Anyone who spent last few weeks drafting EB-5’s obituary can stop. The September 30th deadline arrived, created a lot of panic, and left the programme very much alive. For our first ever video episode of Global Investment Voice, you can now see the relief on our faces as Mona Shah and Rebecca Singh are joined by Sam Hussain of BLS Global and developer Raj Guru, who calls in from the rooftop of his new Times Square hotel.
The panel explains what the deadline actually meant, why the RIA Act was written to prevent a repeat of the 2021 regional centre shutdown, and why there are whispers that reauthorisation could come as early as December. They also cover the new USCIS fee increases, including the $44,000 regional centre fees that are arriving just in time to spoil Thanksgiving. From there, the conversation turns to the questions investors should be asking: whether rural speed beats TEA security, why I-956F approval matters, and how the best project slots can disappear within 24 hours.
If you’re an investor, developer or migration professional trying to work out what comes next for EB-5, this episode gives you clarity and candour.
Watch the video here!
“If you were waiting for the EB-5 obituary from last week, I can tell you to put your black suit back in the wardrobe, because it didn’t happen.” – Mona Shah, Esq.
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The insights shared on Global Investment Voice are for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal or investment advice. Please seek tailored legal, financial or investment advice where needed.
Transcript
This transcript was produced using AI and subsequently edited for style and clarity. The edits do not alter the substance of the speaker’s remarks
Mona Shah (0:58 – 1:09)
Hello, folks. So, if you all were waiting for the EB-5 obituary from last week, I can tell you to put your black suit back into the wardrobe, because it didn’t happen.
Rebecca Singh (1:10 – 1:20)
No, not at all. So, September 30th, Mona, it came, it went, it like flew by, it felt like, but the programme did that.
Mona Shah (1:20 – 1:21)
Of course not.
Rebecca Singh (1:21 – 1:25)
Yeah, it’s still here. So, what is next?
Mona Shah (1:26 – 1:39)
Very good question. And I think we have quite a lot to unpick on this show. And with us to talk about things as well is Sam from BLS Global in London.
Hi, Sam.
Sam Hussain (1:40 – 1:42)
Hi, Mona. Hi, Rebecca. Hi, Raj.
Mona Shah (1:42 – 1:51)
I can see it’s dark behind you. Raj, who’s sitting at the Chelsea Flower Show.
Sam Hussain (1:51 – 1:57)
Yes. I think, Raj, you’ve taken 15 minutes out from your wedding just to attend this podcast.
Raj Guru (1:59 – 2:03)
Actually, I’m actually at the rooftop of our new hotel.
Rebecca Singh (2:04 – 2:06)
Oh. Ah, great.
Raj Guru (2:06 – 2:08)
I chose the right spot.
Rebecca Singh (2:08 – 2:23)
Yeah, you did. Yeah. Okay.
So, Sam, Raj, Mona, you know, we want to take a step back and set the record straight. What was September 30th deadline all about? I know we did a podcast, Mona, so we’re going to do this very quickly.
Mona Shah (2:24 – 2:36)
I know. I know. And I should also actually say that we should really entitle this programme The Morning After.
Maybe The Week After. It took us that long to recuperate.
Mona Shah (2:36 – 2:36)
I know.
Mona Shah (2:36 – 2:38)
Well, your team did do a lot of work, Rebecca.
Rebecca Singh (2:38 – 2:47)
Oh, yeah. They put in a lot of work, UK and US. So, we had a lot of our manpower hours going in.
Yeah. Right.
Sam Hussain (2:47 – 3:03)
All right. To be fair, you guys did an amazing job. You know, you took on a lot of cases, like 24-7.
Even when we were sending you guys messages, investors, you guys responded to investors. That was very impressive. I’m surprised you’re still standing.
Mona Shah (3:05 – 3:10)
We did sleep over the weekend. All right.
Mona Shah (3:10 – 3:36)
So, Raj, Sam, September 30th, everybody has a different idea. And I can tell you from an event that Rebecca and I went to about three weeks ago in Dubai, that people were coming up to us and saying, oh, I’m so sorry, I’ve missed EB-5, it’s gone. And we were like, no, I don’t know what you’ve been told.
But that’s the kind of attitude we saw. Sam?
Sam Hussain (3:37 – 3:47)
Yeah, people were thinking like, well, EB-5 is at 500 and it’s ended. And they were so shocked and surprised to hear that you can still fund for EB-5 and, you know, still available.
Mona Shah (3:48 – 4:02)
I think people like you guys, I’m saying you guys because you marketers are out there, were saying that that’s it, it’s the end. And EB-5, anybody interested in EB-5 were thinking this is it. But it wasn’t.
It isn’t.
Rebecca Singh (4:03 – 4:07)
No, it’s not. We’re still going, aren’t we?
