Author: Niu Ltd

A U.S. visa that awards green cards to foreign investors will require a much larger investment under new rules released today and slated to take effect Nov. 21.

Foreign citizens are already contacting immigration lawyers about getting their EB-5 investor visa applications in before the new rules impose higher costs, but once the rules are in place, EB-5 investments will drop and fewer jobs will be created through the program, an immigration lawyer said.

The EB-5 visa, created in 1990 to stimulate the economy through job creation and capital investment, will under the new rules require a minimum investment of $900,000 instead of the current $500,000, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said. That minimum amount will be for investments in businesses in rural areas or regions of high unemployment. For investments in other areas, the minimum will be $1.8 million, compared to the current $1 million.

Homeland Security had originally proposed a new minimum of $1.35 million.

The visa will still require creation of at least 10 full-time jobs but the new rule strips states of the ability to designate areas as rural or high-unemployment “Targeted Employment Areas” to qualify EB-5 applicants for the lower investment threshold. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will make all such designations, according to the new rules.

Under the current rules, developers offering investment opportunities to people seeking EB-5 visas have worked with officials in some states to effectively gerrymander regions to create Targeted Employment Areas that encompass smaller regions without unemployment levels that meet the visa’s requirements, said Mitch Wexler, a Los Angeles-based partner at immigration law firm Fragomen.

The EB-5 program provides a two-year conditional green card upon issuance of the visa, and visa holders who remain eligible can obtain full permanent residency after two years. Up to 10,000 EB-5 visas are issued per year.

An industry has emerged around the EB-5 program, with developers marketing projects to foreign citizens, Wexler said. But because an investor’s main priority is almost always getting a green card, returns on the investments have typically been less than 3 percent, he said.

“This isn’t really a financial investment,” Wexler said. “Clients view the return on investment as the value of green card.”

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said in a press release Tuesday that he’d been warning for most of the last decade that the EB-5 was being abused “to steer investment away from rural America. He added that the new rules would bring opportunities to rural America and “communities in need.”

Last week, Grassley said on the Senate floor that there were examples of EB-5 fraud from all over the country.

“In Chicago, a businessman defrauded 290 investors of $150 million in funds that were supposed to be used for the construction of a hotel and conference center hear O’Hare Airport,” Grassley said.

“In Palm Beach, Florida, a real estate developer and real estate attorney teamed up to defraud 60 Chinese and Iranian EB-5 investors of $50 million. Instead of being used to fund the construction of a proposed hotel, it was instead used to pay personal taxes and purchase a 151-foot yacht. In Wisconsin, a businessman used over half of the $7.6 million in funds he had solicited from investors to pay for personal expenses including Green Bay Packers tickets and the purchase of a Cadillac Escalade.”

A May 2017 probe by Citizenship and Immigration turned up 19 cases within the EB-5 program that raised national security concerns related to terrorism, espionage, and unauthorized transfer of information and technology, Grassley said.

In the Bay Area, a lawyer and her firm’s office manager were charged earlier this yearwith criminal fraud, identity theft and obstruction of justice, as well as with civil fraud, over alleged crimes and abuses related to the EB-5 program. The Securities and Exchange Commission said that between 2008 and 2016, the two made $12.7 million in illegal commissions by referring more than 400 clients to groups that bundle investments from foreigners seeking EB-5 visas.

And two dozen Chinese investors late last month sued a Santa Clara County businesswoman claiming fraud, after they each put up $500,000 investments.

Applying for an EB-5 is a lengthy process that can produce a pile of documents a foot and a half high, and the money for the investment must be deemed lawfully earned and taxed, Wexler said. “We have to trace the path of every dollar of this investment,” he said.

Wexler said he hadn’t seen anything in the new rules, except perhaps the removal of states’ ability to designate Targeted Employment Areas, that would directly address abuse of the program.

While Wexler’s office and other immigration firms are seeing a spike in interest in the EB-5 because of the new rules, once the rules take effect, the number of investors will drop because of the higher cost, he said. “This is going to result in far fewer jobs being created,” he said.

