel

New York, November 29-December 3, 85 West Street at Albany Street, New

York, New York 10006, Marriott Downtown

Los Angeles, December 9-10, 333 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles,
California 90071, Los Angeles Downtown Marriott

San Francisco, December 13-17, 55 Fourth Street, San Francisco,

California 94103, San Francisco Marriott Marquis

Houston, January 10-14, 5150 Westheimer, Houston, Texas 77056, JW

Marriott Houston

Atlanta, January 17-21, 3300 Lenox Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30326, JW

Marriott Atlanta Buckhead
 Chicago, January 24-28, 540 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois
60611, Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile

Washington D.C., January 31-April 4, 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest

Washington D.C., DC 20004, JW Marriott Hotel

For more information or to be a part of the filming, contact Michael Gibson at

239-465-4160 or email michael@usadvisors.org.

Atlantic Yards Project Makes Waves with Chinese Investors

New York City developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) has been very active in China during the
month of October.

According to EB-5 service provider Brian Su, FCR's project, which is being handled by the
New York City Regional Center (NYCRC), "presents a lot of pressure and challenges to
other EB-5 projects that are currently being marketed in China" largely due to the star
power of its unlikely promoters.

The project involves financing for infrastructure at Atlantic

Yards, FCR's gargantuan construction project in the heart of
Brooklyn. Atlantic Yards, in addition to residential towers and
retail facilities, has already received funding for a new New
Jersey Nets basketball stadium. On October 13, the Nets
played the Houston Rockets in Beijing as part of a large
marketing event targeting Chinese immigrant investors.

According to The National, an Abu Dhabi news blog which

covered one of NYCRC's China seminars:

Some were dressed in suits, some in casual and even

worn-out clothing, but all of the Chinese in the banqueting
hall had one thing in common – money, or access to it.

About 200 potential investors had streamed into the west

Beijing hotel to hear about an opportunity in New York that seems well-calibrated to a
changing world: Green Cards in return for interest-free credit.
 The roadshow was showcasing the biggest-ever use of the US government’s EB-5
scheme, which offers Green Cards to foreigners who invest US$500,000 (Dh1.8 million) in
America for two years, thereby creating at least 10 new jobs.

Officials from the New York City Regional Centre (NYCRC) are touring China to drum up
498 investors with the aim of contributing $249m to the city’s biggest property project
outside Ground Zero.

Some have criticized the New York project, suggesting that its use of EB-5 is merely an
excuse to exploit low-interest financing for a portion of the project the developer could
have afforded anyway. Others emphasize that the Nets stadium itself has already received
full funding.

Whatever the case, the presence of American basketball stars in Beijing definitely helps
FCR's project stand out. A seminar held in Beijing's Minzu Hotel brought over 200
prospective investors, a large number of whom signed up "on the spot" to invest in the
project. The roadshow, which includes 9 dates, will continue through November 5.

Image courtesy of Wailian.

Chinese Public Security Bureau Points out EB-5 Project Risks

As many EB-5 practitioners are already aware, the Chinese government has issued
warnings to potential EB-5 investors about risks associated with the program. The
following document is an English translation from the Chinese-language news site, SINA
net:

Recently, at a meeting of the “Exit and Entry Service Association”

held by the Division of Exit and Entry Administration Department of
Public Security of Canton Province, the speaker from the division
relayed to attendees the instructions of the Ministry of Public Security
of the People's Republic of China and pointed out the huge risk of
US EB-5 Projects. According to the rule of The Ministry of Public
Security, all agencies engaged in EB-5 projects must supply the legal
documents signed with a foreign partner (those documents need to
be notarized by foreign bodies). Agents should tell the investors the
risks involved with EB-5 investment. Some immigration professionals
state clearly that people should be aware of the two risks, “investing
fund” and “conditional green card,” even though the EB-5 program is strongly accepted by
immigration agencies and applicants.
Current Status: EB-5 applicants increased dramatically in Mainland China

The EB-5 Program was first introduced to China at the end of 2005. With increasing trade
between China and the US, more and more Chinese entrepreneurs need the green card to
go to the US for business purposes, expanding their business in the US, as well as
sending their kids to study in US. The EB-5 Investment Immigration Program has been
expanded since 2007. LiJuan Zhou, CEO of the overseas branch of HONGHAI, said that
there are now way more Chinese EB-5 applicants than Korean applicants according to the
latest statistic report from OCT – 2008 to Sept, 2009 – by USCIS. 1795 Chinese from
mainland China applied for EB-5 besides 142 Chinese from Taiwan. Sheng Liu, General
Manager of the US Project Division of Fei Yang Group, said that USCIS issued more than
1800 green cards to investors in 2009, almost double those issued in 2008. Chinese
applicants obtained one fifth of the total green cards, a little bit less than Korean
applicants, but the number of Chinese investors who applied for the green card is
increasing the most.

The EB-5 marketing promotion in China also expanded rapidly. For example, in 2005,
there was only one EB-5 project being promoted in Guang Zhou. At the end of 2009,
however, there were more than 20 EB-5 projects introduced with different scales – some
projects are big and some are small, such as a restaurant project.

Analysis: EB-5 “Flexible Immigration Requirement”

Senior Immigration Consultant of GuoFeng LLC, ShaoHeng Lin, indicates the reason why
the EB-5 program has gained popularity among the immigration agencies and investors in
the last two years is the EB-5 “ Flexible Immigration Requirement.”

The EB-5 “Flexible Immigration Requirement” gives you the flexibility to do what you want
in the USA: No degree requirement, any age, and no entrepreneur experience requirement.
Any person who reaches 21 years old and shows a source of $500,000 legally (business
income, stock gain, house sale, house loan, gifts, etc.) can apply.

In Canton, A lot of people can easily meet the EB-5 requirement. For instance, a kid who
wants to study in US, as long as he is 21 years old and has a $500,000 investment fund
from his parents can apply for it and come back to China with a green card after
graduation.

The whole family can get the green card if one of the households applies for EB-5.

For many Chinese individuals and families, it's an easy and fast way to get a green card.
It’s also very attractive to the immigration agency. They can turn around cash in a much
shorter time since the EB-5 program process only takes about 3-8 months.
Risks: “Investment Fund” and “Green Card” are two major risks

According to the EB-5 program, foreign

immigration applicants must invest in a
commercial enterprise that will benefit the US
economy and create 10 full-time jobs in order to
get a “conditional green card” for a two year
period. Prior to the two-year anniversary of the
granting, the EB-5 applicants must submit
supporting documents stating they have
invested or are still in the process of investing to
remove the “condition” and become permanent
US residents. 2010 is the first “mature year” for
EB-5 investors' “5 year terms." Whether the
EB-5 investors can meet these two requirements is a very sensitive topic.

However, recently the Ministry of Public Security has warned potential immigration
applicants that EB-5 projects promoted by some of the immigration agencies belong to
private equity activity and have huge risks.

YouWen Zhen, General Manager of GuoHeLi investment consulting LLC in Shen Zheng,
pointed out two huge risks:

First, Investing Fund Risk: The investors need to fund the project first before getting the
visa, and EB-5 projects are not financially guaranteed by the US government; the investing
fund cannot be withdrawn within 5 years. The investment must be truly at risk. From the
EB-5 procedure, the applicants must fund $500,000, a huge amount once they start to
apply through the agency. While Canada's investor immigration funding is backed up by
the Canadian government, USCIS asks all regional centers to clearly state in their contract
with EB-5 investors that EB-5 investments must be “at risk” and there can be no mention
of redemption rights or guarantees. However, some of the immigration agencies and
American personnel ignore this rule and promote EB-5 illegally, as private equity.

Second, Green Card Risk: The EB-5 applicants cannot control and manage the investing
process themselves. If the investment fails and does not create 10 jobs in two years, their
green card will be canceled. At the beginning, the applicants and family only get a
“conditional green card." There is a long way to go to get the permanent green card; in
case the investment fails, they not only lose the green card, but also the investment fund.
In China, there are EB-5 investors who got “conditional green cards," but as for today,
none of them have successfully changed to I-829. We encourage people to do their own
due diligence, especially studying the mutual fund companies who actually run the EB-5
projects before they choose to invest in the project.
Yahoo! Finance Profiles Current State of EB-5 Program
In a column this month, Yahoo! Finance Economics Editor Daniel Gross provided a brief
profile of the EB-5 visa program, noting that if the program were "fully utilized, it would
bring at least $7 billion annually and create or preserve 100,000 jobs per year."

These comments are reiterated in a video

interview with Gross that accompanies the
column.

Even though nobody can "purchase an

American passport," he writes, the prospect
of more foreign national immigrant investors
utilizing the program should be a welcome
boon to areas where EB-5 visa investments
are likely to make a large impact--rural
areas and high-unemployment TEA's to be
specific.

As millionaires are "being minted by the millions" abroad, Gross notes, U.S. companies are
themselves investing elsewhere. He sees EB-5 as a way for the United States to make up
for those investment dollars that are traveling to places far away and not stirring the
cauldron of economic activity at home. Making brief mention of developer Bruce Ratner
and the New York City Regional Center's "controversial" Atlantic Yards project recently
profiled by the Wall Street Journal, Gross's piece also summarizes how the program may
be used as a source of funding for existing initiatives for which American investors are not
likely to be found.

If Gross's observation that EB-5 is still producing "lackluster numbers" that are nowhere
close to the 10,000 visas USCIS is able to issue each year really can be, as he contends,
"chalked up to a failure of marketing," then perhaps this year's explosive growth in the
number of regional centers will begin bringing more immigrant investor dollars to U.S.
shores.

Last year, the number of EB-5 visa approvals was just shy of 1,000. Considering the level
of marketing and competition in many countries – China, in particular – Gross may be
content to learn there's a good chance that number will increase.
The EB-5 Visa, Canada, and High Quality Protein – Reflections on the
Northern California Regional Center's Trip to China
by Stephen Weststeyn, Northern California Regional Center

We at Northern California Regional Center traveled to China last month to seek out
investment for our current EB-5 project, Weststeyn Dairy Farms. As there are many
investors coming to the U.S. from China, we decided to travel there and spend some time
informing people of our current project. We traveled to many cities in China, including
Beijing and Shanghai, and it was quite the experience.
  
The timing of our trip could not have been
better, noting the changes in the Canadian
immigration program that have made the
U.S. EB-5 program much more desirable
to foreign immigrant investors.
Traditionally, the Canadian immigration
program has outperformed the United
States EB-5 program quite substantially,
and there have been far more Chinese
emigrants going to Canada through its
immigration program than have gone to
the United States. However, Canada has
changed its immigration-by-investment
Beijing, China program, and Chinese emigrants see the
United States as a much better deal. This
recent change in the Canadian
immigration program provided our regional center with the most optimal timing for its
China trip.

