Q & A MARJAN KASRA — BY STAFF
Mandamus to push cases through . Even though they ' ve made progress , there ' s still a lot of improvement to be made . Delays are one of the big concerns not only with EB-5 but with all visa categories in U . S . immigration .
Another concern is that , unfortunately , U . S . immigration decisions are not uniform . What they require for one nationality differs greatly from what they need for another . There is a bit of discrimination in the U . S . immigration system . That ' s something that I advocate for my clients all the time . They seem not to apply the same standard to all countries .
Not only are they not uniform with respect to different nationalities , the USCIS goes above and beyond what they ' re meant to do . The Office of Foreign Asset Control , or OFAC , is supposed to regulate money . They are part of the Treasury Department . OFAC is a different entity from USCIS , and they ' re the ones who are supposed to be the watchdog to make sure that there ' s no money laundering . They have all these regulations in place . They issued a “ general license ” for Iranian nationals to participate in the EB-5 program , in 2012 . Unfortunately , USCIS is interfering with that general license , in my opinion , because they ' re going over and beyond what OFAC prescribes , and often , they act arbitrarily and capriciously for things that are not necessarily prescribed by OFAC or even by their regulations . I think they ' re circumventing OFAC , in my opinion .
We are actually working on a lawsuit at the moment because some of these cases that should be approved are not because they ' re asking for arbitrary things beyond a given investor ' s reach . I think it ' s very unfair .
How does this overzealousness you describe affect EB-5 applications ? They have overzealous adjudicators who are not necessarily appropriately trained . IPO is hiring many new people , but because they ' re new , they ' re not necessarily trained on what OFAC prescribes or what they should be required to ask for . The sad thing is that it discourages foreign investors from wanting to invest in this country . And given that the EB-5 program has been so successful in creating jobs , it has brought over $ 37 billion since its inception [ 1992 ], 5.2 billion in new capital raised since 2022 , [ post-RIA ]. You take that into consideration , and it ' s a shame for investors to be discouraged by arbitrary rules that prevent them from actual immigration , given they have held up their end of the bargain and invested money ; sometimes , it ’ s their life savings ! They ' ve created ten or more jobs , and suddenly , you have this overzealous adjudicator who arbitrarily decides . I think this is against
EB-5 is a very viable option , especially for Chinese and Indian nationals
We must be able to provide a more comprehensive pathway for legal immigration
the Administrative Procedures Act , and that ' s what we ' re basing our lawsuit on .
Are there particular countries or nationalities affected by these actions ? Specifically , Iranian and Vietnam nationals . With countries like Iran and Vietnam , you ' re dealing not only with US sanctions . With Vietnam , there are currency transfer restrictions , and they ' re asking for an intermediary because they can ' t send the whole money to America in one wire . They must go through an intermediary . It ’ s the same thing with Iran and Ethiopia . China has the same issues . They must go through some type of intermediary to export money . Until a year ago , when we provided documentation about the intermediary being , an MSB , or money service business , they [ USCIS ] were happy and satisfied . But of late , they ' re saying , ‘ We don ' t care that they ' re in the money service business . We still want to see their bank account .’ The intermediary is very much like a mini bank . And banks will never give you the internal books unless they are subpoenaed . It ' s unfair to expect an investor to be able to get that from a third party . They ' re denying cases based on precisely that .
China and India also have money transfer limitations and restrictions . Is Vietnam being targeted more than China and India ? Yes , they have concerns about money laundering . India and China may have better anti-money laundering laws . I understand , but you have to also be reasonable . This system doesn ' t work for Vietnam . Some general policies should be put out so that maybe people from Vietnam would do things differently or look at different ways of investing . You know things to be working in a certain way and , all of a sudden , they don ' t work anymore , and nobody notices why now they are going to ask for these things . If there ' s a switch in the policy , first , it has to be uniform for all countries . Secondly , we must have notice of it to lawyers , because how else are we going to serve our clients ?
I have personally brought this to the attention of some heads of USCIS at meetings . We are trying to do what we can to get it to their attention . I think they ' re aware of it . It ' s just a question of what they ' re going to do about it . This is why I ' m working on this lawsuit . It ’ s the only way to really bring it to a resolution .
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