Source: mercurynews.com
Published: 24 July 2019

The government of Moldova has temporarily suspended a controversial citizenship-by-investment scheme that has been recently used to entice customers by a Dubai developer.

The Moldova Citizenship-by-Investment (MCBI) programme made global headlines in June following Dubai developer Kleindienst Group’s announcement that investors in its Heart of Europe project on The World will be eligible for Moldovan citizenship.

As part of the offer, those who invest AED5 million ($1.36 million) into the project are eligible to apply for the MCBI, which is subject to a multi-stage due diligence procedure.

Late last week, however, Moldovan president Igor Dodon announced that the programme would be suspended following concerns about some of the companies involved.

One of the MCBI’s main service providers, global residency and citizenship advisory firm Henley & Partners, in a statement confirmed the suspension.

“The government has informed the MCBI office that it wishes to review the program and the various companies involved as service providers,” Henley & Partners said in a statement.

The Henley & Partners statement added that “all applications that have been officially accepted by the programme thus far will be fully processed to completion”.

“There will, however, be a temporary cessation of processing new applications so that the government can complete its evaluation and optimization process,” the statement added.

However, Henley & Partners – which has an office in Dubai – did not manage the MCBI applications from Kleindienst, which was handled by another accredited agent. Kleindienst has not divulged which company handles its MCBI applications.

When contacted by Arabian Business, Kleindienst Group declined to comment on the impact that the MCBI’s suspension will have on its previously announced offer.

Dr Juerg Steffen, the CEO of Henley & Partners, said that the company remains committed to Moldova and its people.

“We have invested significant time and capital in Moldova and believe that this investment will generate hundreds of millions of capital over time for the Moldovan economy that will enhance the lives of the Moldovan population.”

Criticism of the MCBI

Since its introduction last year, the MCBI programme has faced criticism from some who view the programme as a security risk.

“Beyond the obvious ethical concerns, this poses a serious security risk to both Moldova and the entire Schengen area to which it has visa-free access,” Naomi Hirst, a researcher at anti-corruption group Global Witness, was quoted as saying in the Daily Mail. “We look forward to an end to the super-rich buying citizenship and access to Europe.”

Additionally, a European Commission spokesperson told the United Kingdom’s Times newspaper that “the commission is closely monitoring the impact of the scheme launched in November [Moldova’s] as it could pose migratory and security risks.”

Henley & Partners, for its part, has said that the programme will support the Moldovan economy with much needed capital, create a platform that will “amplify and enhance” Moldova’s voice on the world stage, and drive flows of foreign direct investment to the country.

Source: arabianbusiness.com
Published: 23 July 2019

Citizenship applicants have expressed concern following a High Court ruling that nobody can be granted Irish citizenship if they have spent a single day outside the country in the past year.

The unexpected judgment, handed down by Mr Justice Max Barrett, could affect thousands of people applying for Irish citizenship on the basis of residence in the country.

Experts have called the ruling “absurd”,  pointing out that the law on citizenship has never been interpreted so strictly before and have called for emergency legislation to be enacted.

The Department of Justice & Equality has said it is “studying the decision carefully”. In a statement today, justice minister Charlie Flanagan said: “This issue is being dealt with as an urgent priority and I will take any necessary action to resolve it.”

With the Dáil in summer recess until 17 September, it’s as yet unclear how exactly this issue will be resolved.

Majo Rivas, who is originally from Paraguay and has been living in Cork for four years, has said she was “shocked” by the ruling.

“It’s going to have a domino effect,” Rivas told TheJournal.ie. “People who are waiting are worried.”

‘Perfectly normal reasons’ 

Under the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, foreign nationals wishing to naturalise as Irish have to be legally resident in the State for at least five years out of the last nine – or three out of the last five if married to an Irish citizen.

This includes one year of “continuous residence” in the 12 months up to the date of application.

In practice, the Department of Justice and Equality had been allowing citizenship applicants to be out of the country for up to six weeks in that final year, and “possibly more in exceptional or unavoidable circumstances”.

Judge Barrett’s ruling says this six-week rule goes “beyond what is legally permissible in this regard, because…the Act of 1956 does not confer any discretionary power on the Minister”.