Also when we were in China, we learned that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
was going to be in Shanghai talking about the United States EB-5 program. The star
power of Arnold made for very responsive enthusiasm about California EB-5 projects.

The Chinese economy is growing very rapidly, and you could feel that there was a wealth
of opportunity to be had in China. Every city we visited confirmed this feeling. One thing we
noted when visiting is that there is a need for high-quality protein food sources. The
traditional Chinese meal is very low in protein. The Chinese demand for high-quality protein
sources will be a huge driver of growth in the global marketplace.
 
With over 1.5 billion people to feed, China will need to source food products from all over
the world in order to feed its populace. In the dairy industry, the Chinese have been one of
the largest driving forces of global demand. Rabobank, a large international agriculture
bank, has recently cited milk demand growth to quickly outpace supply over the next
decade, leaving tremendous opportunity for the dairy industry in the United States.
 
There is a great potential in the United States, especially California, to help China quench
its thirst for dairy products. California has been the United States' leader in dairy with
higher milk production than any other state, and it has some of the most efficient dairy
operations in the world. Northern California Regional Center is proud to offer investors the
opportunity to invest in a project that will essentially be helping feed the world

Our trip to China was not only an opportunity to inform potential investors of our project
thanks to the changing Canadian immigration program and the California governor's visit,
but it also provided a chance to see how successful our EB-5 project could be in the
coming decade with China’s growing demand for high-quality food sources.

Gold Coast Uses Track Record, Global Presence to Find EB-5

Investors

If you ask Chip Abele, using the EB-5 visa program to fund new development projects is
little more than a "different twist" on what he has been doing for years.

"We're putting $30 million of our own funds into the deal," says the Chairman of Gold
Coast Florida Regional Center. "Every one of our dollars" is headed in the same direction
as any immigrant investor capital.

The deal Abele is talking about is the regional

center's first EB-5 visa project (pictured), a
mixed-use retail and residential development in
Hollywood, Florida called Hollywood Circle.
According to the regional center's first press
release, the space should include an upscale
hotel, nearly 400 apartments, a restaurant, and
a Publix supermarket.
Artist's Rendering of Hollywood Circle
Perhaps a bit more lavish than your average
grocery store, Abele says private elevators will
give residents direct access to the Publix.
Track Record and Global Position

Gold Coast received USCIS approval in May of this year and was quick to publicize its first
project. While some claims, in particular the notion that Hollywood Circle will bring 18,000
jobs to South Florida in the next five years, have led to a raised eyebrow or two among
some EB-5 visa practitioners, Abele is confident that Hollywood Circle is a solid investor
green card opportunity.

"We were very bullish on the EB-5 program, and we're very bullish on structuring an
investment opportunity that we'll present to clients and investors. We have offices in South
Africa that have been there 20 years," he says, also adding that for players in the "South
Florida real estate market, doing business in Latin America is what you do."

And an already-established global presence – one that now includes Hong Kong and
Venezuela in addition to South Africa – is one way Abele hopes Gold Coast will distinguish
itself from the growing multitude of EB-5 regional centers, though he admits he and his
partners have almost no experience in European or Asian markets.

"We're taking in more than a million dollars a year from state and local government," he
says. "We've got state-subsidized funding. We've got Publix."

After initially forming the Broward County Regional Center, the group quickly decided to
expand its request beyond the single-county area.

Projects to Come?

As for any additional EB-5 visa projects in Gold Coast's future, Abele is willing to discuss
the Great Southern Hotel redevelopment recently profiled by the Miami Herald, though he
says it's merely in the center's pipeline.

"It is not a project for the regional center currently," he says. "I have not submitted it or run
the economic model on it."

For now, it seems Hollywood Circle is Gold Coast's primary EB-5 item. Whether that
project ultimately stands out against the veritable flood of mixed-use residential-retail
facilities being marketed to EB-5 visa investors, however, remains to be seen.
Big Political Name Uses EB-5 Funds for Electric Car Project

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe made news this month
when he and former President Bill Clinton made a public appearance in Times Square to
show off McAuliffe's latest project: an electric car
that will be built in the United States.

Using funds from the EB-5 visa program as well as

other undisclosed donors, McAuliffe plans to build
vehicles that drive at speeds up to 45 miles per
hour but are unable to drive on highways. The
"MyCar," which is already available in the UK,
needs to be recharged every 70 miles and is
considered by McAuliffe to be a "neighborhood"
Terry McAuliffe vehicle.

The cars will be assembled by Greentech Automotive, which McAuliffe founded last year.
In addition to a plant Greentech plans to build in Tunica, Mississippi, McAuliffe is looking to
purchase land in both Tennessee and Virginia.

According to Bloomberg, which reported on the McAuliffe venture:

He expects the MyCar to go on sale mid-2011, after it’s modified to meet U.S. regulations
and upsized for American consumers. The first 100,000 [cars] will sell for $10,000, with
federal and state tax credits knocking the price down to around $8,500, he says.

“No one can afford not to buy it,” says McAuliffe.

Three more hybrid cars are planned for as early as 2013: a sports car, a mid-sized vehicle
and a subcompact. He won’t disclose his backers, saying only that they are “strategic
investors active in the green technology area.

Bloomberg goes on to describe the amount of money McAuliffe is raising through EB-5 as
"infinitesimal" compared to the millions he will need to get this project off the ground.

Some commentators believe McAuliffe's motivation may be, in part, political. After an
unsuccessful run for the Virginia gubernatorial nomination in 2009, some view McAullife's
latest venture as an attempt to show he can bring jobs to Virginia – a move that would give
him considerable bragging rights among contenders in any future political contest.
EB-5 Reform? Startup Act in the News Again

An article in news blog Business Daily takes a look not only at the EB-5 visa immigrant
investor program in its current form, but also the new Start-Up Visa Act introduced earlier
this year by Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Lugar (R-IN). As many EB-5 practitioners are
already aware, were the bill to ultimately pass and be signed into law, it would re-allocate a
number of the 10,000 EB-5 visas available for issue each year to a new category – the
EB-6 visa.

The main purpose of the bill is reform of the EB-5 program, and it
includes measures also called for by the Employment Benefit Act, a
House bill introduced last December by Representative Jared Polis
(D-CO).

According to Business Daily, the Start-Up Visa Act "amends current

immigration law, lowering the investment threshold to $250,000 [from
$500,000] in equity funding from qualified super-angel investors or Angelo Paparelli
venture capital firms."

These "qualified super-angel investors" would have to meet certain requirements set forth
by the Securities and Exchange Commission in order to participate, a rule favored
by attorney Angelo Paparelli, who Business Daily quotes in the article.

Any qualified venture capital firm must be based in the United States and have been in
business for at least two years. Partners must be U.S. citizens and the firm must have
made investments in the recent past.

"Immigrant entrepreneurs" who have employed at least five employees after two years or
have acquired capital assets worth $1 million will receive green cards.

While the news blog seems to make no bones about the potential of a bill that includes
EB-5 reform and provisions for an EB-6 visa – the article headline is "Change in start-up
visa law sure way to lure investment" – it also states that such a bill is unlikely to come
before Congress again until sometime next year.

It's worth noting that passage of this law would almost certainly cross into territory
occupied by the politics of immigration. As Business Daily notes, "[Lawmakers] who tout
this bill emphasize the job-creation aspect rather than the political hot potato of
immigration reform."
 November
• EB-5 Project to Create Jobs in Chicago Suburb
• New Colorado Regional Center Pioneers Historic Restoration, Biofuel Initiatives
• Washington D.C. EB-5 Project Breaks Ground
• USAdvisors.org Adds Dates and Locations to its Chinese TV Filming Schedule
• Chinese IPO Market Growing at an Extraordinary Rate in 2010
• Canadian Immigration Program Implements Tougher Criteria
• Attorney Essay: In Defense of the EB-5 Program

McHenry County, Illinois EB-5 Regional Center to Create Jobs for the
Community
by Michael Gibson, USAdvisors.org

Taher Kameli is the principal broker for a

Lakewood, Illinois EB-5 project involving
construction of a new sports complex. He is an
Iranian-born Chicago attorney who has partnered
with a Naperville dentist and a small group of other
board members to launch the two regional centers
now operating in Illinois.
Taher Kameli
Local supporters of the Lakewood sports complex
laud the idea of new immigrants creating a
recreational paradise with arcades, shops, and restaurants that developers say would
create 400 new jobs.
“In this economy, the opportunity to bring a (multimillion-dollar) commercial project into the
village of Lakewood without investing high taxpayer dollars? That’s pretty unique,” said the
Village President of Lakewood, Erin Smith, in an interview with WGN News.

“The investor wants to come to the United States for a better future for their children and
grandchildren,” said Kameli, who secures most of his foreign investors through an office in
Dubai. “The local governments are happy because you’re bringing all that sales tax and
property tax revenue to them. The U.S. government is happy because you’re creating
jobs.”

Kameli has been a strong advocate for federal scrutiny for EB-5 visa regional centers.
While much of the local opposition has deemed the project not viable, Kameli is certain
that his region needs these jobs to stimulate the economy. He has plans for other
developments in the region for which he has been soliciting tens of millions of dollars
during numerous trips to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

One plan is to build a string of “memory care” centers for Alzheimer's patients in Aurora,
Elgin and Wood Dale, Illinois. Other ideas include a manufacturing plant in Rockford, a
water park in Wisconsin, and coffee shops and restaurants throughout the region, he said.

He has eased investors’ concerns by structuring the EB-5 visa financing so the money
would serve as a loan, with the farmland and whatever is built on it serving as collateral.

Colorado Intercontinental Regional Center, LLC to Use EB-5

Investments for Historic Restoration, Biofuels
by Adam Green, USAdvisors.org

Regional center operators are bringing the EB-5 visa program to a town once home to one
of America's highly-canonized folk heroes.

Leadville, Colorado, in addition to having the highest altitude of any incorporated U.S. city,
was also where famed gambler and gunslinger Doc Holliday took up residence after his
participation in the O.K. Corral. Now this former mining boomtown may be getting a
makeover, and immigrant investor dollars may help foot the bill.
 According to Jeff Edwards of the Colorado
Intercontinental Regional Center (“CIRC”),
which is handling the Leadville project, "our
vision is to take historic buildings in
downtown Leadville dating back to the late
1800s" and spend EB-5 money "renovating
them and bringing them back to life for real
estate and technology-driven businesses." If
all goes according to plan, those businesses
will use the historic commercial property as
office space.

Downtown Leadville, Colorado

Though the mining industry left Leadville
long ago, remnants of its heyday still line
city streets. An EB-5-fueled revitalization of downtown Leadville may provide an economic
boost – as well as aesthetic improvements – to a town not far from many tourism-driven
skiing destinations such as Vail, Beaver Creek, Cooper Mountain, Breckenridge, and
others.

