Another regional center busted!

SEC just filed a lawsuit against a Chinese couple, Charles Liu and Xin (Lisa)Wang(wife) in Southern California, charging the couple of stealing 50 Chinese investors' money.  The regional center sold EB5 investment to build "cancer treatment center".   The SEC complaint alleges that the couple and other defendants owned or controlled by the couple misappropriated or diverted approximately $17.4 million from the accounts where the contributions were deposited. Liu misappropriated at least $6,285,000 for himself, and his wife and co-defendant, Wang, misappropriated at least $1,400,000. Liu also transferred over $11,845,000 to three marketing firms in China, including $3,500,000 to a firm of which Wang is CEO and chairman of the board. Liu also allowed most of the Administrative Fees to be used for undisclosed purposes. As a result, the EB-5 eligible cancer treatment center that the defendants represented would be constructed with investor funds has not been built. Liu and Wang have carried out this fraud through a number of entities, three of which are named as defendants.

It is shocking to see that more and more fraudulent regional centers have been exposed in the past year.  EB5 investors, most of them Chinese investors, have been subject to such horrific fraud.  They will certainly lose some or all of their $545,000 and their immigration benefits.

EB5 application fees to increase soon

USCIS has proposed to increase application fee for EB5 cases.  Here are the details:

§  Form I-924A (to be titled “Annual Certification of Regional Center”): new $3,035 fee

§  Form I-924 application for regional center designation or amendment: increase from $6,230 to $17,795

§  Form I-526 immigrant petition: increase from $1,500 to $3,675

§  Form I-829 petition to remove conditions: no change (still $3,750)

While the fee increase may not be that much to make deference when an EB5 investor decides to file EB5 application, the increase is the first time I-526 has been more than doubled.  Other program changes are also under consideration, such as investment amount, TEA rules and source of fund.

USCIS also published the following data, which shows the actual time an USCIS officer worked on each type of applications:

 I-526: 6.5 hours; I-829: 5.5 hours; I-924: 40 hours; I-924A: 5 hours. 

Asylum Interview Timelines

Asylum Office published its 8 asylum offices interview schedules.

LA:  now schedule interview for I-589 filed on or before 8/2011;  Miami filed on or before 5/2013;  Houston filed on or before 4/2014'  Newark on or before 7/2013; NY on or before 7/2014; San Francisco on or before 3/2014; Chicago on or before 8/2013 and Arlington on or before 10/2013.

EB5 Visa Usage in 2015

Most recent EB5 visa usage shows that investors and families from China were issued 8156 EB5 visas in 2015, or about 83.5%.  It also shows that only 99 visas were issued to direct investment(create a company where 10 or more US workers are hired);  the super majority of China EB5 visas were issued to regional center investment applicants and their families.

EB5: USCIS I-829(removal of Condition) data

USCIS just released its most recent data available for I-829, removal of condition for EB5 applicants.  The table below shows that USCIS has only denied 11 I-829 petitions, which is a very small percentage of all I-829 adjudicated in 2015.  This is a great news for all EB5 applicants. 

Petitions by Case Status Petition by Entrepreneur to Remove Conditions

                                2008   2009    2010    2011    2012    2013     2014       2015

1 Petitions Received   391    437     768      2345    712      1217      2516       2767

2 Approved                 161    350     274     1067     736       844      1603       1067

3 Denied                      69     57       56       46        60         44        178        11

4 Pending                    454    735     1167   2395     1013      1345    2075      4049

In 2015, USCIS received 14,373 I-526 petitions;  USCIS approved  8,756  and denied 1,051.  As of September 30, 2015, there were 17,367 I-526 petitions pending.  Based on I-526 filing trend in the past two months, we believe the pending I-526s will be around 20,000 at this time. 

From 2008 to the end of 2015 fiscal year, USCIS has approved 6,102 I-829 petitions and denied 521 I-829 petitions, or about 7.8% denial rate.  This is not too bad for an 8 year period.