Pointing to the dictionary definition of “continuous”, the judge held that “an applicant must show a one-year period of residence in Ireland that is ‘unbroken, uninterrupted, connected throughout in space or time’”.

In what was essentially a Test Case for the six-week rule, Judge Barrett interpreted the phrase “continuous residence” to mean no absence from the State meaning the six-week rule can no longer apply.

For Rivas, it means uncertainty and possible delays in receiving her citizenship.

Rivas has been married to her Irish husband for over four years and applied for citizenship last October. “Delays are already existing [in the application process],” she said. “I knew it was going to take some time.”

Rivas has a list of each time she left the country in the last year. She travelled to Spain for one day and visited her sister for holidays. “I left for perfectly normal reasons,” she said. ”Thank God I didn’t have to travel [home] for a funeral.”

Justice Barrett’s ruling casts doubt over when Rivas will receive her citizenship due to her recent absence from the State.

‘Emergency legislation’ 

Elsewhere, concerns have been raised about what the ruling means for new citizenship  applicants, citizenship refusals and how the Department of Justice & Equality will act following the ruling.

Solicitor Simon McGarr has said the ruling is “so significant that an emergency piece of amending legislation is the appropriate response.”

“One which will remove the requirement for “continuous residency” and replaces it with a more flexible requirement allowing for normal travel,” he said.

Brian Killoran, CEO of The Immigrant Council of Ireland, has called for the Department to issue a temporary freeze on issuing citizenship refusals until this issue is resolved.

Immigration lawyer Aoife Gillespie has said the effect of the decision is that “an applicant must literally never leave the State [in those 12 months]. Not even for one day. Not even to enter Northern Ireland (an impossibility for many persons living by the border). They must have entirely uninterrupted residence in Ireland”.

She added, “It is absurd to require a person to be detained within the State for an entire year in order to qualify for Irish citizenship.”

Speaking to the TheJournal.ie, Gillespie said that foreign citizens resident in Ireland should not now apply for citizenship if they have been out of the country even once in the past 12 months – at least until the legal position is resolved.

She added that pending citizenship applications would have to be refused:

“Those applications that are sitting on the Department’s desk at the moment, where there is any absence at all, can’t be approved until either the judgment is appealed and overturned or the law changes.”

‘Continuous residence’

David Kenny, an Assistant Professor in Law at Trinity College Dublin told TheJournal.ie that emergency piece of legislation is a likely next step for the Department. 

“The problem is that the judge has interpreted this very important section [of the Act] in a such way that will change what we thought the process was…that the Minister has been applying this discretionary allowance for how long you could be absent and maintain continuous residence.

“The judge has basically said ‘That’s not what the Act says.”

Justice Barrett made clear in his judgement that it’s up to the legislators to resolve the absence question for citizenship applicants.

The Judge wrote in his decision that while his judgment “may seem unfair”, it was what the letter of the law required. He said that “the cure for any (if any) such unfairness as is resulting is not to be found in the law-courts; it lies in the gift of the legislature”.

Rivas, who was already planning her citizenship party with friends and family, is now uncertain as to when she’ll receive her Irish citizenship.

Absences from the State, she said, are a fundamental part of being a migrant. “Most of my family are abroad.”

Rivas, her husband and her parents-in-law were planning a trip to Paraguay so they could see where she grew up.

That trip, she said, is far from certain following the High Court ruling.

Speaking today, Second Deputy Secretary at the Justice Department Oonagh Buckley said that “we obviously have to take account of the High Court and make sure that the Minister is appropriately advised on the best approach, legal & administratively.”

“That will take us a wee while. No one should precipitate anything.”

Source: thejournal.ie
Published: 18 July 2019

A boost to the Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) was the main reason given for the government’s decision to grant visa-free entry to diplomats, investors and tourists form the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Cabinet announced this week the implementation of a policy under which certain categories of UAE passport holders will get visa free entry into Antigua and Barbuda without any further delay or waiting period.

The Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, Lionel “Max” Hurst, was the one who revealed the government’s principal intent for this initiative.

“A part of the challenge we faced was to increase the number of people making applications for the CIP. The larger the number of countries that don’t require visas to enter into Antigua and Barbuda, the more attractive the CIP becomes,” he told OBSERVER media yesterday.

