On April 9, 2019, Rep. González-Colón (R-PR-At Large) introduced H.R.2173 – a bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to reserve EB-5 visas each fiscal year for investors in new commercial enterprises in areas where a major disaster has been declared by the president.

The bill is not publicly available as of this writing, but staff informed EB-5 Insights that it proposes to set aside 100 immigrant investor visas per year for areas designated by presidential declaration to be major disasters.

Rep. González’s legislative approach recognizes the economic benefits of the EB-5 program and the ability to fund vital government programs while creating new jobs for Americans in new and creative ways.

However, the EB-5 program is in great need of long-term authorization and modernization, especially as relates to the current 10,000 annual visa cap. Due to family derivatives count and per-country caps, the actual number of annual EB-5 investors is approximately one-third of annual visas, thus restraining the economic potential of the program.

According to a recent economic study by the EB-5 Investment Coalition (linked above), EB-5 modernization, such as removing derivatives from the annual visa cap and/or expanding the annual visas available, could unleash EB-5 as an economic engine to fund vital government programs well above-and-beyond its constrained status today.

Please check back for additional information on this development and other matters as information becomes available.