Immigration and Firm News

On July 10, 2015 American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) submitted its comments to USCIS on the proposed "Significant Public Benefit" Parole for Entrepreneurs program that I wrote about in a previous blog post, USCIS Holds Entrepreneur Parole Listening Session. As a recap, USCIS is looking at extending its already existing parole authority at 8 CFR 212.5 to certain entrepreneurs that do not fit easily into existing visa options in order to attract or retain start ups, and research and … [Read more...]

Recently, USCIS held an interactive engagement session with stakeholders on the issue of proving lawful source of funds for EB-5 Entrepreneur Investor applicants. The following is from my notes from the meeting. The most common Requests for Evidence or “RFEs” in EB-5 investor cases involve insufficient proof of the legal source of funds used to invest in commercial enterprises or regional centers. Proof of the required job creation is another frequent RFE issue.  However, this conference focused … [Read more...]

USCIS has released updated adjudications data for the EB-5 investor entrepreneur program.  This is the "$500k or million dollar club" investor visa for permanent residence.  The EB-5 program is modeled after marriage based immigration that requires a two-step process to permanent residence. The first application is called the Immigrant Petition for Alien Entrepreneur, filed on Form I-526.  If approved, the applicant receives a conditional residence card valid for two years. Within the 90-day … [Read more...]

In November 2010, USCIS developed Form I-924A for EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Centers to file every year documenting the various investments and jobs created in their centers.  The first required filing period began October 1, 2011 with reports due in before the end of the year.  This year, reports are due between October 1, 2014 and December 29, 2014.  However, in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, USCIS issued 29 notices of intent to terminate a regional center’s designation for failure to file the … [Read more...]

I am pleased to announce that my newly revised article, “Investing for Fun and Profits in the Arts, Entertainment and Sports Industries” was just published in the second edition of Immigration Options for Artists and Entertainers published by the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The first edition of this popular book was published back in 2007. Although we typically think of O, P and Q visas for artists, entertainers and athletes who are tops in their fields, or “culturally unique,” … [Read more...]