On June 24, 2022, a U.S. district court in California ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to process new I-526 (Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur) petitions from immigrants investing through previously authorized EB-5 regional centers. The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act, part of omnibus spending legislation, took effect on March 15, 2022. It reauthorized and made changes to the regional center program following its expiration. The court’s decision in Behring Regional Center LLC v. Mayorkas rejected USCIS’s claim that the new law required all prior regional centers to seek reauthorization.
Concluding that USCIS “acted based on an erroneous conclusion about what the Integrity Act requires,” the court ruled that the agency “is enjoined from treating the existing regional centers as deauthorized while this litigation is pending (or until the agency engages in a reasoned decision-making process regarding how to treat these centers under the Integrity Act).”
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