The U.S. House of Representatives has filed Continuing Resolution (CR) legislation to keep the government open through April 28, 2017.

As with the CR in late September that extended the EB-5 Regional Center program and the other three immigration programs, this CR, when passed, will create a clean extension through April 28.  The legislation extends the EB-5 Regional Center Program for the duration of the time period with no changes to program policy.

We expect that the House will pass the CR later this week and that the Senate will follow thereafter.

There were some last minute attempts by industry leaders and the chairman and ranking judiciary committee members to come up with a comprehensive EB-5 reform package over the last week. However, in the end, it appears that there wasn’t enough time to get a fully vetted deal into the CR.

It will be important to work together to support EB-5 reform efforts over the next several months. We will be watching for the much anticipated USCIS proposed regulations to be published sometime in January. In addition, there will be a need to work with the incoming administration on legislative and regulatory reform.