EB5 Investors Magazine "Top 25 Awards Edition" Volume 8 Issue 1 | Page 76

Cash is Cash – USCIS’ controversial EB-5 policy A retrospective on USCIS' erroneous policy that requires cash proceeds of a loan invested to be judged differently from other sources of cash. By Dillon R. Colucci W hile there are many objectionable policies to come out of USCIS over the past 6 years, one of the most disingenuous policy for the EB-5 community was USCIS’ outlandish claim that the cash proceeds of a loan invested in a new commercial enterprise was not truly cash, and was therefore subject to additional regulatory requirements. 76 EB5 INVESTORS MAGAZINE THE SURPRISE DENIAL In the most USCIS-fashion that immigration lawyers are keenly familiar with, in 2014 USCIS began issuing denials of certain I-526 petitions based on the claim that cash investments in new commercial enterprises were not actually cash investments, but rather were investments of “indebtedness,” and therefore were required to be