A Change of Plans

In 2008, Edwards learned his colleague Steve Smith had purchased about 700 acres of
land in Leadville and had plans to build a community of 1,000 homes. The goal was to
create affordable housing for people who worked in the nearby resort communities, but
could not afford to live there.

In order to "create potential for EB-5," Edwards explains, they decided to capitalize on a
problem in the area, the Beetle Kill Plague, which has wrought havoc upon local forestland
and made it necessary to clear many nearby sites. The investor visa program would fund a
"labor-intensive" tree harvesting and construction apparatus using downed timber for
home construction. The name of the "program" would be Timber to Homes, and it would
create the new "Village of AltaColorado."

But that project, which was the basis for CIRC's December 2009 regional center
designation, was developed prior to the collapse in the housing market. In 2010, Leadville
and the surrounding area’s economy "will not support a growing population," Edwards
acknowledges. Even so, he and Smith still believe commercial real estate is viable, and
both are "in the process" of setting up the downtown Leadville renovation project. With an
increase in local employment driven by new businesses occupying the renovated office
space coupled with the nearby anticipated reopening of one of the largest molybdenum
mines in North America, Edwards and Smith are confident that the need for local housing
will increase, bringing the Village of AltaColorado closer to realization.
"We've had discussions with multiple marketing entities with a presence in China,"
Edwards says, "and they are anxious to market our projects in China.”

If all goes according to plan, Chinese and other international investors will soon be hearing
about the small town of Leadville, its historic properties, and the commercial restoration
initiative.

Timber to Fuel?

Just as the regional center has re-defined its real estate efforts with shifts in economic
realities, Edwards and Smith have had to alter the focus of their Timber to Homes project.
As construction of new homes may no longer be a workable use of the EB-5 visa program,
the regional center sees an opening in the market for ethanol, which the federal
government has mandated must compose a larger percentage of the nation's fuel supply
each year.

Instead of using downed timber for home construction, Edwards explains, it will be used to
produce cellulosic biofuel. Trees cut down in the mountains of Colorado will be transported
by truck or rail to cellulosic ethanol plants to be constructed either in Colorado or
elsewhere in the US. One such plant, partially funded by the US Department of Energy and
provided with loan guarantees by the Department of Agriculture, is located in Soperton,
Georgia, and CIRC is already in discussion with that facility on potential feedstock
collaboration. At these plants, cellulosic biomass will be converted into ethanol, which can
then be added to the nation's fuel supply and help satisfy federal ethanol requirements.

According to Edwards, "There isn't a single US plant operating today that's producing
[cellulosic biofuel] on a commercial scale," and the nation has not even approached the
number of gallons the government has mandated be part of the fuel supply by 2011. He
feels the current lack of supply versus federal government requirements will ensure
ongoing demand for biofuels.

Of course, everything from the logging itself to the biofuel processing element will be part
of what Edwards terms a "labor intensive" EB-5 investment project that should satisfy
USCIS job creation requirements.

"We're hoping to have a project in front of investors by first quarter 2011," he says.
EB-5 Capital Issues Press Release on Marriott Hotel Project

From Angel Brunner of EB-5 Capital

comes the following press release:

Ground Breaking for Marriott Marquis

Convention Center Hotel, Long-time
DC Dreams Become Reality,
Significant Economic Impact

November 23, 2010, Washington, D.C. –

Earlier this month the Marriott Marquis
Hotel broke ground after years of
planning. EB-5 Capital is pleased to
partner with the City and Marriott in this
exciting project which includes two
Marriott Groundbreaking Ceremony
additional Marriott hotels – a Courtyard
and a Residence Inn as part of Phase II.

With projected completion of all three in Spring 2014, the $520 million, 14-story Marriott
Marquis will complement the city’s Convention Center that opened in 2003. The Marquis
will bring over 1200 direct jobs to the City. It will be the largest hotel in Washington with
1,175-rooms, 100,000 s.f. of function space and 53,000 s.f. of meeting space and will
enable the city to compete and capture revenue previously lost to Prince George County’s
2,000-room Gaylord hotel. The Courtyard and the Residence Inn locations will bring an
additional 500 rooms to the Marriott Convention Center complex.

Hometown hotel giant, Marriott, will manage the four-star hotel, which upon completion,
will be the third Marriott Marquis property in the world and the first Marquis development in
over 25 years.

“Not only is EB-5 Capital bringing much needed capital to projects throughout the District,
it is putting its resources to work in projects that will deliver real job opportunities for our
residents,” said Neil O. Albert, City Administrator of the District of Columbia. “EB5 Capital’s
investment in this project is an incredible endorsement of strength of our hospitality
industry.”

The Marriott complex gives the city the unparalleled ability to strengthen its convention and
tourism industry, which is just second to the federal government,” adds Ms. Brunner,
Managing Director for EB-5 Capital. “This project, along with the DC regional center’s
Roadside Development’s project, the City Market at O Street, is another success story of
EB-5 creating partnerships with international clients who are making a substantial
contribution to the United States economy.”
For more information about the Marriott Marquis, Capstone Development, City Market at
O, or EB-5 investment opportunities, please contact Angel Brunner:
(angel@eb5capital.com) or visit www.eb5capital.com. for additional information.

UPDATE: New Cities and Dates added to USAdvisors.org China TV

Filming Schedule

USAdvisors.org has added dates and locations to its EB-5

filming schedule. In addition to the locations listed in last
month's newsletter, regional centers, attorneys, and other
EB-5 practitioners can participate in the filming sessions
listed below.

For those unaware of the USAdvisors.org China TV

initiative, see the new China section on EB5info.com. As
part of its partnership with the China Stock TV network,
USAdvisors.org will film interviews with EB-5 practitioners
to be broadcast on one of China's largest business and
financial news networks. China Stock TV is part of the
FuDong Cultural Dissemination Company, and boasts an audience of over 100 million.

Here are the dates:

Orlando, December 13-17, 8701 World Center Drive, Marriott World Orlando

Houston, January 18-19, 5150 Westheimer, Houston, Texas 77056, JW

Marriott Houston

Austin, January 21, 4537 South IH-3555

 Phoenix, January 25-27, 1101 North 44th Street

Los Angeles, January 31-February 4, 333 South Figueroa Street,

Downtown Marriott

San Francisco, February 7-11, 55 Fourth Street, San Francisco Marriott

Marquis

Las Vegas, February 15-18, 325 Convention Center Drive

Provo, February 22, 770 E University Pkwy

Denver, March 1-4, 1701 California Street

Kansas City, MO, March 7-8, Location TBD

St. Louis, March 10-11, 10700 Pear Tree Drive

Louisville, March 14-15, 280 West Jefferson

Nashville, March 17-18, 555 Church Street

 Atlanta, March 21-25, 3300 Lenox Road, JW Marriott Buckhead

Washington D.C., March 28-31, 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest

For more information or to be a part of the filming, contact Michael Gibson at

239-465-4160 or email michael@usadvisors.org.

U.S. Government Answers EB-5 Questions in Chinese Newspaper

USCIS is communicating directly with investors via Chinese media.

According to a recent entry on The Beacon, the official blog of USCIS, an October article in
the Chinese-language Epoch Times provides an overview of the EB-5 visa program that
addresses specific questions about investor-regional center logistics. Information for the
article was submitted directly by USCIS as part of "an ongoing series addressing general
immigration questions posed by [Epoch Times] readers."

Most of what USCIS shares is basic. Immigrant investor questions like "What is the most
common way to obtain an EB-5 visa?" and "How long does it take for me to immigrate
after applying for an EB-5 visa?" crop up in the article.

Although the target audience appears to be Chinese investors who have heard about EB-5
and are still in a very early investigation phase, other questions address possible concerns
of more serious would-be investors.
"I want to invest $500,000.00 in an area, but there is no regional center there. How long
does it take for a regional center to be established in mid-America?" is one question
USCIS answers for the Epoch Times, and its response details establishment of a regional
center, approval of a business plan, and the use of said business plan in determining
"market conditions, project costs, and activity timelines."

Definitions for Forms I-526, I-829, and the new I-924 are also provided.

EB-5 Practitioners Take Note: Chinese IPO Market Growth

According to an update earlier this year from China Private

Equity, a blog that follows Chinese companies on a path
toward IPO and private equity investment, "the world's
busiest and largest IPO market" from January through
June of 2010 was the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. This is a
stock exchange that two years ago was nowhere close to
one of the largest in the world or, for that matter, in all of
Asia. All told, 161 firms were able to raise $22.6 billion in
IPO's during the first half of 2010.

That means Shenzhen was home to more IPO activity than

the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and NYSE during
the same period. Of particular interest is the fact that all
activity on this stock exchange is performed by domestic
Chinese companies and domestic Chinese investors. Only
the Chinese have access to Shenzhen's IPO deals.

By comparison, the Shanghai Stock Exchange ranked fourth for the largest IPO market
during the same time frame with 11 firms raising $8.2 billion.

It's likely that the sudden surge in IPO's was due to the October 2009 debut of the 创业
板, or Chinext, subsidiary board, which helps smaller companies access capital markets.
Chinext makes it possible for Chinese companies without any kind of state ownership to
provide public offerings.

As of July 2010, there are 57 companies with IPO's on Chinext, the total market value of
which makes up about 5.5% of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
The total number of domestic IPO's on the Shanghai Stock Exchange will likely eclipse
Shenzhen by the end of 2010, but the shift in growth is still worth mentioning. As China
Private Equity author Peter Fuhrman, who is also Chairman and CEO at China First
Capital, notes, "the locus of the world’s IPO activity is shifting to China."

EB-5 visa practitioners would be well served to stay aware of domestic capital investment
activity in China and consider how the impact of such investment – not to mention the
general increase in Chinese domestic wealth – will impact their efforts to secure immigrant
investor dollars for projects in the U.S.

Commentators Heap Praise On Startup Visa Act

Two national publications put the spotlight on

the Startup Visa Act this month, and both
portrayed the bill in a positive light.

According to Forbes.com contributor Marueen

Ferrell, "Large and small businesses are lining
up behind an immigration policy that would
make it easier for entrepreneurs and high-tech
professionals to come or stay in the United
States."

And to provide an example of said immigration

policy, Ferrell sets her sights on the Senate bill sponsored by Senators John Kerry (D-MA)
and Richard Lugar (R-IN), which would provide renewable US visas to any foreign national
entrepreneur coming to the US with at least $100,000 in venture capital backing from a US
investor. To qualify for the Startup Visa, the entrepreneur would also have to possess at
least $250,000 in equity investment.

To underscore just how strongly Corporate America supports such a bill, Ferrell quotes
Ernst and Young CEO Jim Turley, who is also serving on President Obama's National
Export Council: "Whenever there’s a student from anywhere in the world who is walking
across the stage from a leading university getting his or her PhD or masters we should
staple a visa there to him or her and say you’re welcome to stay."

