At a recent Senate Judiciary Committee Senators from both Democrat and Republican sides of the House got together to discuss Bill S-642, a proposal to make the EB-5 Regional Center program permanent. During the one-hour plus discussions (see video of the proceedings here) testimony was heard from, among others, the most ardent supporter of the EB-5 program, Senator Patrick Leahy. Regular readers of this blog will recall that I had the pleasure of meeting with Senator Leahy at a breakfast in Washington in 2009. Senator Leahy presented the most compelling reasons as to why this program should be made permanent.

The overall tone of the hearing, in my opinion, was positive. In general, any less-than-positive remarks were confined to tightening-up the rules of the program to make sure, among other things, that the jobs created by the program are going to American Citizens and permanent residents as opposed to those that might not have work authorization in the USA.

Among other supporters of S-642 is Senator Chuck Schumer who, despite not attending the hearing, did issue a statement containing the following quote:

….That’s why I am proud to be sponsoring S-642 with Senator Leahy to permanently authorize the EB-5 program. We need to permanently authorize the EB-5 program as soon as possible, and we should not tie the reauthorization of the EB-5 program to any other program. If all of us agree that this is a good program, let’s all cosponsor and pass S-642.

We, at Which EB5, applaud the message that the Senators are sending.

My opinion from watching the proceedings is that we will secure a permanent reauthorization of the EB-5 Regional Center program. However, if I were to take a view that some changes might be made to the program I would have to say that it might, just might, be that the amount required to participate may increase above the current $500,000 level. Just my humble opinion.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of the EB-5 Visa Program please contact Which EB5 via email or telephone +1-561-771-1330
+Stephen Parnell