Good News For The EB-5 Visa Program

In an EB-5 Stakeholders Meeting today, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) introduced the economist who recently joined the EB-5 adjudications team.  What a concept, an actual economist now will be part of the review team at USCIS!  The EB-5 immigrant investor program allows individuals who invest $1 million, or at least $500,000 in a Targeted Employment Area, to obtain permanent residency for themselves and their spouse and unmarried children under age 21.  Each EB-5 petition must include an expert opinion from an economist forecasting the economic development and job creation or maintenance that will result from the EB-5 investment based on accepted economic modeling methodology.  So an economist is a welcome addition to the USCIS review process, at least in concept.  It will be interesting to see if this new level of review will change the substance or tone of USCIS decisions on EB-5 petitions.  Let's hope the economist's participation will faciliate solid and well articulated economic analysis of EB-5 cases, not merely complicate the process with another layer of review at USCIS.