EB5 Investors Magazine Volume 4 Issue 1 | Page 45

TOP 25 Elizabeth Peng Peng & Weber PLLC Elizabeth Peng is a leading U.S. immigration lawyer in EB-5 and other immigration strategies for Chinese investors and entrepreneurs. After earning her LLB degree at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing in 1983, and pursuing LLM studies at the same university, Peng won a Ford Foundation scholarship in 1985 to study law in the Mona Shah Mona Shah & Associates PLLC Mona Shah, born in the U.K., is a dual-licensed attorney who practiced as a Government Prosecutor with the British Crown Prosecution Service before moving to New York. Shah was admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England & Wales in 1993, and was admitted to the New York Bar and the United States Federal Bar in 1997. IMMIGR ATION AT TORNE YS United States, completing her J.D. degree at the University of Kansas in 1988. In 1992, Peng co-founded Peng & Weber, Attorneys at Law in Seattle and has since grown Peng & Weber into an East-West team of eight immigration lawyers highly regarded for excellence in a full range of immigration law services in EB-5, including establishing regional centers, setting up EB-5 projects, filing I-924 exemplars, and filing I-526 and I-829 petitions. Through more than 30 years of legal education and experience in both countries, Peng has developed deep knowledge of American and Chinese legal environments, business practices, cultures, and languages. Beyond technical expertise in EB-5 law itself, she understands the serious practical challenges facing regional centers, developers, EB-5 agents, and EB-5 investors. A highly regarded legal scholar in the East-West realm of EB-5, Peng serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Chinese-language version of The EB-5 Handbook: A Guide for Investors and Developers. She has also published eight professional articles on EB-5 and other key areas of immigration law in prestigious immigration law books and journals of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Bender’s Immigration Bulletin, and other professional immigration law publishers. Peng also frequently speaks on Chinese EB-5 visa issues for AILA, Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA), Immigration Lawyers on the Web (ILW. com), Pincus Professional Education, EB5investors.com, and other major organizations in the USA and China. Among other recognitions, Peng currently serves on AILA’s national EB-5 Conference Committee and is included in the 2016 edition of Who’s Who Legal: Corporate Immigration. She has also been quoted several times in The Seattle Times and other major media on EB-5 visa issues and other immigration-related issues. Shah has over 23 years o f legal experience and extensive knowledge of all facets of U.S. immigration law; her practical expertise ranges from specialist business petitions to complicated, multiissue federal deportation litigation. Shah has handled complex immigration law appeals before the United States Circuit Courts of Appeal for the Second, Third, Fifth, and Eleventh circuits. Shah’s ability to view the EB-5 program from both legal and business standpoints has fueled her success, and her international history has uniquely equipped her to market her regional centers overseas. Highly proficient and experienced in EB-5 law, the firm equally represents projects, investors and regional centers. Shah and her team also act as co-counsel for many lawyers who are just beginning in EB-5, and troubleshoot for both regional centers and attorneys. Shah was the original founder of the first EB-5 regional center in New York. Shah’s practice covers everything EB-5, from structuring and drafting offering documents, to liaising with overseas agents, to marketing overseas and filing USCIS petitions. Shah has authored numerous articles and blog pieces in EB-5 and she is the author of a published book for investors. Shah regularly speaks at seminars worldwide, has been interviewed by mainstream news channels, quoted in major newspapers and has a series of podcasts called “Investment Voice.” Shah has been honored for her work by various groups and non for profit organizations. Shah is also an adjunct professor at Baruch University, New York City, which is the first city university to offer an EB-5 specialized course geared towards developers and practitioners. Shah is also a member of the Policy Committee for IIUSA and regularly lobbies in Washington D.C. Continued to page 44 WWW.EB5INVESTORS.COM 43