The EB-5 regional center program, under which foreign investors indirectly finance projects in the United States in exchange for green cards, is set to expire on June 30, 2021. Whether Congress will be able to reach agreement on a plan to extend it remains uncertain, at least in the short term. The program’s regional centers have funneled billions of foreign investor dollars into large projects such as City Pier A in Battery Park, New York; Hudson Yards in New York City; and the revitalization of Cleveland, Ohio’s riverfront.

A bill proposed by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) would restructure the program. Some in the industry support the proposal as a way of avoiding the program’s expiration, while others support shortening the EB-5 program’s reauthorization period or making other compromises. However, some developers want to make it easier to raise money and indicated they would not support any bill that doesn’t do that. The program has taken other hits in recent years, such as a regulation that raised the minimum investor contribution from $500,000 to $900,000.

Even if the EB-5 regional center program expires, the direct EB-5 program, under which investors invest in their own projects, would continue.

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