Raj Guru (4:09 – 4:30)
Calls have not stopped coming to me even now. I’m getting calls day in and day out. People initially thought the entire programme was coming to an end, but that didn’t really happen.
They were misinformed by an extent. But I’m sure you can explain the legality a little bit more in detail. I should.
Mona Shah (4:31 – 5:19)
And I think it’s always good to really give it a little context because everybody hears what it actually means. That, oh, it’s only valid if the programme isn’t reauthorised. And if you actually go back four and a half years, back to 2021, Raj, I know you weren’t doing EB-5 at that time, but Sam definitely was.
But back in that time, the programme did go dark. The Regional Centre Programme went dark for almost, what was it, 10 months. And during that time, there was a panic because nobody knew what was happening.
Cases weren’t being done. Nothing was being adjudicated. Even 829s weren’t being adjudicated.
And I believe that when RIA came into effect, they were like, we don’t want that to happen again. Because remember, Sam, we used to call that the golden age of the direct.
Sam Hussain (5:20 – 5:39)
Yes. And we were going through COVID at that time as well. And there was a lot of interest in EB-5 at that time.
And people didn’t know what to do. And then we had the EB-5 direct option, which was very good for us because we really had to educate ourselves in terms of what is EB-5 direct and how it works.
Rebecca Singh (5:41 – 6:04)
EB-5 direct is still there. Sorry about that. Yeah, no, I think what happened too is that, yeah, we’ve got a lot of direct projects coming out of that.
But I think the scary part was for the investors who already invested and what was going to happen. Because like Mona said, they stopped adjudications. The consulates abroad weren’t adjudicating any visa interviews.
So it just left everyone kind of in a mess.
Mona Shah (6:05 – 6:09)
Right. Well, we are going to, if you promise you’re not going to tell anyone, I’m going to let you into it.
Sam Hussain (6:12 – 6:13)
Please do.
Mona Shah (6:14 – 6:48)
I know that quite a lot of people have been working hard, including IIUSA, in lobbying the administration and notably Senator Grassley, to see if we can bring forward the date for reauthorization. So a little bird told me that it is possible, we may hear, that in December of this year, we get reauthorised as opposed to waiting for next September. So that would be instead of September 27, it would be December of 26.
But, you know, it’s not final yet and it hasn’t gone through yet.
Raj Guru (6:49 – 6:51)
Yeah. Reauthorised, it is going to be for five years?
Mona Shah (6:52 – 7:10)
It is. It’s authorised. It will be authorised for five years under the RIA Act.
So they’re not ever going to make this permanent, guys. And call me cynical, but every time there’s reauthorization, now guess what happens? There’s a lot of donations go to lobbyists.
Mona Shah (7:10 – 7:13)
A lot of lobbying. And to senators. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rebecca Singh (7:13 – 7:16)
I thought it was just that they want to make our lives miserable.
Mona Shah (7:18 – 7:21)
You didn’t know that? They hate EB-5 lawyers?
Mona Shah (7:21 – 7:54)
Yeah, the most litigous people out there. And then, of course, there is another big issue, which really came out very recently because just about, what, a few days ago, we got the notice relating to, I mean, the EB-5 grandfathering finished and we got the notice relating to the increase of fees. Yes.
Guess what? The EB-5 fees is cropping up USCIS. So in my opinion, guys, and please give me your opinion, EB-5 is going nowhere.
Sam Hussain (7:57 – 8:24)
When we get these amazing, not amazing, but changes, it actually sparks more interest with investors with EB-5. And people actually appreciate the EB-5 programme when there’s a potential pause or a consideration of it being reauthorised. So it actually gets a lot of interest.
People are like, wow, actually, EB-5 is actually probably the best route for me and my family to get the green card.
Mona Shah (8:24 – 8:28)
Attention-seeking behaviour? We had that about a year ago.
Rebecca Singh (8:30 – 8:52)
Yeah, well, with the fees increasing, at least for the investors, it’s not as much as we thought it would have been. So it’s increasing from, you know, right now what they’re spending about $4,675. So that’s including the integrity fees.
And I think it’s going up to just over $7,000. I can’t remember the exact number. It’s like $7,000.
Sam Hussain (8:53 – 8:53)
$8,950.
Rebecca Singh (8:54 – 9:09)
Yeah, something to that effect. So it’s not terrible. But I remember, Mona, when it went from originally from $1,500 to $3,675, what it is today.
And how many people wanted to file at that point? It went to $11,000.
Mona Shah (9:10 – 9:23)
But Raj, let me ask you, fees for regional centres and any related stuff, it’s now $44,000 or will be $44,000. Do you think that’s going to dampen projects coming in?
