TOP AT TORNEYS IN SPECI ALIZED FIELDS
LINCOLN STONE
STONE GRZEGOREK & GONZALEZ LLP | PARTNER
Lincoln S tone has 28 years
of experience with the EB-5
program, specializing in EB-5
c o m p lia n c e a n d s o l u ti o n s
fo r d e n i a l s , l i t i g a t i o n a n d
reorganizations. He helped several thousand EB-5 investors
immigrate to the US, and aided U.S. organizations in raising
some $5 billion in EB-5 capital for more than 200 different
enterprises. Stone served a decade on the national EB-5
committee of AIL A , organized the first national EB-5
conferences, and published dozens of articles covering
numerous interdisciplinary topics. He is editor in chief
of AIL A’s book, “Immigration Options for Investors &
Entrepreneurs,” as well as the IIUSA’s Regional Center
Business Journal.
There is already so much risk to contend with, and the
repeated short-term extensions are fueling bad practice.
WHAT TRENDS ARE YOU SEEING
WHEN IT COMES TO EB-5 LITIGATION
OR ADVOCACY?
For decades the litigation focus had been of just one
dimension: litigating against the government to remedy an
unfavorable decision. Nowadays, an altogether different
dynamic reigns, as the wrestling with the government is
further complicated by SEC enforcement and receiverships,
workouts and bankruptcies, and varied forms of litigation all
along the EB-5 industry supply chain.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE
THE EB-5 INDUSTRY CHANGE
FOR A BETTER FUTURE?
I would like to see the last of EB-5 regional center program
“sunsets” and the regional center law made permanent.
STEPHEN YALE-LOEHR
MILLER MAYER | ATTORNEY
S t e p h e n Ya l e - L o e h r i s a n
attorney of counsel in Miller
Mayer’s immigration practice
group. He brings over 35 years
of immigration law experience
to bear in advising corporate
and individual clients on a broad array of family- and
employment-based immigration matters. Yale-Loehr also
teaches immigration and asylum law at Cornell Law School
as a professor of immigration practice. He also founded
and was the original executive director of Invest in the USA
(IIUSA), the trade association of EB-5 immigrant investor
regional centers. He is annually listed in International Who’s
Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers as among the
world’s best immigration lawyers.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE
THE EB-5 INDUSTRY CHANGE
FOR A BETTER FUTURE?
We need to add EB-5 numbers. The current backlogs are too
long, especially for investors from China. Absent an increase
64
EB5 INVESTORS M AGAZINE
in numbers, the EB-5 program will never achieve its true
potential. More numbers would give confidence to investors
and allow the program to create more jobs for U.S. workers.
WHAT TRENDS ARE YOU SEEING
WHEN IT COMES TO EB-5 LITIGATION
OR ADVOCACY?
The industry realizes that change will come from a
combination of advocacy and litigation. We are seeing both.
For example, litigation challenging the inclusion of family
members in the annual cap of 10,000 EB-5 visa numbers is
succeeding so far. And IIUSA, the American Immigration
Lawyers Association and others are writing white papers
urging USCIS to change its views on key issues like
redemption and redeployment of EB-5 capital.