EB5 Investors Magazine "Top 25 issue" Volume 9 Issue 1 | Page 73

TOP ATTORNEYS IN SPECIALIZED FIELDS
BERNARD WOLFSDORF
WR IMMIGRATION

Bernard Wolfsdorf is past president of AILA where he earned the Service Excellence award . He is managing partner of WR Immigration , a law firm focused on innovation / technology with offices in Boston , Los Angeles , New York , Oakland , San Francisco , Petoskey , San Diego , Santa Monica , and Shanghai . Chambers USA awarded him Eminent Status . He has been selected as Immigration Lawyer of the Year by WWL and by Best Lawyers U . S . News and World Report . EB5 Investors Magazine has named him in its ranking for the sixth time . Chambers USA describes him as “( o ) ne of the hardestworking immigration lawyers around .”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE EB-5 REFORM AND INTEGRITY ACT OF 2022 ?
The new EB-5 law has both good and bad . The best part is concurrent filing that allows certain persons lawfully in the U . S . to file adjustment of status applications with interim travel / work benefits . This provides real solutions for many in the U . S . with pending applications , and for new applicants . Also , the new section 245 ( k ) adjustments allow applicants without status for up to 180 days to adjust status . Unfortunately , the law has not resolved waiting line issues , although it has created an extremely popular reserved rural category and new reserved high unemployment / infrastructure categories .
WHAT IMPACT DO YOU THINK THE PANDEMIC AND THE PROGRAM LAPSE HAVE HAD ON THE EB-5 INDUSTRY ?
The program lapse caused a huge amount of frustration for pending and approved cases , which , together with the pandemic , created the largest slump the industry has ever seen . The good news is we now appear to be having a huge rebound with new opportunities being opened for many investors , especially in the rural area . This massive surge is triggered in part by people who realize that the U . S . has the best medicines and treatments for COVID , and together with a surging economy , excellent opportunities for study , career and quality of life .
STEPHEN YALE-LOEHR
MILLER MAYER

Steve Yale-Loehr is an attorney of counsel in Miller Mayer ’ s immigration practice group . He brings more than 35 years of immigration law experience to bear in advising corporate and individual clients on a broad array of family- and employment-based immigration matters . In addition to his work at Miller Mayer , Yale-Loehr is an active and internationally renowned member of the immigration law community . He teaches immigration and asylum law at Cornell Law School as a professor of immigration practice . He also founded and was the original executive director of Invest in the USA ( IIUSA ), a trade association of EB-5 immigrant investor regional centers . He is listed in Who ’ s Who in America and is annually listed in Chambers Global , Chambers USA , and An International Who ’ s Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers as one of the world ’ s best immigration lawyers .

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE EB-5 REFORM AND INTEGRITY ACT OF 2022 ? better securities and immigration law oversight . I was happy to help lobby on behalf of the bill , particularly the provisions to protect pending EB-5 investors who were stuck during the nine months the program lapsed . The EB-5 can stimulate the economy in so many ways .
WHAT IMPACT DO YOU THINK THE PANDEMIC AND THE PROGRAM LAPSE HAVE HAD ON THE EB-5 INDUSTRY ?
The EB-5 market is diversifying . I predict that China will no longer dominate EB-5 applications . I see increasing interest in countries like India , Vietnam , and South America . This may make it more challenging for regional centers that lack large marketing staffs to find investors . I also predict that because of changes Congress made in the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 , there will be more smaller ( less than $ 25 million in EB-5 money ) projects and fewer huge projects like Hudson Yards . New EB-5 projects are also likely to be less concentrated in large metropolitan projects and more spread out across the United States .
The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 is a good first step to reinvigorate the EB-5 regional center program through
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