Setting Up Business in the U.A.E. Free Trade Zone

The EB-5 Market was inundated with unnecessary fear that the United States State Department was shutting down EB-5 Visas for Chinese Investors when it announced on Saturday, August 23, 2014, the unavailability of EB-5 Visas for Chinese Nationals for the remainder of the fiscal year.   While the announcement at first glance appears to be extremely dramatic and with dire consequences, in reality it has little, if any, impact at all for the immediate future.  First and foremost, investors must understand that  this announcement does not affect any I-526 or I-829  processing, nor does it delay immigrant processing for those investors not born on mainland China, and it only delays the processing for those born on mainland China by one month, as normal processing will resume on October 1st, 2014.  The announcement reflects that for the first time ever, the full annual allotment of 10,000 EB-5 Visas will have been exhausted by the end of the fiscal year.

However, it must be noted that the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) will continue to accept EB-5 Petitions submitted by Chinese born investors, however, instead of being acted upon immediately, those cases will be held in the Visa Office’s “Pending Demand” file until October 1, 2014.  At that time, all eligible cases will be automatically authorized from the “Pending Demand” file under the FY 2015 annual numerical limitations.

As such, Chinese born investors looking to utilize the EB-5 program should continue to timely file their Petitions to ensure that their petitions are timely adjudicated under FY 2015 quota.

Shahzad Qadri
Partner
Wong Fleming | Washington