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Analysts question USCIS policy on EB-5 visa job creation
Comments made by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) during a December stakeholders call has lead investment analysts and businesses to a debate about what qualifies as job creation under the EB-5 visa program.
The USCIS’ interpretation of EB-5 visa statutes indicate that the calculation of both direct and indirect jobs created as a result of a foreign investment of at least $500,000 must be limited to the underlying geographic area of the regional center that received the investment.
According to Boyd Campbell of America’s Center for Foreign Investment, the USCIS interpretation “is not supported by the law, the regulations, or the case law,” EB5Info.com reports.
He continued, “It is clear the ‘investment’ must be within the geographic confines of the regional center, but the indirect and induced job creation can be anywhere it occurs” and still contribute to the minimum of 10 full-time jobs induced by a foreign national’s investment.
Additionally, jobs created in an EB-5 visa regional center’s geographic area because of a company’s relocation do not contribute to the total mandated by USCIS policy.
In the wake of the USCIS comments, analysts and EB-5Center.com expect a movement toward expanding the qualifying geographic area of regional centers so more jobs can be counted.