Writing for Slate magazine, Jill Priluck says the Startup Visa Act "can't come soon
enough." Priluck also notes how "British Prime Minister David Cameron just established a
new 'entrepreneur visa' for foreign founders with investment commitments from leading
investors" in spite of "a pending immigration cap" in the United Kingdom. Such a move
indicates that other Western nations are already capitalizing on the prospect of luring
innovation from overseas by putting entrepreneurs on a fast track to citizenship.

Both publications also note how the EB-5 visa, in particular, is currently underutilized due
to the greater risk involved in obtaining one. Participants must invest in a U.S. business
and place their faith in projects that may or may not create 10 jobs and allow them to
obtain permanent residency. In the process of obtaining the visa, the investor takes on a
good deal of risk.

While the H1B, E-1, and E-2 visas are options for some skilled workers who want to reside
in the United States, Priluck explains, these visas are only temporary. Quoting Stephen
Yale-Loehr of Miller Mayer, "We don't have a true startup visa on the green-card side of the
immigration equation."

As the current lame duck Congress is unlikely to pick up on the Startup Visa Act or other
immigration legislation not passed this year, it will probably be some time before a new
entrepreneur visa becomes a reality.

Canada Breathes New Life into its Investment Immigration Program

With More Stringent Criteria

A November press release from Citizenship and

Immigration Canada (CIC) indicates that the nation will
re-open its immigrant investor program, which stopped
receiving applications on June 26. According to the
release, the program will once again accept applications
on December 1, but immigrant investor applicants must
meet new criteria if their applications are to be
considered by CIC.

In the past, applicants to Canada's program needed to

have a personal net worth of $800,000, but that figure is now higher. Prospective
immigrant investors must have a net worth of $1.6 million to qualify for the program, and
each must make an investment of $800,000 in a Canadian business. Before CIC's most
recent changes, the minimum investment threshold was $400,000.

According to the release, "Canada’s old immigrant investor criteria were the lowest when
compared to other countries with similar programs. The new criteria now align it more
closely with other immigrant-receiving countries."
The closest one comes to an investor visa program similar to Canada's is the US EB-5
visa program, which requires a minimum $500,000 investment in a US business. While the
US program has never hit the maximum number of investor green cards it's permitted to
issue in a given year, the Canadian program had to take a hiatus last summer when "the
volume of applications submitted under the Program had grown exponentially and
processing times had increased," according to the government release.

As the new criteria set forth by the Canadian government clearly reduce the number of
prospective applicants to its foreign investment program, application volume will likely
diminish as well. Whether doing so will actually increase the number of individuals applying
for the EB-5 investor green card, however, remains to be seen. The EB-5 visa program
attracts investors who may or may not also have an interest in moving to Canada.
Sometimes the desire to reside in one place over another supersedes dollar figures,
especially for those individuals with the means to participate in either program.

"These changes were necessary," said Jason Kinney, Canada's Minister of Citizenship,
Immigration and Multiculturalism. "The requirements had not been increased in more than
a decade and we need to keep pace with the changing economy."

Applications from earlier this year that still have not been processed will continue being
considered alongside new ones subject to Canada's most recent criteria.

In Defense of the EB-5 Program

by Carolyn S. Lee, Attorney at Miller Mayer, LLC

When there is misinformation in the public about the

EB-5 program, attorneys in the trenches of this area
have a duty to set the record straight. To permit
otherwise leaves our clients – investors and regional
centers – having to defend themselves against
individuals and organizations maligning the EB-5
program for other ends.

I have an individual in mind. The Internet has given this

person a wide-reaching forum to vent his ire against a
large urban development project. His medium is his
Carolyn S. Lee
blog. As with many projects of this scale, this one
involves a partnership of private and public funds. EB-5
capital is a component. In a down economy hostile to immigration, the EB-5 program has
become an easy target for this individual, who is dedicated to the downfall of the overall
project and who has latched onto the EB-5 part of the project for his latest criticism.

Valid criticism is helpful. Attorneys in the EB-5 bar have offered passionate, well-reasoned
critiques of USCIS’ administration of the EB-5 program. The goal has been to inform
USCIS of the harmful effects of some of its interpretations, unfounded in the law. So the
larger goal of what I’d call “valid criticism” is to improve the EB-5 program by bringing
clarity and predictability, consistent with the law and regulations.

In contrast, the individual I have in mind criticizes the general EB-5 program as a way to
deter a particular project. Not surprisingly, many things he has said about the program are
false. These false and ill-informed statements, however, have a real impact. They taint the
public’s perception of the EB-5 program, which the federal government reported as
bringing an estimated $1 billion into the U.S. economy back in 2005.

They paint USCIS as lax guardians of immigration, when more astute observers have
criticized the Service for its undue and arguably unlawful restrictions of the EB-5 program.
They undermine investors’ confidence in the program, deterring capital and job creation in
rural and high unemployment areas. Finally, they smear the reputations of conscientious
regional center operators who work hard do everything right with one hand tied behind
their back, partially blindfolded on treacherous terrain.

The regional center unfairly smeared in this instance is the New York City Regional Center,
a client my firm has worked with closely for the past three years to obtain initial designation
and subsequent amendments.

Here are just some things the blogger has gotten wrong:

1. “Not only does it look like the United States is selling visas, but the terms are
easier than in other countries.”

Wrong. For example, the federal Canadian investor program has three basic requirements:

1. Business experience
2. Minimum net worth of CN$800,000 (US$560,000)
3. Investment of CN$400,000 (US$281,000).

There is no requirement that any jobs be created. The Canadian government holds the
money for five years, after which it is returned to the investor without interest.

The low threshold is responsible for the vast oversubscription of the Canadian investor
program, resulting in a current three-year backlog.
2. “The EB-5 controversy.”

Wrong again. In a Congress notable for partisan bickering, the EB-5 program is among the
few that both Republicans and Democrats endorse.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Representative Zoe Lofgren
(D-CA) and Representative Steve King (R-IA) are all on record as EB-5 supporters. No one
in Congress has criticized the EB-5 program.

3. He quotes with disapproval an unnamed person related to the project who

purportedly said or wrote the following:

"[T]he costs of using investment funds are relatively lower than the costs of bank loans. […]
[W]e are in pursuit of profit maximization.” The blogger adds a condemning gloss: “That
may impress potential investors, but sure seems to contradict the spirit—and perhaps the
letter—of the EB-5 program.”

Wrong again. The law requires the EB-5 new commercial enterprise to seek a profit.
Nonprofits are barred as proper recipients of EB-5 money in the regulatory definition of
“commercial enterprise.” So both the spirit and the letter of the EB-5 program embrace the
profit-making drive and, in fact, require it.

4. “That’s why the USCIS and the rest of the press should give this ‘project’
serious scrutiny.”

He apparently doesn’t know that USCIS did give this project serious scrutiny. USCIS
approved the project in an amendment filed by the regional center in question – a filing
called an “exemplar” I-526 petition for pre-approval of a project. Or perhaps the blogger
thinks that the Wall Street Journal is not serious enough press? The Journal recently
covered the development project in an article dated May 10, 2010, including the EB-5
component.

Everyone involved in the EB-5 program – regional center operators, investors, attorneys,
advisors, and USCIS – have much at stake in the proper administration of this program.
When there are inaccuracies about the program, or the program as applied to certain
projects, it harms everyone doing their best to contribute to a clean system. It’s one thing if
we have disagreements about what the program should look like. It’s another thing when
someone tries to tear down the program to further another agenda. Let’s at least agree to
resist the latter.


December
• Major Media Outlet Publishes Harsh Critique of the EB-5 Visa Program
• Deadline to Participate in ILW.com Seminar Rapidly Approaching
• New EB-5 Statistics Made Public at USCIS Stakeholder Meeting
• EB-5 Stakeholders, Economists Comment on Letter from Director Mayorkas to
Senator Leahy
• South Florida EB-5-Funded Marina to Operate on "Fractional Ownership"
• Milwaukee EB-5 Construction Project Forced to Compromise with Preservationists

Reuters Investigates Unsavory Side of the EB-5 Visa Program

In a sweeping and highly critical expose of the EB-5 visa

program, a December Reuters story asserts that foreign
brokers are "overselling" the possibility of permanent
residency to prospective immigrant investors.

Not only does the Reuters piece condemn players in the

overseas broker market for misleading investors with
empty promises of an easy route to U.S. residency, but it
casts a suspicious eye on USCIS' ability to competently
administrate the EB-5 program.

According to Chris Bentley, USCIS spokesman whom

Reuters quotes in the story, "the overwhelming majority" of
EB-5 visa hopefuls later receive permanent resident
status, a claim disproven by USCIS' very own data, which suggests that about "half of the
immigrant investors who won EB-5 visas during [the program's] 20-year history have failed
to obtain permanent residency."

Also documented by Reuters is the regional center explosion of

2009-10, a phenomenon that continues to the present moment with
almost 90 more regional center applications currently being
processed by USCIS.

Prominent voices from the EB-5 community are featured in the story,
among them Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration attorney who
Reuters declares the "unofficial dean of the EB-5 bar," and attorney
Jose Latour, who runs the popular blog "Immigration Insider."
Stephen Yale-Loehr Michael Gibson of USAdvisors.org also contributes to the piece.

"As sources of domestic capital have dried up, developers have tried to scramble to find
other ways to finance their projects either in whole or in part," Yale-Loehr told Reuters,
noting just how attractive foreign investment capital has become to players in a down real
estate market.

According to Gibson, many former peddlers of sub-prime mortgages are now promoting
regional center projects and "will tell investors almost anything they can to get them to sign
the subscription agreement."

Citing the practices of Maslink, a firm that markets the EB-5 program in China, Reuters
reveals how firm operator Jason Lee's pitch to prospective investors violates a
fundamental rule of EB-5 law by suggesting that investors will get all of their $500,000
investment back if the project – in this case, the re-opening of an Idaho gold mine – were
to fail.

By law, EB-5 investments are required to be at risk throughout the

lifetime of the project. There is never any guarantee that the investor
will receive repayment of his or her principal, much less any return on
the investment itself.

Reuters also reveals a number of EB-5 program blunders that have

occurred over the years, one of which is the recent case of four
Korean investors who "lost their entire investment" in a South Dakota
dairy operation "when the price of milk collapsed and the operators
of the farm stopped paying the mortgage." As soon as the investors
tried to intervene and save the venture, they realized their names
Michael Gibson
were not on the title, and they were unable to bring their case to state
court.
EB-5 practitioners interviewed for the piece still contend that the
program, in a very general sense, is sound. Yale-Loehr claims that
EB-5 is essentially a win-win-win-win for the U.S. business, the
investor, the taxpayer, and the American worker.

Even so, the expose paints a critical picture of what the EB-5
program has brought upon the immigrant investor community
that has sought to utilize it:

In all, 13,719 immigrant investors have applied to participate in Jose Latour

the EB-5 program since 1990, according to USCIS.