“The UAE is a very special place. Most of the people who live in the UAE come from other places and the UAE citizens are very few in number. As a consequence, we believe that by granting the visa-free access to those citizens in the UAE we are making Antigua and Barbuda more of a CIP [destination]; that’s the primary objective.”

The CIP has received some negative publicity in recent times when it came to light that some alleged international criminals are holders of Antiguan passports.

Mehul Choksi – who currently resides in Antigua and Barbuda – is one such questionable character. The Indian-born businessman is accused of committing a multi-billion dollar fraud on the Punjab National Bank in his native land, and is currently fighting an extradition request made by Indian authorities for him to answer to the charges.

Government, however, believes that through this new policy the benefits will begin to manifest almost immediately, according to Hurst.

“I say immediate because you have a lot of countries that are competing for the same high net worth individuals and once they learn that the possession of Antiguan and Barbudan citizenship will allow them to travel with fewer hassles…we will find that immediately we will get some results.

“It’s the world in which we live that information is immediately shared and any decision that is made today, especially information such as this, will reverberate around the world and most definitely in the UAE which is where we are aiming for,” Hurst said.

The policy is by no means new, but is instead based on a Cabinet decision dating back five years to July 2014, when the new government of Prime Minister Gaston Browne, within its first month in office, agreed to provide visa exemptions to diplomats and investors from the UAE.

Source: antiguaobserver.com
Published: 20 July 2019

In a series of articles and videos, the Times and Channel 4 used hidden cameras to film UK Tier 1 providers appearing to trivialize the Home Office’s vetting practices. They omit to mention that service providers themselves have repeatedly urged the Home Office to enhance their procedures.

In a series of articles termed a “revelation” and a “Home Office cash-for-passports scandal“, the Times and Channel 4 recount its undercover reporters’ experiences visiting six different Tier 1 Investor Visa service providers. Posing as a Hong Kong businessman with relatives in Russia and mainland China who had dubious backgrounds, the undercover reporter spent three months to obtain footage for the series.

The Home Office has created an incentive system prone to moral hazard

The discovery in focus was an apparent tendency among practitioners to downplay the rigors of Home Office vetting.

Unlike in all citizenship by investment programs, and most residence by investment programs, the UK government does not conduct its own enhanced due diligence on applicants, engaging instead in a cursory review and leaving the task of deep background checks of clients to regulated financial institutions, who are bound by law to follow strict AML/KYC procedures before onboarding clients.

Trouble arises when those same financial institutions benefit from the deposits of the client they are checking. Current rules give these institutions a GBP 2 million incentive to respect the letter, rather than the spirit, of the law by ticking all the boxes and legally onboarding clients that may be the type of person the rules were intended to exclude.

The industry has itself warned against the highlighted shortcomings

The weaknesses and moral hazard the Home Office’s insufficient procedures give rise to are well known to Tier 1 service providers who have, on several occasions and on its own initiative, encouraged a change in the rules.

In a survey among nearly 200 service providers, issued ahead of the most recent round of Tier 1 program reforms earlier this year, three-quarters of respondents indicated an independent, regulated audit of applicants’ financial and business interests should be instated, and more than half that the program was susceptible to abuse.

The survey’s authors shared their findings with the Home Office.

Note that the UK Tier 1 program has nothing to do with British passports, as it is a residence by investment program, not a CIP. That the report’s authors chose to indicate in their headlines that there was a direct connection to passports is a sensationalist approach that misleads a general audience.

IMC: Dramatic license “straight out of a Bond script”

Commenting on the matter, a spokesperson from the IMC said that while “seemingly no illegal activity was reported, the youthful enthusiasm of sales persons needs to be kept in check, many of the scenarios put to the agents are too complex for a young, inexperienced, and possibly unqualified individual to handle at an initial meeting”.

The spokesperson pointed to the events as a good example of why employers should “take staff training very seriously and ensure their associates, particularly their client-facing ones, are fully trained in the key areas that impact the industry”.

