EB-5 TEA Investment Likely to Leap from $500K to $1.35M in early 2018

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the agency responsible for administering regulatory changes in the federal government, has updated its projected timeline for new EB-5 regulations from April 2018 to February 2018.  While I mentioned this already to readers, a lot more discussion has b...

Jose E. Latour Dec 30, 2017

A “Modest Proposal” for the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Office (IPO) Leadership

As evidenced from USCIS’ comments made during the Nov. 7th stakeholder meeting, the agency continues to struggle with a massive backlog of I-526 petitions and no immediate solutions is in sight.  As the most astute independent observer of the EB-5 industry, Suzanne Lazicki’s most recent blog delves ...

Jose E. Latour Dec 30, 2017

NO WORRIES! What “Unauthorized” EB-5 Means in January 2018 Visa Bulletin

Happy Holidays, Readers!  AVS EB-5 has been getting calls and emails from all over the world regarding the just-published January 2018 Visa Bulletin issued by the State Department.  In it, instead of simply showing the projected backlog for China EB-5 investors, it reads across all worldwide regions...

Jose E. Latour Dec 18, 2017

EB-5 Renewal: The Silence is Deafening

As the brilliant Suzanne Lazicki pointed out in her posting today , the EB-5 Regional Center program has received an astonishing 7 short-term extensions in the past two years, and it's been a good five years since Congress did anything meaningful to improve the program.  The TEA abuse and unlawful k...

Jose E. Latour Nov 29, 2017

2018 EB-5 Cutoff Date for Vietnam? What You Need to Know

If you are a Vietnamese investor thinking about EB-5, you’ve probably heard about the potential of a so-called “cutoff” which could leave new investors facing long delays.  I’ve told you several times that I thought this was more marketing hype but now that the mighty Charles Oppenheim, Director of ...

Jose E. Latour Nov 04, 2017

Celebrating AVS Vietnam’s One Year Anniversary

It's true: time DOES fly when you are having fun!  Consider that it was only last September when brand new AVS Country Director Nguyet ("Monica") Pham and I were looking at our first little Regus office at the very tony Saigon Tower, across the street from the U.S. Consulate.  We were arguing: ever ...

Jose E. Latour Sep 19, 2017

LAKE POINT ECOVENTURES: THE FIRST “100% LATOUR” EB-5 RC

Folks, I feel like I should be handing out cigars and shaking hands: the first EB-5 Regional Center designed, conceived, tweaked, massaged, and 100% legally structured by Yours Truly was approved by the USCIS last week.  As most of you know, I've had a lot of input with various EB-5 projec...

Jose E. Latour May 24, 2011