On Sept. 8, nearly a month ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline, the EB-5 Regional Center Program was ­extended to Dec. 8, as part of H.R.601. While the extension of the EB-5 Regional Center Program is a welcome development, yet another short-term extension of the EB-5 Regional Center Program leaves the EB-5 immigration community to wonder what changes may be brought by future legislation and how the requirements for participation in the EB-5 Regional Center Program will be updated and, presumably, augmented.

Under the EB-5 visa category, immigrant investors who satisfy statutory and regulatory requirements are able to invest $1 million (or $500,000 in targeted employment area (TEA)) in a new commercial enterprise that will employ 10 full-time U.S. workers, allowing the immigrant investors to obtain conditional permanent residence for two years. Investors' conditional residence can be made permanent upon demonstration at the end of the two years that the investment proceeds have not been withdrawn and the requisite jobs have been created. The ­investor may decide to invest in his own business and create jobs directly through that business, or to invest in a “regional center.” Regional centers are government-approved entities in designated ­geographical areas which sponsor projects through pooled investments from several EB-5 investors, resulting in the creation of direct, indirect and induced jobs for U.S. workers.

Past pieces of draft legislation have included numerous proposals that would create significant changes to the EB-5 Regional Center Program. Based on past legislative efforts, these potential changes might include revisions to the definition of a TEA or changes to the criteria used to evaluate whether a location qualifies as a TEA; an increase in the amount that an immigrant investor would need to invest in a new commercial enterprise to be able to petition for conditional permanent ­residence; the creation of separate categories of reserved visas for areas of urban poverty and for those areas that are not considered TEAs; and significant increases in regional center compliance requirements, including various certifications verifying the investment opportunity's compliance with securities laws.