New proposal on EB5 reforms may become law soon

A bipartisan group in Congress has reached an agreement to change the current EB5 laws.  Here are the main points.  It is expected to pass Congress soon, maybe next week as the current regional Center law will expire on December 11, 2015.

Extend the program through September 2019; 

Provide increased authority to DHS to deny or terminate applications where there is fraud, criminal misuse, or a threat to public safety or national security; 

Establish an “EB-5 Integrity Fund” in which regional centers and investors would pay fees to be used by DHS to conduct audits and site visits to detect and investigate fraud in the United States and abroad; 

Require background checks of regional center and project principals; 

Require more disclosures to investors regarding business risks and conflicts of interest; 

Require more oversight of projects and closer monitoring for securities compliance; 

Strengthen the incentives for investment in distressed areas so more capital investment reaches urban poor and rural areas, as Congress originally intended; 

Raise the lower investment threshold to $800,000 to ensure more money goes to the areas that need it, and provide a mechanism for automatic adjustments going forward; 

 Improve how jobs are calculated to ensure that EB-5 projects truly create the statutorily required 10 jobs per investor; 

 Improve accountability and transparency by requiring that DHS employees document certain communications and by prohibiting preferential treatment; 

And decrease petition processing times, which have been plagued by massive delays, by providing premium processing and requiring fees be adjusted to the rate necessary to achieve efficient processing.

Congress extends EB5 regional center law to 12/11/2015

At least until 12/11/2015, all regional center based visa applications or adjustment of status applications will be adjudicated without delay.

After 12/11/2015, there is strong likelihood that the Congress will amend the existing regional center law.  Among other changes widely expected are investment amount increase, stricter source of fund review and tougher TEA designation.

If you are in the process of applying for regional center based EB5 application, you must act now.

2 marriage fraud clients got their green cards back

Last week in two separate hearings, our clients got their green cards back after their applications were granted by immigration judge.

Both of them(unrelated cases) admitted that they had engaged in marriage fraud.  Their previous lawyers had asked them to continue to lie about their marriages in court .  If they followed that bad advise we are sure their application will be denied.

We are specialized in such marriage fraud cases. We welcome the opportunity to represent you if you are unfortunately in removal proceedings for any reason, especially for marriage fraud.

Asylum Office interview schedules(nationwide)

As of August, 2015, the asylum offices of the USCIS released the following interview schedules:

Arlington office        I-589 filed on or before 8/2013

Chicago Office         filed on or before 5/2014

Houston                   4/2014

Los Angeles             8/2011

Miami                       2/2013

Newark                     6/2013

New York                  11/2013

San Francisco            8/2013

AAO decisions on various application appeals

Administrative Appeals Office(AAO) released data on all appeals from 2011 to 2014.  The left columns show the type of application; FY 2011 means fiscal year 2011;  then the chart lists dismiss; sustain and remand.

AAO is the highest office inside the US Immigration for certain types of applications.  Other types of applications not covered in this list are within the jurisdiction of the Board of Immigration Appeals(BIA).   In some cases an applicant/petitioner may take the case to federal court if they lose at AAO or BIA level.

Judge granted SEC motion for Preliminary Injunction Against Yang Bingqing

We went to the federal district court in San Francisco yesterday to observe the first hearing in SEC v. Luca International Group and Yang Bingqing, et al.  The hearing was to hear SEC's motion for preliminary injunction against all Luca entities, Yang Bingqing and other defendants.

Prior to the hearing, all defendants except Yang had stipulated to the injunction and the judge had entered order against them.

Judge granted SEC's motion at yesterday's hearing against Yang Bingqing and at the request of the SEC and Yang's attorneys, judge ordered the parties to negotiate how Ms. Yang could use her money to pay her attorneys.  The SEC lawyer initially asked the court to freeze all of her funds so that she could not even has money to pay her lawyer.  Ms. Yang was also ordered to get all of her money outside of the U.S. back to the United States.

Below is the minute entry after the hearing. 