But 4,489 of the applicants were rejected outright for any number of reasons, including an
inability to prove to the government's satisfaction that the funds they proposed to invest
came from legal sources. Another 848 are still pending.

Of the 8,382 immigrant investors who were allowed into the program and granted
conditional visas over the years, 5,748 have theoretically been in the country long enough
to apply for unconditional green cards - the permanent resident status that represents the
finish line.

So how many have actually reached that milestone during the past 20 years? Just 3,127
investors. The other 2,621 have either had their applications for permanent residency
rejected, fallen into some sort of legal limbo or just given up and gone back home with their
families in tow and their dreams broken.

In other words, only 54 percent of the immigrants who start the process of gaining
permanent residency using the EB-5 program actually attain it. That's a coin toss, not a
slam dunk. Yet the businesses marketing the program promote it as a sure thing.

Also listed among Reuters's causes for concern is the common practice among
immigration attorneys of accepting undisclosed commissions in return for steering clients
toward a particular regional center or centers – a glaring conflict of interest that "may
violate U.S. securities laws" or even turn into a nasty malpractice suit if a client's EB-5
investment heads south.

The Association to Invest in the U.S.A. (IIUSA) – profiled briefly in the article – came into
being in large part to curb some of these less savory practices, in particular the habit of
attorneys collecting finders fees.

Whether such actions will ultimately abate or continue thriving is impossible to predict. The
picture painted by Reuters, however, isn't exactly optimistic.
ILW.com EB-5 for Experts Phone Seminar Series – Registration
Deadline: January 11

With speakers: Michael Gibson, Robert C. Divine, Robert Gaffney, J. Bennett Grocock,
Michael G. Homeier, Elizabeth Hurst, John Patrick Pratt and Sarah von Helfenstein

Click here to register now!

To follow-up to the December 30 seminar, ILW.com will host two more phone sessions on
January 13 and February 3. Below are the details from ILW.com:

SECOND Phone Session on January 13: Securities law: Avoiding Litigation and
Rescission – REGISTRATION DEADLINE: JANUARY 11, 2011, 11:59 PM!

With so many EB-5 regional centers

marketing to so relatively few, the pressure is
on to deliver investor clients, and the tactics
and techniques employed by some of the
centers, their agents and "finders," both in
the U.S. and overseas may cause increased
scrutiny by the Securities & Exchange
Commission and attorneys who specialize in
malpractice and litigation on behalf of their
investor clients. How can EB-5 practitioners
and regional centers who have offerings in
the market stay safe and avoid potential
litigation and rescission? Topics:

• Reg. D & Reg. S offerings (definition of exemption)

• Solicitation and 502(c) rule
• Internet advertising: Lamp & IPO.net
• Seminars: overseas and domestic, rules and practices
• Compensation and fees: definition of Agents & Finders
• Marketing material v. operating documents
• Project failure and investor litigation

THIRD Phone Session on February 3: Valuation & Risk

What factors improve the chance of success in an EB-5 investment? This session will
address the roles of capital, debt and equity, cash flow, and other factors that are critical to
making an informed decision in assessing the strength and weakness of the offering.
Topics:
• Why proper valuation of risk is important
• Factors used in evaluating risk, research, due diligence
• The importance of capital
• The importance of the timeline in project completion
• Cash flow
• Equity v. Debt
• The role of management, competition & market
• The decision making process
• Comparisons of dissimilar projects
• Risk ratings and standards in risk valuations

Click here to register now!

New EB-5 Statistics Made Public at USCIS Stakeholder Meeting

A comprehensive slide presentation from the USCIS December 16 EB-5 Immigrant

Investor Program Stakeholder Meeting illustrates changes that have occurred in the
program throughout 2010.

One remarkable feature of the presentation, which is available in full at the USCIS website,
is the 55% drop in overall issuance of the EB-5 visa in 2010 compared to the previous
year. According to the presentation, 1,885 EB-5 visas were issued in 2010 compared with
4,218 in 2009. The drop likely reflects an effort in 2009 to expedite the EB-5 approval
process pending the previous "sunset date" for the program.

When it comes to EB-5 usage by country, very little changed at

all between 2009 and 2010. China still sent the largest
number of EB-5 investors to the United States, followed by
South Korea, Great Britain & Northern Ireland, Taiwan, and
India. The only change in the top 5 recipients of EB-5
visas was India replacing Canada in the fifth spot.

As for I-526 approvals, the percentage of those

approved rose again in 2010 as it has every year
since 2005. In 2009, there were 1,262 I-526
approvals and 207 denials versus 1,369 approvals
and 165 denials this year. Just as the percentage of approved I-526's rose, the percentage
of denials dropped 3 percentage points from 2009.
The presentation also included information about the new form I-924, "Application for
Regional Center Under the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program." According to USCIS, the
agency "received approximately 100 RC initial and amended proposals in the week or so
prior to the implementation of the Form I-924."

That means several new EB-5 regional centers could begin competing for investors in
2011. Currently, 120 regional centers have been approved by USCIS.

EB-5 Stakeholders, Economists Shed Light on December Letter from

Director Mayorkas to Senator Leahy

On December 3 2010, a letter received by the Office of Senator Patrick Leahy (D–VT) from
USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed that USCIS interpretation of EB-5 law does,
in fact, allow for the counting of indirect jobs outside a regional center's approved
geographic boundaries. Although a regional center must still "focus its EB-5 capital
investment activities on a single, contiguous area within the defined geographic jurisdiction
requested by the regional center," according to the letter, indirect jobs outside the
approved investment zone may be included in job creation totals.

For regional center operators, Director Mayorkas's comments assuaged

concern over a statement made by a USCIS employee suggesting that
indirect jobs created outside a regional center's geographic boundary
could not count toward its totals. According to Boyd Campbell of
America's Center for Foreign Investment, many EB-5 stakeholders were
"horrified" by that assertion.

"We knew this was incorrect because it defied logic, was insupportable
by statute law, case law, or regulations, and the California Service Center Boyd Campbell
was ignoring the statement," said Campbell. "But still, we needed some
assurance that someone of Director Mayorkas's stature and authority agreed that this is
incorrect."

Many economists' reactions to the letter were positive as well, with Judson C. Edwards of
Edwards Economics offering the following comments:
 This letter adds needed clarity for economists analyzing impacts for EB-5
projects. In my opinion, this opens the door for national economic impact
studies becoming the standard for all EB-5 job creation models – making
enforcement of regional center boundaries applicable only to the location
of the direct jobs. Accordingly, the national impacts would provide
maximum indirect job creation for qualifying projects and simplify the
justification for calculation.

Edwards adds, "It will be interesting to see how this 'national focus' will be
Dr. Judson C.
accepted by USCIS." Edwards

While largely a breath of fresh air for EB-5 stakeholders concerned about
the future of their job counting methodologies, others in the EB-5
community are approaching the letter with caution.

Scott W. Barnhart and Alan Hodges of Barnhart Economic Services

released a memo stating that the Mayorkas letter will likely "create more
confusion for practicing economists and Regional Center entrepreneurs as
the geographic area where indirect job creation can be measured is not Dr. Scott
defined by USCIS at all. Barnhart

"While the economist has a good idea of what the likely impact area is
from most types of economic activities," they argue, "the Regional
Center principals likely do not and will feel the need to press for greater
job creation outside the defined region because of this current ruling."

Both economists also believe the letter may "amplify a trend already
Dr. Alan Hodges
underway whereby the geographic areas of proposed Regional Centers
seem to be expanding to entire states or multi-state areas, primarily to
apply the Regional Center’s existing businesses to a larger geographic area,
but given the recent ruling, to also increase the indirect jobs created by their
economic activity."

Jeff Carr of Economic & Policy Resources is also skeptical. "I am not sure
this is the panacea that everyone thinks it is," he said.

"Some EB-5 projects may actually result in a net loss of jobs outside of the
Jeff Carr
regional center (e.g. a facility location and expansion), so are some folks
going to now subtract job losses outside of the regional center from regional
center job impacts to arrive at the net new number of jobs?"
Whether Mayorkas's statement provides clarity or confusion, it is sure to affect the way
regional centers and economists approach the geographic and job creation models of
current and upcoming EB-5 initiatives.

South Florida Developer Using EB-5 Program to Fund Unorthodox

Marina Project

According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, a

Port Charlotte, Florida developer is pioneering
what the paper calls "a new concept in marina
ownership."

Allen Heise, who has found success building

condos and commercial complexes in South
Florida, plans to construct a type of marina that
has existed in other parts of the world for some
time – the Herald-Tribune lists New Zealand
and India as examples – but has never really
been attempted in the United States: Fractional
marina ownership.

Here's how it works: Marina racks won't be sold to individual buyers, but instead to six
different owners. Each boat owner then has the ability to use any boat in the whole
complex. That way, the boat owner can choose which type of boat he or she wants to use
depending on his or her desired activity. Heise hopes this concept will attract boat owners
who want more bang – and more boat – for their buck.

According to Heise, "the average boater only uses his boat 30 days a year." Fractional
ownership in a marina should provide more value to boat owners and, if you ask Heise,
"[reduce] the cost of boat ownership to about half."

The Herald-Tribune reports:

Heise said he got the idea for fractionalized marina ownership from NetJets, the Columbus,
Ohio, company that began selling fractional ownership shares in jets back in 1986 and was
purchased by billionaire investor Warren Buffet 12 years later.

To make his project a success, Heise said he needs to raise $34 million — on top of his
family's $3.5 million contribution.
 At a time when accessing capital to fund any real estate-related project in Florida is almost
impossible, Heise is deploying another novel idea.

He intends to tap into the federal government's EB-5 visa program, which is designed to
help foreigners expedite the process of applying for green cards by encouraging them to
invest in businesses that create jobs in the United States.

By selling $500,000 stakes in his marina- management company to 68 foreign investors,

Heise expects to raise the needed funds.

Heise also tells the paper that his EB-5 brokers are bringing him 10 to 20 investors at a
time. He wants to have a fully operational marina that employs in excess of 150 people by
2012.

To handle demand for boats during busy seasons, Heise will create ownership levels that
range from $30,000 to $100,000 per year. Those who pay the most money will get the
most access to the most boats.

If he can just "take some of [the hassle associated with boat ownership] away" from boat
owners, Heise tells the Herald-Tribune, this somewhat unusual venture will be successful.

Development and Preservation Reconciled for Milwaukee, Wisconsin

EB-5 Initiative

After a battle between preservationists and

developers, Milwaukee's Historic
Preservation Commission has decided to
sanction construction of a $50 million
Marriott Hotel in downtown Milwaukee.

According to the Milwaukee Journal-

Sentinel, the hotel, which is being financed
largely through the USCIS EB-5 immigrant
investor program, will utilize the existing
facades of downtown buildings in an
attempt to preserve the character of the
immediate area. The use of these facades –
an alternative to complete demolition of the Downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin
existing structures – appears to be the
compromise the commission was able to reach after hearing arguments from local
preservationists and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC), which
is handling the foreign investment element.

