How EB-5 Works under New Rules
and Longer Queues
How the new regulations impact wait times, redeployment,
aging out and selection of EB-5 projects.
By Robert C. Divine
T
here is no legal limit on the number of investments that
developers and issuers can market and sell to investors
who seek immigration benefits from the transactions, but
increasingly there are systematic limits causing EB-5 investors
to be more cautious and restrained.
VISA NUMBER UNAVAILABILITY
AND REDEPLOYMENT
The law limits the number of permanent residence visas
to about 9,940 1 that can be issued to investors and
their spouses and unmarried children with “adjusted
8
EB5 INVESTORS M AGAZINE
age” under 21, and no more than 7% of those numbers
can be allocated to applicants born in any one country.
Usage by four countries exceeds the approximately 700
per-country limit, and State Department representative
Charles Oppenheim has used complex data and
methodology to predict that new investors from those
countries will wait as much as the following before they
can transfer to conditional permanent residence from
investments and I-526 filings made in October 2019:
mainland China 16.2 years (though we predict shorter
waits, perhaps 10 years 2 ), Vietnam 7.3 years, India 6.7
years, and Korea 3 years. EB-5 investors are not entitled