“IMMIGRATION LAW CONNECTION”

Yesterday, President Obama signed into law the Fiscal Year 2010 DHS Appropriations bill (P.L.111-83).
The law extends the non-minister religious worker (section 568), the “Conrad 30″ for J-1 visas (section 568), the EB-5 pilot program for regional center investments (section 548), and the E-Verify (section 547) programs through September 30, 2012.
The bill was previously [...]

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After lengthy efforts, it appears that Congress is about to finally pass a 3-year-extension of the EB-5 program, which is usually subject to annual or semi-annual renewal via legislative action.
House and Senate conferees completed their negotiations on the final version of the FY 2010 Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill (H.R. 2892).  Included is a [...]

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USCIS announced that effective June 29, 2009, it will resume Premium Processing Service for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker.
After an evaluation of its I-140 backlog reduction efforts and increased I-140 adjudicative efficiencies, USCIS has concluded that it is now able to provide Premium Process Service for this benefit.
USCIS will accept Premium Processing requests [...]

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The EB-5 Regional Center Investment Program has been the focus of a lot of attention, in large part because this portion of the EB-5 Green Card category requires ongoing repetitive congressional action about every 6 months to keep the program from “sunsetting”.
Just a few weeks ago in early May, the Senate Judiciary Committee held [...]

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Following the footsteps of Congresswoman Heather Wilson (New Mexico), who introduced similar legislation in 2007, Florida Congressman Adam Putnam earlier this year introduced a new bill in the House of Representatives which would allow issuance of green cards for up to 3000 E-2 visa holders per year.
This newest legislative effort, the “E-2 Nonimmigrant Investor [...]

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While EB-5’s are apparently growing in popularity and there is significant curiosity surrounding the EB-5, there are many questions surrounding the “how to” aspects of it.
Essentially, the EB-5 is a Green Card category, the aim of which is to promote employment-creation and investment in the United States by foreign nationals, in exchange for granting [...]

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Very recently, USCIS approved a new Regional Investment Center, based in Orlando Florida. The Lake Buena Island Resort Village & Spa now holds “regional center” designation for the EB-5 Program.
The initial offering is limited to the first thirty-five investors. Each qualifying investor must invest $1 million and receive a 1/35th interest in a Florida limited [...]

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Tuesday, March 10, 2009, The U.S. Senate passed the ‘omnibus appropriations bill’.
Now the bill is headed to President Obama for signature.   The six month extension for EB-5 remains in the bill that will be signed by President Obama on Wednesday.
The EB-5 regional center pilot program has been extended until September 30, 2009.   Interest groups and [...]

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Following a recent extension from September 30, 2008,  the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Pilot Program will “sunset” or expire at midnight on March 6, 2009, unless extended again by Congress.
The sunset date affects all Regional Center Proposals and certain I-526 petitions, affiliated with Regional Centers relying on “indirect” job creation analyses.  If the sunset date is [...]

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While the U.S. Congress only recently extended the Regional Investment Programs component of the EB-5 Green Card, which otherwise would have sunset on September 30, 2008, at the end of the government’s fiscal year, this extension was only effective through March 6 of this year.
Congress in all likelihood will pass a further extension beyond March [...]

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