Stressing that while the organization was a long-time proponent of the imposition of the highest ethical standards and held an adamant stance with respect to excluding “less than professional agents”, the spokesperson added that the case covered by the reporters should be seen in perspective.

“The reality is that the sort of “client” that the journalists were dramatically introducing is a minuscule percentage of the reality of the industry’s day to day business. Whilst we understand the media’s objective to entertain, there was also a certain amount of dramatic licence involved, the sort straight out of a Bond script,” wrote the IMC.

While objecting to the methods employed in the investigation, the spokesperson indicated the IMC had found the discoveries disconcerting.

‘However, this [the dramatic license] does not negate the seriousness of the situation. The IMC is committed to improving standards in the industry and defending its right to operate. In view of this the IMC would like to offer each one of the persons that featured in the Dispatches program aired on Monday the 22nd of July, 2019 a complimentary enrolment to the IMC Certification in Investment Migration, including the journalists. Those interested should contact the IMC directly with reference Dispatches 22/07″.

Source: imidaily.com
Published: 23 July 2019

The fate of Moldova’s Citizenship by Investment Program has been uncertain since the resolution of the country’s constitutional crisis some two weeks ago. The incoming government coalition had said it was “committed” to ending the program and, during the first reading in Parliament, elected officials voted in favor of amending legislation to that effect.

But the young democracy has a system of checks and balances, which means any such change will need to go through several stages of approval before coming into effect (see: Moldova Update: Too Soon to Call CIP’s Future; Next Week Will Be Critical). Yesterday’s statements from Moldova’s Minister of Economy – who could play a decisive role in the matter – is nourishing hopes that the program may yet survive.

“We should not take any decisions in a rush,” said Minister Vadim Brînzan during a press briefing in Romanianyesterday. “The program could be paused for a couple of months, while all the stages and processes are verified,” he added, indicating a review is more likely than altogether scrapping the program.

“At the moment there are 34 applicants, and their cases should not be stopped. They could give the country 4,6 million euro. We should study who are the final beneficiaries of the program. Maybe an additional filter to the due diligence process should be introduced. We should explain to our European partners that there are no risks for the EU’s security,” he continued, adding also that any contract annulation would cost Moldova several million euro and be harmful to the state’s reputation.

The Minister’s statements effectively amount to his official recommendations on the matter, which were required before any second reading in Parliament and possible adoption of the legal amendments could take place. The path is now – procedurally speaking – clear for that second reading, but whether Parliament will vote on the amendment once more – or, if it does vote, whether it will heed Minister Brînzan’s recommendations – remains to be seen.

Source: imidaily.com
Published: 28 June 2019

Canada is courting international support for its plan to reject Russian passports given to Ukrainian citizens in the parts of Ukraine occupied by Kremlin-backed separatists.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada has presented technical details of a plan to allies attending this week’s Ukraine reform conference in Toronto so they can follow suit.

“We very much encourage our partners who share our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity to join us in taking this step,” she said Wednesday.

Canada won’t allow anyone travelling from Ukraine’s occupied eastern Donbass and Luhansk regions to use a Russian passport to enter the country, Freeland said.

“People who are citizens of Ukraine, which is the case for people living in occupied Donbass and Luhansk, are very welcome to apply for a visa to come visit Canada using their Ukrainian passport,” she said.

“Canada, however, considers the issuance of Russian passports to these people to be a further act of aggression against Ukraine.”

Freeland didn’t have details on whether anyone from eastern Ukraine has tried to travel to Canada on a Russian passport. It is also not clear how Ukrainian citizens living under Russian occupation might leave the region to travel abroad.

Freeland says Canada has a duty to denounce the Kremlin’s passport scheme because it represents one more attack on Ukrainian sovereignty.

In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in the worst breach of Europe’s borders since the Second World War. Canada and its western allies view that annexation as illegal. Russia has also fomented a pro-Kremlin insurgency in the country’s east that has left more than 13,000 dead.

Unlike Crimea, Russia doesn’t currently claim Donbass and Luhansk as Russian territory. But many Ukrainian citizens there are ethnically and culturally Russian; if Russia gives them passports and treats them as its own people, it might use that to assert a right to the land they live on. For years, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has said Russia has a duty to protect Russians regardless of where they live.

