[ IMMIGRATION ATTORNEYS ]
Angelo Paparelli has been engaged with EB-5 issues
since 1990, when the Immigrant Investor Program was
first established. In the early days, Angelo focused on
troubleshooting problems that arose as a result of open
questions that floated around the EB-5 community with
no easy answers. By the end of that first decade, he had
established a regional center. He is now a partner in the firm
Sayfarth Shaw, LLP, where he primarily works with regional
centers and project developers, and, to a lesser extent, with
individual investors. Angelo is known throughout the EB-5
industry as someone equipped to take on difficult cases and
handle RFEs.
With a background in international business and tax issues,
Angelo brings unique expertise to the EB-5 field. Angelo
prides himself on visualizing creative solutions to intricate
problems. He has learned that the complexities of EB-5
arise in large part from the lack of published governmental
regulations on the program, and the resulting plethora of nonbinding guidance. In order to be persuasive, without having
a substantial body of EB-5-related law available for citation,
Angelo relies on logic, analogy, and his broad knowledge of
other law categories where interpretations have been settled.
To support his work in the EB-5 community, Angelo runs
a free monthly telephone roundtable on regional centers,
intended for experts in the EB-5 arena to discuss specific issues
In the late 1990s, Mona Shah took on her first EB-5 case for
a U.K. couple that gravitated to her immigrant background.
She had previously immigrated to the United States from the
United Kingdom, working her way up as single mother, without
any legal or business contacts in the United States, to become
a respected immigration lawyer. Thanks to those first clients,
Mona entered into and has continued in the EB-5 industry,
building a successful career that includes founding New York
City’s first regional center in 2008.
At her firm, Mona Shah & Associates, Mona and her team
counsel hundreds of clients spanning four different continents
on EB-5 matters. Mona’s practice covers everything EB-5,
from structuring and drafting offering documents, to liaising
with overseas agents, to marketing overseas and filing USCIS
petitions. The firm equally represents projects, investors and
regional centers. Mona and her team also act as co-counsel
for many lawyers who are just beginning in EB-5, and often
troubleshoot for both regional centers and attorneys.
Mona’s 17-year immigration law background includes
immigration deportation and litigation, as well as business
immigration. She notes that EB-5 continues to be an exciting
area that involves knowledge of business and marketing, as well
as immigration and country conditions. Mona’s ability to view
the EB-5 program from both legal and business standpoints has
fueled her success, and her international history has uniquely
70
Angelo Paparelli
in detail. He has found that a
do-it-yourself mentality in the
EB-5 community often leads to
problem cases and RFEs, which
might have been prevented. He
hopes that those interested in EB-5 will
navigate its ambiguities by relying on the
experience of professionals.
Angelo is an avid writer and co-edited Forming and
Operating a Regional Center: A Guide for Developers and
Business Innovators. He also was named by Chambers and
Partners as California’s only “Star” Immigration Attorney in
2014. You can find Angelo’s musing on all things immigration
law on his blog Nation of Immigrators. When he is not
practicing law, he enjoys yoga, fitness, theater and spending
time with his wife and two daughters.
Mona Shah
equipped her to market her
regional centers overseas.
As a woman in what she
refers to as the “old boys club” of
EB-5, Mona is proud of her professional
accomplishments, which include winning Acquisition
International Magazine’s 2014 Global Mobility & Immigration
Awards in the Immigration Appeals Category. She regularly
speaks on EB-5 investment at seminars overseas, and has
appeared on television, podcasts and radio programs. Mona
is also an adjunct professor at Baruch University in New York
City, which will be the first city university to offer an EB-5
specialized course geared towards developers, practitioners and
all interested people.
EB5 INVESTORS MAGAZINE