Priority date retention. EB-5 petitioners who need to file new EB-5 petitions will generally, with certain exceptions, be able to retain the priority date from a previously approved EB5 petition.
TEA designations. The Department of Homeland Security will now be directly responsible for managing TEA designations. This means that states will no longer be able to combine geographic or political subdivisions to include both prosperous locations with distressed areas in order to capture high unemployment rates and thereby achieve a TEA designation with a lower investment requirement. This will undoubtedly result in many current TEA investments as no longer eligible for a TEA designation and thus, no longer eligible for the lower minimum investment amount.
These regulations will apply to all petitions filed on or after November 21, 2019. Any complete petitions filed and received by the government prior to November 21, 2019 will not be subject to the new rules. If you are interested in immigrating through the EB-5 program, I encourage you to schedule an appointment as soon as possible and before these new regulations go into effect. Please reach out to our Client Relations Coordinator to get on my calendar as soon as possible: info@dmcausa.com or call our toll-free number at 1-866-690-1844.