Minute Entry for proceedings held before Hon. Charles R. Breyer: Motion Hearing held on 9/2/2015 re 13 MOTION for Preliminary Injunction and Related Relief filed by Securities and Exchange Commission. Motion is granted, parties are to negotiate the issue regarding funds for attorney fees. SEC to submit a new proposed order. Matter continued to 10/9/2015 on the motion to stay which was previously noticed for hearing.
Court Reporter: Rhonda Aquilina.
Plaintiff Attorney: John Yun, Sheila O'Callaghan.
Defendant Attorney: Garrick Lew. 

Yang's lawyer filed a motion to stop the SEC lawsuit against Yang on the ground of her fifth amendment right against self incrimination due to the pending grand jury investigation.  A hearing has been set for this motion for October 9, 2015.  SEC will oppose Yang's motion.

Investor's visa news

Our office just learned that EB5 visa numbers for china born applicants will make very slow movements in the months ahead.  It is anticipated that on October 1, 2015 the cut off date will be October 8, 2013(I526 filed on or before this date may file I-485 or proceed to visa interview in Guangzhou).  It is further anticipated that by September, 2016, the cut off date will be around May, 2014(applicants with May, 2014 priority dates may file I-485 or proceed to visa interview in Guangzhou)

Most recent data shows that 98.6% of EB5 applicants filed their application(I526) based on investment with regional center projects;  only about 1.4% applicants made direct investment.  86.5%  EB5 applications are filed by China born applicants.

in quarter 3 of 2015 fiscal year, there were 2,473 I-526 applications received by the USCIS;  for the first 3 quarters of 2015, there are about 7,723 I-526 applications received by the USCIS.  

As of July 31, 2015, the USCIS has about 13,500 I-526 applications pending adjudication.

On average the USCIS can process about 1,000 I-526 applications.  Therefore it may take more than 14 months for the USCIS to just clear its current workload.

On average, the USCIS receives 1,000 I-526 applications per month.

As the September 30, 2015 deadline(regional center law expires) approaches, it is anticipated that the Congress will extend the law without much changes for 90 to 120 days while a more comprehensive reform of the regional center law be worked out by members of the Congress. 

If you are still in the process of deciding, you should not waste any more time before the regional center law and the investment amount finally are changed to the worse.

Asylum Interview May Take 2-3 Years

USCIS Asylum Office just released a chart showing the interview scheduling of its 8 asylum offices.

This chart will be updated monthly. 

Based on the chart, if you filed your asylum application on or before July 2013 from San Francisco area, you may get an interview notice.  That is to say, the waiting time is about 2 years.

 If you live under the jurisdiction of Los Angeles, you may have to wait for 4 years before you can see an interview notice.

Scheduling information for other offices:

Arlington:  filed on or before August, 2013.

Chicago: filed on or before may, 2013.

Houston:  filed on or before April, 2014.

Miami:  filed on or before February, 2013.

Newark, NJ: filed on or before April, 2013.

New York, NY: filed on or before July, 2013.

The priority of the interview is for those who received interview notice but were rescheduled and asylum application filed by children,

Then the Asylum Office uses first-in first-out policy.

DHS plans to expand the 601A waiver

Department of Homeland Security just published a proposed rule change to expand the current 601A waiver.

DHS proposes to expand its current provisional waiver process in two principal ways. First, DHS would eliminate current limitations on the provisional waiver process that restrict eligibility to certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. Under this proposed rule, the provisional waiver process would be made available to all aliens .

Second, in relation to the statutory requirement that the waiver applicant demonstrate that denial of the waiver would result in “extreme hardship” to certain family members, DHS proposes to expand the provisional waiver process by eliminating the current restriction that limits extreme hardship determinations only to aliens who can establish extreme hardship to U.S. citizen spouses or parents. Under this proposed rule, an applicant for a provisional waiver would be permitted to establish the eligibility requirement of showing extreme hardship to any qualifying relative (namely, U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouses or parents). 

Once the new rules become effect, any family based immigration applicants will be able to file for 601A waiver based on extreme hardship to their USC parents/spouse or their LPR parents/spouse.