{"id":56251,"date":"2020-09-22T23:18:50","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T03:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/?p=56251"},"modified":"2020-09-22T23:18:50","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T03:18:50","slug":"all-you-need-to-know-about-us-eb-5-capital-redeployment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/all-you-need-to-know-about-us-eb-5-capital-redeployment\/","title":{"rendered":"All You Need To Know About US EB-5 Capital Redeployment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The USCIS has issued major policy guidance clarifying important issues related to the redeployment of capital under the EB-5 program<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why EB-5 Capital Redeployment?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

A general understanding of the EB-5 timelines and how the investment is structured between the NCE and JCE is essential to understand the need for the redeployment of capital.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Steps<\/b><\/td>\nNo Visa Retrogression\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/td>\nVisa Retrogression<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1. I-526 filing<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2. I-526 approval\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n18-24 months<\/td>\n18-24 months<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3. Waiting period for the priority date to become current and EB-5 visa to become available.<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\nVariable. A few months to more than 10 years<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4. Issue of EB-5 visa and start of the two-year period of conditional permanent residence (CPR).<\/td>\n6-12 months<\/td>\n6-12 months<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5. I-829 filing at end of the two-year period.<\/td>\n24 months<\/td>\n24 months<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6. I-829 approval and removal of conditions.<\/td>\n12-18 months<\/td>\n12-18 months<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

If the investor\u2019s country has not exceeded the per-country annual cap of around 700 visas, then the EB-5 timeline between I-526 approval and I-829 filing after the CPR is around 3 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This period becomes uncertain, and can even go beyond a decade if there is a huge backlog of EB-5 applications from the investor\u2019s country. Some Chinese investors are staring at Step 3 waiting period of more than 15 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Generally, EB-5 investments are structured as a five-year loan made by the New Commercial Enterprise (NCE) to the Job Creating Enterprise (JCE). This is done presuming that the period of at-risk requirement (between Step 3 and Step 5) will not exceed five years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, the JCE pays the EB-5 investment back to the NCE after the end of the five-year period, which means the money will no longer be at-risk in a commercial enterprise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This creates a big problem for retrogression-hit investors because the rules state the investment must remain at-risk until the end of the two-year CPR. Such investors will see the JCE returning the money to the NCE before Step 3 ends and before the two-year CPR even begins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To avoid falling foul of the EB-5 eligibility rules, the investor must redeploy the capital and put it at-risk again until the end of Step 5.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And the latest USCIS policy guidance clarifies how an investor can and cannot redeploy capital along with other clarifications.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Permissible Redeployment<\/h3>\n

As per the USCIS Policy Guidance, redeployment in any business activity is permissible, provided it is a commercial activity and not a purely financial transaction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Deploying the funds into securities or financial instruments on a secondary market like the stock exchange won\u2019t fulfill the \u2018commercial activity\u2019 requirement even if there is risk of loss of investment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barring this specific exception, permissible redeployment has been defined broadly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How to Redeploy?<\/h3>\n

As per the guidance, the redeployment must be done:<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  • through the same NCE and same RC, and<\/li>\n
  • within the geographic area over which operations are approved.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    In a major relief, the guidance allows changes to the scope of the NCE\u2019s business operations provided the funds are redeployed in lawful business activity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Redeployment need not be within a Targeted Employment Area (TEA) even if the original investment had been made in a TEA.<\/p>\n

    When to Redeploy?<\/h3>\n

    Before this guidance, the USCIS rules required redeployment within a reasonable period of time. Now it has been stipulated that investors are expected to redeploy within one year of return of funds. Also, a period in excess of one year will be considered an unreasonable delay unless the investor shows there were issues beyond the control of the RC and NCE.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Conclusion<\/h3>\n

    As per the latest guidance, redeployment can happen after these steps have been completed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    • The initial investment was made as per the EB-5 rules.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
    • The funds were fully deployed to the JCE.<\/li>\n
    • The original business plan has largely been completed.<\/li>\n
    • The jobs have been created.<\/li>\n
    • Funds are available to for return or have been returned to the NCE.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The USCIS has issued major policy guidance clarifying important issues related to the redeployment of capital under the EB-5 program.\u00a0 Why EB-5 Capital Redeployment?\u00a0 A general understanding of the EB-5 timelines and how the investment is structured between the NCE and JCE is essential to understand the need for the redeployment of capital.\u00a0 Steps No…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[454,347],"tags":[5734,5738,5736],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/USCIS_45308100-scaled.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8hnWW-eDh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentimmigration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}