EB5 Investors Magazine Volume 4 Issue 1 | Page 39

TOP 25 Enrique Gonzalez Fragomen Worldwide Enrique Gonzalez has been involved with the EB-5 program for the entirety of his career—and nearly for the entirety of the program itself. His first serious encounter with EB-5 was in 1994, when he counseled Canadian clients on direct investment cases. Along with the rest of the industry, Gonzalez’s EB-5 practice experienced explosive Jennifer Hermansky Greenberg Traurig LLP Jennifer Hermansky first began working on EB-5 investor cases in 2009, and subsequently added regional center matters to her repertoire. She has since been involved in more than 50 regional center projects and has handled hundreds of investor petitions. Hermansky works at the Philadelphia office of Greenberg Traurig, LLP and is part of IMMIGR ATION AT TORNE YS growth around 10 years ago. Today he is the managing partner of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP’s Florida office, where he leads a dedicated EB-5 team. Gonzalez has spent 19 years of his career practicing immigration law at Fragomen, with the exception of nine months in 2013 where he worked in the U.S. Senate. He works with six other immigration professionals to counsel both individual investors and regional centers. He estimates that Latin American investors currently make up about 90 percent of his casework. In the Florida office, Gonzalez’s team is committed to never accepting finders’ fees and will never represent investors in the same projects that they are also representing. This commitment, coupled with technical knowledge and experience, has contributed to the team’s 100 percent success rate to date. This reputation has allowed Gonzalez to grow his business primarily through referrals and to build niches in certain international markets. Gonzalez’s perspective not only encompasses the lifespan of the EB-5 program, but is also heavily influenced by his work on immigration legislation. In 2013, he served as Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) senior advisor on immigration matters. He was the principal negotiator for the Republican Gang of Eight as S.744 advanced through the Senate. He wishes that every immigration attorney could have the chance to experience that side of the legal system. Gonzalez believes in the EB-5 program’s power to drive the economic engine of our country and keep the United States competitive. He is a frequent speaker on immigration issues, and EB-5 specifically, and his immigration reform work has been cited in publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times and The Washington Post. the firm’s EB-5 team. She has devoted her entire practice to EB-5 because she is truly passionate about it, allowing her to build a thorough understanding of the process. With a degree in finance and a background handling entrepreneurial cases for clients seeking E-2 or L-1 visas, Hermansky is intimately familiar with the business immigration process and applies this knowledge to all of her EB-5 cases. She is knowledgeable about the EB-5 program from start to finish, helping investors from the moment they decide to file until they become U.S. citizens, and counseling regional centers on issues of management, staffing and job creation. Because she has worked with so many individual EB-5 petitioners and knows exactly what they are looking for in a project, Hermansky has a unique perspective in the area of regional center development. She assists with business plans, economic reports and securities offerings, ensuring that each is EB-5-compliant and marketable to foreign investors. Hermansky finds it very satisfying to work on a successful project with tangible and profitable results, while also seeing immigrants receive green cards. Hermansky has learned that the most difficult aspect of EB-5 is keeping up with changing adjudication patterns, and excessive processing times. Despite these recurrent issues, Hermansky has seen the EB-5 program bloom, with the players currently involved in EB-5 projects elevating the industry to a higher standard. Hermansky believes that both the immigration and securities aspects of EB-5 will become more regulated, and this will only make projects better and improve investment opportunities for immigrants. When she is not working on EB-5 cases, you might find Hermansky golfing or fishing. Continued to page 38 WWW.EB5INVESTORS.COM 37