EB5 Investors Magazine "Top 25 Awards Edition" Volume 8 Issue 1 | Page 90

The Problem with EB-5’s Reliance on Temporary Legislation Following the EB-5 program's 32 extensions, it should be congress' responsibility to protect investors and make the program permanent. By Robert C. Divine I t is a shame that the legislation supporting the regional center aspect of the EB-5 visa program is temporary, and that needs to be fixed right away. The basic law for EB-5 is permanent, but that only lets an investor be credited with operational jobs of a business, and the investor must place the required capital into that exact business or its 100% parent company. In 1992, congress 90 EB5 INVESTORS MAGAZINE included in a funding bill a 5-year “pilot program” to have USCIS designate regional centers to promote pooling of investments and to allow investors in sponsored projects count indirect job creation through reasonable economic methodologies, and USCIS has allowed those sponsored i nve s t m e n t s to c o m e t h r o u g h a “ n e w c o m m e r c ia l enterprise” (NCE) that is separate from the “job creating enterprise” (JCE) that ultimately uses the capital. Since