In a report, preservationists noted the structures' past uses, which include housing the first
Jewish English-language newspaper in Wisconsin. The buildings are also excellent
examples of Italianate design, according to the report.

Steve Bass, on behalf of MMAC, suggested before the commission that the buildings were
not actually historic, but "merely old."

Supporters of the Marriott project cite its potential to create 350 to 450 construction jobs
and up to 200 hotel jobs after construction. Estimated annual tax revenue from the hotel
stands at $2.26 million.

Although it appears an appeal of the commission's decision may be out of the question –
the decision was unanimous – the developer has expressed concern over the feasibility of
incorporating existing facades into its construction plan.
 Appendix A:
USCIS-Approved EB-5 Regional Centers

Visit EB5info.com for detailed descriptions of every EB-5 regional center.

Aero Space Port International Group (ASPI Group) Regional Center

Alliance Regional Center | Oasis Growth Partners LLC
America's Center for Foreign Investment, LLC
American Life Development Company LLC
American Life Investments, LLC
American Life Seattle RC/Gold Rainbow/Freedom Fund
American Life Ventures Everett, Washington
American Life Ventures, Tacoma, Washington
American Life, Inc. - Lakewood Regional Center
American Logistics International Regional Center
American Redevelopment RC / American Redevelopment Solutions LLC
Anacostia Regional Center
Arizona EB-5 Regional Center, LLC
Atlanta EB5 Regional Center LLC
Atlantic Regional Center for Foreign Investment, LLC (ARCFi)
Bay Area Regional Center LLC
BirchLEAF Miami 31, LLC Regional Center
Broward County Regional Center, LLC
Buffalo Regional Center
California Consortium for Agricultural Export (CCAE)
California Energy Investment Center
California Global Alliance Regional Center c/o Lewis C. Nelson & Sons, Inc.
California Green Regional Center
California Investment Immigration Fund, LLC (CIIS)
California Pacific Group Regional Center
California Wineries & Vineyards, LLC Regional Center (CWVRC)
Capital Area Regional CenterTM (CARCTM) c/o Global Capital Markets Advisors
Carolina Center for Foreign Investment RC
Central Arizona Regional Center
Charlotte Harbour Regional Center
Chicagoland Foreign Investment Group (CFIG) Regional Center
City of Dallas RC (CDRC)
Clark County Regional Center
Cleveland International Fund, Ltd
CMB Export, LLC
CMB Summit LLC RC
Colorado Intercontinental Regional Center, LLC
Colorado Regional Center, LLC
DC Regional Center
EB-5 Jobs for Hawaii, LLC
EB-5 Jobs for Massachusetts, Inc.
EB-5 Michigan Regional Center LLC
Ecorntech Regional Center
El Monte Regional Center
FDIUS Regional Center
Federal New York Metropolitan Regional Center
FFC-East Bay Regional Center
Florida EB-5 Regional Center, LLC
Florida EB5 Investments LLC Regional Center
Florida Equity & Growth Fund Regional Center, LLC
Florida Overseas Investment Center RC
Florida Regional Center, LLC
Georgia Regional Development Center RC
Global Century (Houston)
Gold Coast Florida Regional Center
Golden Pacific Ventures Regional Center
Grand Canyon Regional Center, LLC
Green Card Fund, LLC
Green Detroit Regional Center, LLC
Green Energy Regional Center, LLC (GERC)
Guam Strategic Development LLC RC
Gulf Coast Funds Management Regional Center (GCFM)
Gulf Coast Funds Management, LLC
Hawaii Regional Center
Idaho State Regional Center LLC
Imperial Regional Center
International Michigan Investments Regional Center
Invest Idaho Regional Center
Invest U.S. Regional Center
Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED)
Kansas Bio-Fuel RC, LLC
Lake Buena Vista RC
Lansing Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) Regional Center
Las Vegas Regional Center
LaSalle County Business Development Center (LCBDC)
Los Angeles Regional Center C/O American Dream Fund, Inc.
Los Angeles Regional Center California Film Commission
Louisiana Mississippi Regional Center
M&D Regional Center, LLC
Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC)
Midwest Center for Foreign Investment, LLC
Midwest EB-5 Regional Center
Mirzam Investor Green Card Regional Center
Mississippi Gaming and Entertainment Regional Center
Mountain States Center for Foreign Investment (MSC)
Nevada Regional Economic Development Center (NREDC)
New Jersey Regional Center, LLC
New Orleans' Mayor's Office RC
New York City Regional Center, LLC
New York Immigration Fund, LLC
New York Proton Regional Center, LLC
North Carolina Center for Foreign Investments, LLC
North Texas EB-5 Regional Center LLC
Northeast Ohio Regional Center
Northern California Regional Center
Palm Beach RC
Palm Coast Florida Regional Center
Pennsylvania Dept. of Community and Economic Development Regional Center
Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) Regional Center
Regional Center Management Los Angeles
Regional Center of South Florida
Regional Center Properties, Inc.
Riverside PUMA Area Regional Center
Rocky Mountain High Regional Center
Silicon Valley Venture Investment Regional Center.
South Atlantic Regional Center (SARC)
South Dakota International Business Institute (SDIBI)
South East Los Angeles RC (SELARC)
South Florida Investment Regional Center (SFIRC)
South West Biofuel RC, LLC (SWBRC)
Southeast Regional Center LLC
Star of Texas Regional Center
Synergy California Green Hospitality Regional Center, LLC
Tennessee Regional Center, LLC
Twin Development LLC Regional Center
Upstate New York Regional Center (UNYRC)
US Commercial Regional Center
US Employment Development Lending Center, LLC
Velocity Regional Center
Vermont Agency of Community Development EB-5 RC
Victorville Regional Center
Whatcom Opportunities RC
YK America Regional Center LLC
 Appendix B:
Map of USCIS-Approved EB-5 Regional Centers

Visit EB5info.com for more information on these locations.

Map Data © 2011 Europa Technologies, INEGI

 Appendix C:
Top 10 Attorney Contributors

Read more about the EB5info.com rating system here.

Browse the full list of EB-5 attorneys.
 Appendix D:
Top 10 Service Provider Contributors

Browse the full list of EB-5 service providers.

 Appendix E:
Top 10 Advisor Contributors

Browse the full list of EB-5 Advisors.

 Appendix F:
Top 10 Firm Contributors

Browse the full list of EB-5 firms.

 Appendix G:
Top Q&A Contributors

Browse the full list of EB-5 Questions and Answers.

 Appendix H:
Top 10 EB-5 Resource Contributors

Browse all EB-5 resources.

 Appendix I:
The Neufield Memo, June 2009

Office of Communications

USCIS Update June 18, 2009

USCIS Issues Guidance Memorandum on EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program

Update to Adjudicators Field Manual Clarifies the Timing of Job Creation and the Meaning of
“Full-Time” Job Positions

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today issued a guidance

memorandum that provides USCIS adjudication officers with instructions related to the timing of job
creation and the meaning of “full-time” positions in the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program.

The guidance memorandum update to the Adjudicator’s Field Manual (AFM) clarifies that for purposes
of the Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur (Form I-526) adjudication and the job creation
requirements, USCIS will consider the two-year period to begin six months after the adjudication of the
Form I-526.

USCIS officers will ensure that the business plan filed with the Form I-526 reasonably demonstrates that
the requisite number of jobs will be created by the end of the two-year period. For Regional Center
petitions and for purposes of indirect job creation, USCIS adjudicators may consider economic models
that rely on certain variables to show job creation and the amount of investment to determine whether the
required infusion of capital or creation of direct jobs will result in a certain number of indirect jobs.

USCIS also has concluded that certain direct and indirect jobs that would have previously been
considered to be temporary or intermittent (such as construction jobs) may be considered as permanent
jobs for Form I-526 and the Petition by Entrepreneur to Remove Conditions (Form I-829) purposes if the
positions can be expected to last at least 2 years.

– USCIS –

www.uscis.gov
 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Office of Domestic Operations
Washington, DC 20529

HQDOMO 70/6.1.8
AD09-04
Memorandum
To: SERVICE CENTER DIRECTORS
REGIONAL DIRECTORS
DISTRICT DIRECTORS
FIELD OFFICE DIRECTORS
NATIONAL BENEFIT CENTER DIRECTOR

From: Donald Neufeld /S/

Acting Associate Director, Domestic Operations

Date: June 17, 2009

Subject: EB-5 Alien Entrepreneurs - Job Creation and Full-Time Positions

(AFM Update AD 09-04)

1. Purpose

This AFM update provides United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
personnel with instructions related to the timing of job creation and the meaning of “full-
time” positions in the EB-5 program.

The AFM update clarifies that each petitioner must submit a business plan, along with their
Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur, which provides an accounting of the
required number of qualifying jobs that will be created within the two-year period of
conditional residency. This AFM update also clarifies that there may be some flexibility with
respect to the timing of job creation at the Form I-829, Petition by Entrepreneur to Remove
Conditions, stage. Finally, this AFM update clarifies the meaning of full-time position as it
relates to job creation.

The AFM update conforms the filing locations with the Federal Register Notice dated
January 9, 2009, 74 Fed. Reg. 912-913.

2. Relevant Laws

INA § 203(b)(5) creates a class of immigrant visas (EB-5) for individuals who invest a
specified amount of capital in the United States and who will “create full-time employment
Clarification of Two-Year Period the Meaning of Full-Time Positions for Job Creation by EB-5
Alien Entrepreneurs
HQDOMO 70/6.1.8 AD09-04
Page 2

for not fewer than 10” qualified employees. INA § 216A places conditions upon the
permanent resident status of aliens admitted in the EB-5 classification that must be removed
at the end of a two-year period of conditional residency. In order to have the conditions
removed, EB-5 visa holders must file a Form I-829 that demonstrates that the petitioner is,
among other requirements, “conforming to the requirements of INA § 203(b)(5).” INA §
216A(d)(1)(B).

Consistent with the two-year period of conditional residency, USCIS regulations generally
require evidence to obtain approval of a Form I-526, including a business plan that
demonstrates that jobs will be created within the two-year period of conditional residence. 8
C.F.R. § 204.6(j)(4)(i)(B).

USCIS regulations relating to the removal conditions from the lawful permanent resident
status of alien entrepreneurs status provide that a petitioner must demonstrate that “the alien
has created or can be expected to create within a reasonable period of time” the required jobs.
8 C.F.R. § 216.6(c)(1)(iv).

3. Field Guidance Summary

Effective immediately, USCIS personnel are directed to comply with the following
instructions, as set forth in revisions to the Adjudicator’s Field Manual (AFM) noted in
section 5, as summarized below.

