EB-5 AT TORNE YS SPECIALIZED FIELDS
David Morris
Visa Law Group PLLC
An immigration lawyer for more than
24 years, David Morris is co-chair of
the American Immigration Lawyers
Association’s EB-5 Investor Visa
Committee and a senior editor of one
of the leading EB-5 books, Immigration
Options for Investors & Entrepreneurs
(3rd ed.). Morris manages Visa Law
Group’s Washington, D.C., office, which
practices immigration and visa law
exclusively.
With his leadership as Co-Chair, the
AILA EB-5 Committee, composed of 15
leading immigration lawyers in the EB-5
field, continues to be recognized as the
pre-eminent authority for legal analysis
and reporting within the industry. AILA’s
outstanding technical work and outreach
has helped regional centers and investors
better understand the Program’s complex
rules and policies. Not surprisingly,
he was a leading voice in the broader
2015 legislative campaign to extend the
program.
Morris is one of few professionals
holding a valuable long-view of EB-5’s
history. Th e perspective he gained between
1996 and 2000 makes him especially
unique, when the program was effectively
turned upside down. Prior to 2000, when
the EB-5 program was still small but
growing, Morris’s firm represented a large
percentage of foreign investors. There was
strong optimism that the pilot program
would fully realize its legislative intent
and provide a reliable path to residency as
a result of investment and American job
creation.
Morris was present when that changed
literally overnight, when the federal
government issued the Matter of Izummi
precedent decision. He describes how the
INS instituted immediate and sweeping
rule changes, many applied retroactively,
through a series of AAO decisions. The INS
then formed special adjudication teams to
deny or revoke almost every I-526 petition
that had not yet resulted in conditional
residency.
For Morris, the program’s darkest
days have provided him with invaluable
experience. There is no doubt in his mind
that today’s EB-5 policies can all be traced
back to issues raised in 1998.
Morris graduated from the University of
Buffalo with a degree in political science,
and earned his law degree from the
University of Dayton. He is a distinguished
speaker or moderator at nearly every major
industry conference.
the end of that first decade, he had
established a regional center. He is now
a partner in the firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP,
where he primarily works with regional
centers, project developers and banks.
Paparelli is known throughout the EB-5
industry as a lawyer’s lawyer equipped
to take on difficult cases.
Having also practiced international
business and tax law, Paparelli brings
unique expertise to the EB-5 field. He
visualizes creative solutions to intricate
problems and sees EB-5 complexities
arising from the lack of published governmental regulations, and the plethora of non-precedent administrative
decisions and non-binding guidance.
Without a substantial body of EB-5
legal authorities available for citation,
Paparelli relies on logic, analogy and his
broad knowledge of other immigration
and corporate law categories where
interpretations are settled.
To support the EB-5 community,
Paparelli runs a free monthly telephone
roundtable for experts in the EB-5
arena to discuss specific issues in detail.
He has found that a penny-wise,
pound-foolish mentality in the EB-5
community often leads to problem
cases, and preventable RFEs and
denials. He hopes that those interested
in EB-5 will navigate its ambiguities by
relying on experienced professionals.
Paparelli is an avid writer. He co-edited Forming and Operating a Regional
Center: A Guide for Developers and
Business Innovators and The EB-5 Book
2014-2015 Edition. He also was named
in 2016 by Chambers & Partners and
Legal 500 as a Band 1 immigration
lawyer. You can find Paparelli’s musings
on all things immigration law on his
blog Nation of Immigrators. When he
is not practicing law, he enjoys yoga,
fitness, theater and, most importantly,
spending time with his wife and two
daughters.
Profile
Profile
Angelo Paparelli
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Angelo Paparelli has been engaged with
EB-5 issues since 1990, when Congress
first created the Immigrant Investor
Program. Before regional centers were
authorized, Paparelli focused on direct
pooled and individual investments.
He often developed solutions to open
questions that floated around the EB-5
community with no easy answers. By
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