The situation deteriorated further this past November when Russia detained 24 Ukrainian sailors and seized three ships in the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea off the Crimean coast.

Last month, a United Nations maritime tribunal said Russia must free the sailors and their ships. Russia says the tribunal has no jurisdiction over it.

Freeland has been hosting the international conference that is trying to help Ukraine build its battered economy in the face of its five-year-old conflict with Russia. Participants include political representatives from more than three dozen countries as well as representatives from the world’s leading financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund.

The meeting marked the North American debut of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a popular actor and comedian with no previous political experience, who easily won this spring’s presidential election, unseating Petro Poroshenko. Zelenskiy met Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the two leaders affirmed the shared bonds between the two countries.

Zelenskiy was also trying to allay fears that he was not up to the task of governing given his lack of political experience.

In a meeting with Trudeau, Ukraine’s president spoke about the “about the need for strategic advice on governance,” Freeland said.

“This is a true area of Canadian expertise and we are pleased to be starting right away,” she said.

Canada also contributed another $45 million to its Ukraine-reform efforts, topping up the $785 million in military, legal, financial, development and political assistance it has given since 2014.

Zelenskiy campaigned on the need to bring more reforms to Ukraine, to rid his country of corruption and make it more democratic. He has also worked a breakneck pace, dissolving Ukraine’s parliament and pushing ahead with new elections on July 21, months ahead of schedule.

The Kremlin offensive into Ukraine in 2014 came at a time when it was poised for deeper integration with the European Union and Putin wanted to keep Ukraine in Russia’s sphere of control.

Kurt Volker, the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations and a former NATO ambassador, said Ukraine could eventually resist the pull of the Kremlin if it stays the course and pursues its Western ambitions with the help of its allies.

“Ukraine should be a stable, secure, growing, prosperous democracy that is connected to Europe. And the more that’s true, the more Russia is losing at its principal goal: it wants to make Ukraine a subservient part of a Russian sphere of influence again,” Volker told a small group of journalists on the margins of the summit.

“That’s not going happen. The more Ukraine is successful, the more it is apparent to Russia it is failing in that objective,” he said. “And then the idea of continuing this war is pointless.”

Source: nationalpost.com
Published: 3 July 2019

The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) completed its review of United State Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) proposed regulations to update the Immigrant Investor Program known as EB-5. USCIS first published its proposed rules, titled EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization or RIN 1615-AC07 (EB-5 Modernization Regulation), in the Federal Register in January 2017. On February 22, 2019, after waiting more than two years for Congress to enact updates to the EB-5 Program, USCIS submitted its own EB-5 Modernization Regulation to OMB for review.

OMB review is typically the final stage of the rulemaking process prior to publication of the final rule in the Federal Register. The OMB can approve the proposed final rule immediately,  initiate a review for up to 120 days, or negotiate revisions to the text of the drafts it receives. In connection with the EB-5 Modernization Regulation, on June 27, 2019, OMB returned the rule to USCIS “consistent with change.”¹  In effect, OIRA generally agreed with the intent of the USCIS’ draft regulation but made substantive changes.

What happens next? Regarding the next steps, USCIS is expected to publish the EB-5 Modernization Regulation in the Federal Register very soon. Procedural mandates require that the final rule is published in the Federal Register at least 30 days before the rule’s specified effective date. More significant regulations require at least 60 days. Ostensibly, the EB-5 Modernization Regulation that affects investors’ lives makes it a significant regulation but this is not certain. Until publication, the EB-5 program will continue to follow existing rules.

Effect on the EB-5 Program. As previously reported by Polsinelli, if finalized substantially as proposed by USCIS, the EB-5 Modernization Regulation would (in pertinent part):

• Increase the minimum investment amounts significantly from $1 million to $1.8 million (or $1.35 million for investments in Targeted Employment Areas (TEA) an increase from $500,000);
• Transfer TEA designation authority from state economic development agencies to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS);
• Create priority date retention for EB-5 investors to use the priority date of a previously approved I-526 Petition for any subsequently filed I-526 Petition under certain circumstances;
• Establish more oversight over regional centers, etc.