For purposes of the Form I-526 adjudication and the job creation requirements, USCIS will
deem the two-year period described in 8 C.F.R. § 204.6(j)(4)(i)(B) to commence six months
after the adjudication of the Form I-526. USCIS officers should ensure that the business plan
filed with the Form I-526 reasonably demonstrates that the requisite number of jobs will be
created by the end of this two-year period.

For Regional Center petitions and for purposes of indirect job creation, USCIS officers may
consider economic models that rely on certain variables to show job creation and the amount
of investment to determine whether the required infusion of capital or creation of direct jobs
will result in a certain number of indirect jobs.

USCIS also has concluded that direct and indirect construction jobs that are created by the
petitioner’s investment and that are expected to last at least 2 years may now count as
permanent jobs for Form I-526 and I-829 purposes.

4. Use

This AFM update is intended solely for the guidance of USCIS personnel in performing their
duties relative to adjudications. It is not intended to, does not, and may not be relied upon to
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or by any individual
or other party in removal proceedings, in litigation with the United States, or in any other
Clarification of Two-Year Period the Meaning of Full-Time Positions for Job Creation by EB-5
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HQDOMO 70/6.1.8 AD09-04
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form or manner. In addition, the instruction and guidance in this AFM update is in no way
intended to and does not prohibit enforcement of the immigration laws of the United States.

5. Contact Information

Questions related to this memorandum should be directed to Joseph P. Whalen, USCIS

Headquarters Office of Service Center Operations, through appropriate supervisory channels.

6. Field Guidance and AFM Update

Chapter 22.4(c)(4)(D) of the AFM is amended to number it as three subsections and include
the new subsections (ii) and (iii) at the end of Paragraph (D) and prior to the Note.

(D) Job Creation.

(i) The petition must be supported with evidence the new commercial enterprise
will create no fewer than 10 full-time positions (or the equivalent). ….

***********
(ii) Clarification of the Two-Year Period for Job Creation.

(a) Petitioners who are filing a Form I-526 must submit “a comprehensive
business plan showing that, due to the nature and projected size of the new
commercial enterprise, the need for not fewer than ten (10) qualifying
employees will result, including approximate dates, within the next two-years,
and when each employee will be hired.” 8 C.F.R. § 204.6(j)(4)(i)(B)
(emphasis added). The requirement for a business plan that shows jobs will
be created in two years applies to all Form I-526 petitions, including those
filed under the Regional Center Program, that will rely on indirect job creation
to satisfy the statutory employment creation requirement.

The regulations, however, do not clearly state when the two-year period
commences for purposes of adjudicating the Form I-526. The reference to a
two-year period relates to the two-year period of conditional residence, and
the time requirement of 8 C.F.R. § 204.6(j)(4)(i)(B) is intended to ensure that
aliens seeking to enter the United States on EB-5 visas have a legitimate and
feasible plan to create jobs as required by the statute within that period of
conditional residence. Nevertheless, at the time of adjudication of Form I-
526, the alien entrepreneur will not have attained conditional permanent
residence, and the officer adjudicating Form I-526 cannot be certain when the
period of conditional residence will in fact commence.

USCIS has determined that the average processing times for EB-5 petitioners
filing for immigrant visas via consular processing and EB-5 petitioners filing
Clarification of Two-Year Period the Meaning of Full-Time Positions for Job Creation by EB-5
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for adjustment of status is approximately six months. Accordingly, in order to

best approximate the two-year period of conditional residence, the two-year
period described in 8 C.F.R. § 204.6(j)(4)(i)(B) will be deemed to commence
six months after the adjudication of Form I-526. USCIS officers should
ensure that the business plan filed along with Form I-526 reasonably
demonstrates that the requisite number of jobs will be created by the alien’s
investment by the end of the two-year period that commences six months
after the adjudication of the petition. If, in the future, processing times
significantly change, this paragraph may be amended.

(b) Special considerations for Regional Center based I-526 petitions:

(i) Aliens filing I-526 petitions for investments to be made through a

regional center may use reasonable methodologies to establish the
number of jobs created. 8 C.F.R. § 204.6(j)(4)(iii). However, some of the
economic models may not expressly consider temporal aspects of job
creation, and will not be able to conclusively state that indirect jobs will be
created within two years. In such circumstances, officers should first
explore whether there are reasonable and/or accepted temporal
assumptions that can be attributed to the particular economic model and
consider such assumptions in determining compliance with the two-year
requirement.

For example, the RIMSII handbook states the following about the RIMSII
economic model, which is often used to demonstrate indirect job creation:

RIMS II, like all I-O models, is a “static equilibrium” model, so

impacts calculated with RIMS II have no specific time dimension.
However, because the model is based on annual data, it is customary to
assume that the impacts occur in 1 year. For many situations, this
assumption is reasonable.

This assumption supports the conclusion that the indirect jobs will be
created within the requisite two-year period.

If, however, there are no reasonable and/or accepted temporal

assumptions that can be made with respect to a particular economic
model, USCIS may presume that the jobs will be created within the
required period of time provided that the alien can demonstrate
compliance with paragraph (ii) below.

(ii) Many economic models used to demonstrate indirect job creation rely
on certain assumptions or variables to show the requisite job creation. For
example, a model might demonstrate that the requisite jobs will be created
Clarification of Two-Year Period the Meaning of Full-Time Positions for Job Creation by EB-5
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if a Regional Center infuses $10 million into a particular industry.

Similarly, a model might demonstrate that, using accepted multipliers, the
creation of 100 direct jobs will result in a certain number of indirect jobs.
Under such circumstances, the I-526 petition should demonstrate that the
required infusion of capital or the creation of the direct jobs will occur
within two years.

Nothing in this paragraph should be construed to alter in any way the current
adjudication procedures. Officers may review the evidence required by the
petitioner to demonstrate the number of jobs that will be created by the
investment. For example, Form I-526s filed under the Regional Center Program
which rely on indirect job creation must also comply with the evidentiary
requirements of 8 C.F.R. § 204.6(j)(4)(iii) to demonstrate the number of jobs
created. Officers may also continue to determine the reasonableness of a
business plan to ensure that the jobs are likely to be created.

(iii) Clarification of the Meaning of Full-Time Position.

Section 203(b)(5) of the INA requires that the investment in a new commercial
enterprise will create full-time employment for not fewer than 10 qualified
employees. The INA further defines full-time employment as “employment in a
position that requires at least 35 hours or service per week at any time,
regardless of who fills the position.” USCIS has interpreted the full-time
employment requirement to exclude jobs that are intermittent, temporary,
seasonal or transient in nature. See, e.g., Spencer Enterprises v. U.S., 229
F.Supp.2d 1025 (E.D.Cal. 2001). For example, historically, construction jobs
have not been counted toward job creation because they are seen as
intermittent, temporary, seasonal and transient rather than permanent.

USCIS, however, now interprets that direct and indirect construction jobs that are
created by the petitioner’s investment and that are expected to last at least 2
years, inclusive of when the petitioner’s I-829 is filed, may now count as
permanent jobs. Although employment in some industries such as construction
or tourism can be intermittent, temporary, seasonal or transient, officers should
not exclude jobs simply because they fall into such industries. Rather, the focus
of the adjudication should be on whether the position, as described in the
petition, is continuous full-time employment rather than intermittent, temporary,
seasonal or transient. For example, if a petition reasonably describes the need
for general laborers in a construction project that is expected to last several years
and would require a minimum of 35 hours per week over the course of that
project, the positions would meet the full-time employment requirement.
However, if, for example, the same project called for electrical workers to provide
services during three to four five week periods over the course of the project,
Clarification of Two-Year Period the Meaning of Full-Time Positions for Job Creation by EB-5
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such positions would be properly deemed to be intermittent and not meet the
definition of full-time employment.

Generally, it is the position that is critical to the full-time employment criterion, not
the employee. Accordingly, the fact that the position may be filled by more than
one employee does not exclude a position from consideration as full-time
employment. For example, the positions described above would not be excluded
from being considered full-time employment if the general laborers needed to fill
the positions varied from day to day or week to week as long as the need for the
position remains constant. This interpretation is consistent with 8 C.F.R. §
204.6(e), which, as part of the regulatory definition of full-time employment
includes job sharing arrangements.

It is important to note, however, that this new interpretation does not override the
regulatory definitions of employee and full time employment at 8 C.F.R. §
204.6(e). Thus, the positions must still be filled by qualifying employees, and
such positions may not be filled by independent contractors. In addition, multiple
part time positions may not be combined to create one full time position.

2. Chapter 25.2(e)(1) of the AFM is amended to include the following new paragraph at the
beginning of Paragraph (1). The existing Paragraph (1) will now become Paragraph (2) and
so on.

(1) Initial Review. Form I-829 petition is intended to examine whether the alien
entrepreneur has satisfied the conditions of his admission to the United States.
Primarily, USCIS is determining whether the alien has invested the requisite capital
and created the requisite jobs through that investment. Form I-829 petition is to be
filed within 90 days prior to the second anniversary of the alien’s admission to the
United States in conditional resident status.

3. Chapter 25.2(e)(4)(D) of the AFM is amended to include the following new paragraphs at the
end of Paragraph (D).

Recognizing that circumstances may change after an alien secures admission to the
United States, USCIS chose to implement INA § 216A with some “flexibility.” See,
59 FR 1317-01, 1317-18 (Jan. 10, 1994) (proposed rule). Consistent with this
flexibility, USCIS provides that Form I-829 must contain evidence that the petitioning
alien “has created or can be expected to create within a reasonable time ten full-time
jobs for qualifying employees.” 8 C.F.R. § 216.6(a)(4)(iv).

In making the “reasonable time” determination, officers should consider the evidence
submitted along with the petition that demonstrates when the jobs are expected to
be created, the reasons that the jobs were not created as predicted in Form I-526,
Clarification of Two-Year Period the Meaning of Full-Time Positions for Job Creation by EB-5
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the nature of the industry or industries in which the jobs are to be created, and any
other evidence submitted by the petitioner.

If after considering the evidence, the officer determines that the jobs are more likely
than not going to be created within a reasonable time, Form I-829 should be
approved consistent with 8 C.F.R. § 216.6(d)(1) if the petitioner is otherwise eligible
to have his or her conditions removed. If, however, the officer determines that the
jobs will not be created within a reasonable period of time, Form I-829 should be
denied consistent with 8 C.F.R. § 216.6(d)(2).

4. Chapters 22.4(b), 25.2(a), 25.2(b), 25.2(g)(1), and 25.2(i)(2)(C) of the AFM are revised to
reference that all petitions and applications related EB-5 immigrant classifications and
Regional Center proposals must be filed at the California Service Center (CSC).

Chapter 22.4(b) [fourth bullet]

x The petition must be filed with the California Service Center.

Chapter 25.2(a)

California Service Center director, regional directors and field office directors in
offices with a high volume of Form I-829s shall designate an EB-5 trained and
certified officer as an EB-5 point of contact (POC) to facilitate the review and
management of Form I-829. For purposes of clarity in these instructions, references
to service center management and field office management includes the appropriate
EB-5 POC.

