SIMONE WILLIAMS SHARES INSIGHT ON URGENT EB-5 MATTER: NOTICE OF INTENT TO TERMINATE (NOITs)
On July 30, 2024, Williams Global Law Partner, Simone Williams, shared her expert insight with Invest in the USA (IIUSA) to help assess the slew of Notices of Intent to Terminate (NOITs) issued to regional centers that failed to pay the EB-5 Integrity Fees in blog posted featured on the IIUSA website.
This blog post, written by Attorney Williams, followed an informative open form hosted by IIUSA on July 18, 2024. At the forum, legal experts provided insight and possible routes for advocacy to assist the long list of regional centers that face termination due to an unclear policy issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
View the full IIUSA Blog Post, here
Background Information on NOITs:
In June 2024, USCIS issued widespread Notices of Intent to Terminate (NOITs) to regional centers throughout the country. According to USCIS, regional centers that received NOITs will be terminated unless they can show that they paid EB-5 integrity fees for fiscal year (FY) 2023 and FY 2024.
On March 15, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA), which established a special fund known as the EB-5 Integrity Fund. This fund is financed by collecting an annual fee from each designated regional center. On March 2, 2023, USCIS posted a Federal Register notice explaining that the first fee must be paid by April 1, 2023. In an admission that “information about the due dates and penalties might not have been clear”, USCIS extended the due date to October 1, 2023. USCIS also asserted that further integrity fee payments must be made before October 31 of every year. Thus, regional centers were required to pay the integrity fee for both FY 2023 and FY 2024. Many regional centers argue that the series of announcements and moving due dates led to a lot of confusion.
EB-5 investors from a regional center should ask their regional center if it has received a NOIT and how they plan to respond. If your regional center has been struck with a NOIT regarding the EB-5 Integrity Fees, please fill out the IIUSA Google form. IIUSA is collecting data to strengthen its advocacy efforts.
To view the IIUSA Blog post, click here.
For more information on the EB-5 Integrity Fee rule, click here.
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