After much developer handwringing over changes to the EB-5 visa program, Congress included the program, unchanged, as part of its $1.1T budget bill.
That bill is still chugging through Washington, however. The full House has to vote on it, the Senate has to pass it, and the President has to sign it.
But developers can rest easy for now—they have the EB-5 program as is for the year. So much for all the reform talk.
Immigration Law Attorney at Polsinelli Law Firm Mahsa Aliaskari says the extension "gives developers an opportunity to prepare for the future and move forward on projects they were holding off on."
The program has helped raise close to $4B in for big projects in NYC alone. Developer Related Cos spent at least $730k in lobbying fees to keep the EB-5 program alive. (A small price to pay—their Hudson Yards project brought in $600M in EB-5 green, a record for the program.)
"The last few weeks have been a roller coaster as regional centers with competing interests, developers and other stakeholders descended on Washington to protect their varying interests in the program," Dawn Lurie, partner at Polsinelli and EB-5 investment strategist, says.
EB-5 supporters still have to be careful, though, Mahsa says—some lawmakers could still try to move forward on changes come the new year.
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