On July 25, 2018, a lawsuit, case 18-cv-1732, was filed by the American Lending Center and EB-5 investors whose children have become victim to ‘aging out’. The suit challenges the government’s practice of counting spouses and minor children against the green card limit for EB-5 investors and seeks relief for their children who may not receive a U.S. visa due to the method that the Department of State (DOS) uses to count visas.
In response to this lawsuit and in provision with the original intent of the EB-5 program, Bob Kraft offered the following:
“We support the efforts of many groups and individuals who are working to provide relief to the crushing retrogression period which is harming innocent investors and the EB-5 industry as a whole. There are numerous short and long-term solutions to return the EB-5 program to the original legislative intent and thereby provide visa relief to families currently mired in the visa backlog,” said Kraft, IIUSA President. “IIUSA strongly supports those efforts,” he added.
Currently, the DOS applies one visa for each family member – instead of counting the family as a single visa. The result has created a visa backlog for investors in certain countries. Due to this backlog, some investors and their families have an estimated 15-year wait to receive their EB-5 visa. This lawsuit aims to substantially reduce the current EB-5 visa backlog challenging investors and their families.
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Stay tuned for updates from FirstPathway Partners, as this story continues to develop.