Stakeholders (investors, developers, regional center owners, etc.) of the EB-5 program have watched the progress of EB-5 Modernization Regulation carefully. The first two bullets above have generated the most concern among EB-5 program stakeholders; the increased investment amount could create extra procedural burdens associated with demonstrating lawful sourcing of funds and increased difficulty and expenses associated with currency exchanges and wire transfers from resident countries. Regarding future viability of the EB-5 program, the increased investment amount may cause foreign investors to look to the immigrant investor programs in other countries with a lower investment amount than the United States (i.e., Antigua, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Latvia, Malta, Monaco, Portugal, Saint Lucia, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, Ukraine, etc.)².

With regards to developers and regional centers that are presently fundraising around the globe, their offering documents (i.e., business plan, private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, partnership agreement, etc.) may require amendment to address applicable changes once publication in the Federal Register occurs, unless of course (i) the offering can be concluded within the 30- or 60-day period from publication, or (ii) the final EB-5 Modernization Regulation grants a phase-in for active projects allowing such offerings to be completed before the effective date of the new provisions. Regarding regional centers and developers with projects in the pipeline, it may be wise to await the publication to assess the changes and the continued viability of the EB-5 program and TEA applicability to the underlying project, before proceeding. With regards to investors who are considering participating in the EB-5 Program, they would do well to invest and file their I-526 Petition as soon as possible to be grandfathered under the current rules.

What will the final EB-5 Modernization Regulation look like? What changes OIRA made to the EB-5 Modernization Regulations are yet unknown. The OMB meeting site reveals that OIRA held four meetings in 2019 (three in March and one in May) to hear testimony from persons opposed to the EB-5 regulation.³  Accordingly, EB-5 program stakeholders have reason to hope that the EB-5 Modernization Regulation implements a more moderate approach to reform with smaller minimum investment amounts initially (or that are phased in over time) and reasonable processes for TEA determination for example.

Source: natlawreview.com
Published: 1 July 2019

In an effort to sensitise correspondent banks on the integrity and security of the Citizenship by Investment Programme’s (CIP’s) application and approval process, Prime Minister Gaston Browne, in his capacity as OECS Chair, said that he is willing to assemble a team of government officials, CIP executives, Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism experts and banks to hold joint meetings.

“The CIP programmes are too important to our economies and to the welfare of all, including the banking sector, for us not to run the extra mile that might be necessary to disabuse misconceptions and to build-up confidence in them,” Browne said.

His comments were made in an address at the annual general meeting of the Caribbean Association of Audit Committee Members (CAACM), in light of Caribbean economies continuing to grapple with losing correspondent banking relationships.

He said that collating a team would help to sensitise them on the integrity and security of the CIP application and approval process.

Browne said that the CIPs “which have quite literally saved our economies from decline in the face of poor terms of trade, repeated natural disasters, diminished aid and high costs of imports”, are facing pressure from external forces, and he noted that CIPs involve greater and stronger due diligence on their transactions than other programmes of similar nature.

“The CIP is not unique to the Caribbean. It competes with similar programmes in Europe and North America. Perhaps, that is a reason why, like financial services, it is under assault by external forces…but CIPs involve greater and stronger due diligence on their transactions than apply to others.

“In this regard, I urge Caribbean banks involved in this service to demonstrate to their correspondent banks the extreme care and due diligence used in managing the CIP product. By clear policies and procedures, they should demonstrate why CIPs do not pose a risk to the integrity of correspondent banking relationships,” Browne, who is also the Finance Minister, continued.

He said that despite the safeguards, some correspondent banks have shied away from transactions related to CIPs and is therefore urging Caribbean banks involved in this service to demonstrate to their correspondent banks the extreme care and due diligence used in managing the CIP product.

According to him, showing their clear policies and procedures would demonstrate why CIPs do not pose a risk to the integrity of correspondent banking relationships.

Chairmanship of the OECS Assembly was handed over to Browne on June 16at the opening ceremony of the 67th Meeting of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Authority and the Fourth Sitting of the OECS Assembly

Source: antiguaobserver.com
Published: 29 June 2019