Chapter 25.2(b)

Officers are reminded that, in accordance with the Notice in the Federal Register at
74 Fed. Reg. 912-913, published on, and in effect since, January 9, 2009, Form I-
829 petitions are to be filed with the California Service Center.

Chapter 25.2(g)(1)

All such Form I-829s shall be returned to the California Service Center.

Chapter 25.2(i)(2)(C)

The California Service Center shall generate weekly a printout from the MFAS to
determine those conditional residents within its jurisdiction who have failed to file a
timely Form I-829 to have the conditions on their status removed in accordance with
section 216A(c) of the Act and will take the actions described above in this section to
terminate the status of such conditional residents and their dependents.
Clarification of Two-Year Period the Meaning of Full-Time Positions for Job Creation by EB-5
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5. The AFM Transmittal Memoranda button is revised by adding a new entry, in numerical
order, to read:

AD 09 -04 Chapter 22.4(c)(4)(D) This memorandum adds five

(02-xx-2009) Chapter 22.4(b) paragraphs at the end of Chapter
Chapter 25.2(a) 22.4(c)(4)(D); adds a new first
Chapter 25.2(b) paragraph to Chapter 25.2(e)(1);
Chapter 25.2(e)(1) adds three new paragraphs at the
Chapter 25.2(g)(1) end of Chapter 25.2(e)(1); and
Chapter 25.2(i)(2)(C) makes changes to both Chapter
22.4 and 25.2 to reference that all
EB-5 petitions and applications
are now filed with the California
Service Center all in the AFM.
 Appendix J:
The Startup Visa Act (U.S. Senate), 111th Congress

MDM10086 [Discussion Draft] S.L.C.

S. ll
111TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION

To establish an employment-based immigrant visa for alien entrepreneurs

who have received significant capital from investors to establish a busi-
ness in the United States.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

llllllllll
Mr. KERRY (for himself and Mr. LUGAR) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on llllllllll

A BILL
To establish an employment-based immigrant visa for alien
entrepreneurs who have received significant capital from
investors to establish a business in the United States.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-

2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘StartUp Visa Act of

5 2010’’.
6 SEC. 2. STARTUP VISAS.

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 203(b) of the Immigra-

8 tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 203(b)) is amended—
MDM10086 [Discussion Draft] S.L.C.

2
1 (1) by redesignating paragraph (6) as para-
2 graph (7); and
3 (2) by inserting after paragraph (5) the fol-
4 lowing:
5 ‘‘(6) SPONSORED ENTREPRENEURS.—

6 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—StartUp visas shall be

7 made available, from the number of visas allo-
8 cated under paragraph (5), to qualified immi-
9 grant entrepreneurs—
10 ‘‘(i) who have proven that a qualified
11 venture capitalist or a qualified super
12 angel investor has invested not less than
13 $100,000 on behalf of each such entre-
14 preneur in an equity financing of not less
15 than $250,000; and
16 ‘‘(ii) whose commercial activities will,
17 during the 2-year period beginning on the
18 date on which the visa is issued under this
19 subparagraph—
20 ‘‘(I) create not fewer than 5 new
21 full-time jobs in the United States
22 employing people other than the im-
23 migrant’s spouse, sons, or daughters;
24 ‘‘(II) raise not less than
25 $1,000,000 in capital investment in
MDM10086 [Discussion Draft] S.L.C.

3
1 furtherance of a commercial entity
2 based in the United States; or
3 ‘‘(III) generate not less than
4 $1,000,000 in revenue.
5 ‘‘(B) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph:
6 ‘‘(i) QUALIFIED SUPER ANGEL INVES-

7 TOR.—The term qualified super angel in-

8 vestor means an individual who—
9 ‘‘(I) is an accredited investor (as
10 defined in section 230.501(a) of title
11 17, Code of Federal Regulations);
12 ‘‘(II) is a United States citizen;
13 and
14 ‘‘(III) has made at least 2 equity
15 investments of not less than $50,000
16 in each of the previous 3 years.
17 ‘‘(ii) QUALIFIED VENTURE CAPI-

18 TALIST.—The term ‘qualified venture capi-

19 talist’ means an entity that—
20 ‘‘(I) is classified as a ‘venture
21 capital operating company’ under sec-
22 tion 2510.3-101(d) of the Code of
23 Federal Regulations;
24 ‘‘(II) is based in the United
25 States;
MDM10086 [Discussion Draft] S.L.C.

4
1 ‘‘(III) is comprised of partners,
2 the majority of whom are United
3 States citizens;
4 ‘‘(IV) has capital commitments of
5 not less than $10,000,000;
6 ‘‘(V) has been operating for at
7 least 2 years; and
8 ‘‘(VI) has made at least 2 invest-
9 ments of not less than $500,000 dur-
10 ing each of the most recent 2 years.’’.
11 (b) CONDITIONAL PERMANENT RESIDENT STA-
12 TUS.—Section 216A of the Immigration and Nationality
13 Act (8 U.S.C. 1186b) is amended—
14 (1) by striking ‘‘Attorney General’’ each place
15 such term appears and inserting ‘‘Secretary of
16 Homeland Security’’;
17 (2) in subsection (a)—
18 (A) in paragraph (1)—
19 (i) by striking ‘‘(as defined in sub-
20 section (f)(1))’’ and inserting ‘‘, sponsored
21 entrepreneur’’; and
22 (ii) by striking ‘‘(as defined in sub-
23 section (f)(2)) shall’’ and inserting ‘‘shall
24 each’’;
MDM10086 [Discussion Draft] S.L.C.

5
1 (B) in paragraph (2)(A), by inserting
2 ‘‘sponsored entrepreneur,’’ after ‘‘alien entre-
3 preneur,’’;
4 (3) in subsection (b), by adding at the end the
5 following:
6 ‘‘(3) SPONSORED ENTREPRENEURS.—The Sec-
7 retary of Homeland Security shall terminate the per-
8 manent resident status of a sponsored entrepreneur
9 and the alien spouse and children of such entre-
10 preneur if the Secretary determines, not later than
11 3 years after the date on which such permanent resi-
12 dent status was conferred, that—
13 ‘‘(A) the qualified venture capitalist or
14 qualified super angel investor who sponsored
15 the entrepreneur failed to meet the investment
16 requirements under section 203(b)(6)(A)(i); or
17 ‘‘(B) the entrepreneur failed to meet the
18 job creation, capital investment, or revenue gen-
19 eration requirements under section
20 203(b)(6)(A)(ii).’’;
21 (4) in subsection (c)—
22 (A) in paragraph (1)—
23 (i) in the matter preceding subpara-
24 graph (A), by inserting ‘‘sponsored entre-
25 preneur,’’ after ‘‘alien entrepreneur,’’; and
MDM10086 [Discussion Draft] S.L.C.

6
1 (ii) by striking ‘‘alien entrepreneur
2 must’’ each place such term appears and
3 inserting ‘‘entrepreneur shall’’;
4 (B) in paragraph (3)—
5 (i) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by insert-
6 ing ‘‘or sponsored entrepreneur’’ after
7 ‘‘alien entrepreneur’’; and
8 (ii) in subparagraph (C), by inserting
9 ‘‘sponsored entrepreneur,’’ after ‘‘alien en-
10 trepreneur’’;
11 (5) in subsection (d)(1)—
12 (A) in the matter preceding subparagraph
13 (A), by striking ‘‘alien’’ and inserting ‘‘alien en-
14 trepreneur or sponsored entrepreneur, as appli-
15 cable’’;
16 (B) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘invested, or
17 is actively in the process of investing,’’ and in-
18 serting ‘‘has invested, is actively in the process
19 of investing, or has been sponsored by a quali-
20 fied super angel investor or qualified venture
21 capitalist who has invested,’’;
22 (C) in clause (ii), by inserting ‘‘or
23 203(b)(6), as applicable’’ before the period at
24 the end; and
MDM10086 [Discussion Draft] S.L.C.

7
1 (6) in subsection (f), by adding at the end the
2 following:
3 ‘‘(4) The term ‘sponsored entrepreneur’ means
4 an alien who obtains the status of an alien lawfully
5 admitted for permanent residence under section
6 203(b)(6).’’.
 Appendix K:
Notice of Intent to Terminate, USCIS to Victorville Regional Center
 Appendix L:
Notice of Final Termination, USCIS to Victorville Regional Center
 Appendix M:
Letter, USCIS Director to Senator Patrick Leahy
12/09/2010 16:39 FAX 2023052707 DOJIINS/HQ

u.s. Depclrtmlllt 01 HomeJlUld Security

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Office of the Director (MS 20(0)
Washington, DC 20529

u.s. Citizenship
and Immigration
NO , Services
DEC - 3 2010 •

The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy

Chairman
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510-6275

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Thank. you for your September 27, 2010 letter regarding the EB-5 Regional Center Program
administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). You expressed your view
that, contrary to USCIS's existing interpretation, a proposed regional center business plan may
encompass job creation outside the center's geographic boundaries. Upon review of the applicable
EB-5 law and regulations, we agree that a regional center may rely on jobs indirectly created
outside its geographic boundaries.

USCIS's interpretation derived from the geographic requirements identified in Matter ofIzummi, 22
I&N 158 (Comm'r. 1998), and other sources. Matter of[zummi holds that if a new
enterpriSe is engaged directly or indirectly in lending money to job-creating businesses, those
job-creating businesses must all be-located within the regional center's geographic limits.
Similarly, Section 61O(a) of the Departments of Commerce, Justice and _state, the Judiciary, and
Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 1993, Pub. L. 102-395, as provides that "[a]
regional center shall have jurisdiction over a limited geographic area, which shall be described in
the proposal and consistent with the purpose of concentrating pooled investment in defined
economic zones." Likewise, USCIS's regulation at 8 CFR 204.6(m)(3)(i) requires each regional
center to provide a proposal that "clearly describes how the regional center focuses on a geographic
region of the United States."

Based on those sources, USCIS interprets the law to require that a regional center focus its EB-5
capital investment activities on a single, contiguous area within the dermed geographic jurisdiction
requested by the regional center. Nevertheless, we agree that the law does. not further mandate that
all indirect job creation attributable to a regional center take place within that jurisdiction. I will,
therefore, ensure that USCIS policy reflects this understanding of the law.

AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 10122135. (Posted 12/21/10)

12/09/2010 - 3:47PM
12/09/2010 16:39 FAX 2023052707 DOJ/INS/HQ 141003

the Honorable Patrick J. Leahy

Page 2

Thank you again for your letter. I assure you that USCIS maintains its commitment to the success
of the EB-5 Regional Center Program. I look forward to our continued collaboration on important
issues of mutual interest.

Sincerely,

Director

AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 10122135. (Posted 12/21/10)

12/09/2010 3:47PM
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