Raj Guru (9:24 – 9:54)
I really don’t think so. I really don’t think so. With everything else happening around us, with the gold card in the offing, you know, where you put in X amount and you don’t get anything back.
I think this programme will run forever. That’s my feeling. I hope it does, but that’s my feeling.
It will just keep running forever. I think nothing is going to dissuade these increases in fees is minuscule. Looking at the overall picture, it’s a very small increase.
Mona Shah (9:54 – 10:15)
It is, but I do feel like the more serious people are going to come forward. Because when you start really adding up the dollars, if you want to put your own project out, now they’re quite high. By the time you do the offering documents, economic report fees, regional centre fees, now government fees, it’s high for a developer.
Sam Hussain (10:16 – 10:24)
Well, Raj, you should be in a very good position with a number of petitions and 85 investors. Do you think you’ll run up to them?
Raj Guru (10:24 – 10:47)
I have to say I was very fortunate. I am very fortunate because we have this particular project, which is, you know, a pretty amazing location. And I’m not really sure, Sam, what you did and Mona and Rebecca, what you guys did.
Somehow the, you know, the frenzy has not really stopped.
Mona Shah (10:48 – 11:07)
No, it hasn’t. And I think that’s got a lot to do with the fact that people didn’t know that they missed the boat. I mean, the petitions are harder, Rebecca, without a doubt.
I think USCIS is getting tougher. And we found, I know the whole team found that things were much, much harder than they were.
Rebecca Singh (11:07 – 11:46)
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I remember back in 2022, even 2019, we had way more cases and we were getting those out.
But this time, from the amount of sources each investor had, that took a long time. But, you know, Mona, what the difference was, was that this time around, we had 2022 allowed concurrent filing. So not only were we doing the sources of funds and filing the I-526E application or a petition, we were actually also having to do the AOS application.
So that’s, you know, three forms per person. Sometimes family has people for five. That could take a lot of time.
Mona Shah (11:46 – 11:59)
Yeah, that’s true. Well, so the other big deadline coming up, other than the people who want to try and avoid the increase in fees. And thank you, USCIS, for ruining our Thanksgiving.
Sam Hussain (12:04 – 12:11)
You’re American, I’m British, so you get to celebrate many festivals. Exactly. So you get to celebrate many festivals.
Mona Shah (12:11 – 12:41)
I think that really the big issue is going to be the fact that January is going to be an increase in price. And guess what, Raj? Any of your projects out there would all have to file an amendment.
And the amendment is going to have the $44,000. Wow. It’s very clever of USCIS.
They deliberately made sure that their fee increase happened before.
Sam Hussain (12:42 – 12:45)
Raj, you’re going to have to get a bigger garden.
Raj Guru (12:49 – 12:52)
Less money for my flower show behind.
Rebecca Singh (12:54 – 13:06)
But not only that, they’ve increased the fees, or they’ve actually put filing fees for some of the forms that didn’t have filing fees initially. Really? Yeah, like the H’s, the K’s, those are all coming out with fees as well.
Sam Hussain (13:07 – 13:11)
But how does that benefit the investors with all these increase in filing fees?
Mona Shah (13:15 – 13:26)
Supposedly, USCIS are going to be faster, hire more people. And guess what, we’re also paying for their new AI because there’s a technology fee.
Sam Hussain (13:26 – 13:27)
Oh, wow.
Rebecca Singh (13:28 – 13:29)
Well, maybe that’ll help speed things up.
Mona Shah (13:30 – 13:32)
Or help get more RFEs.
Mona Shah (13:35 – 13:39)
All right. Okay, guys, so getting back to the serious.
Mona Shah (13:40 – 13:49)
Raj, 900 is not going to be. 940, 960, are you going to see a difference in the kind of investor coming in?
Raj Guru (13:50 – 14:30)
I think, listen, this is just my view. I really don’t think anything is going to stop them. Because to begin with, what are the other options available on the table here?
They have very few options. Looking at everything else around there, I think people will keep coming. I have spoken to investors, and I brought it to their attention that something like this is going to happen.
And at least people coming over to me have been unfazed so far. I really don’t see anything coming.
Sam Hussain (14:32 – 14:37)
Historically, you remember, Mona, there was a period when it was 500 and it jumped up to 900.
Sam Hussain (14:38 – 14:53)
So it didn’t concern a lot of investors, of course. It actually accelerated them in order to make a faster decision than actually wait around.
Rebecca Singh (14:53 – 15:19)
Yeah, two crowds. You’ll get the ones who will want to file under 800 because they know it’s under 800. And if they can get it done quickly, they will.
But you’ll have those who will say, look, I mean, and this happened this time around with the September 30th. People didn’t rush because if they didn’t have it and you’d rather spend a bit more or do what you can to make sure your application gets through rather than getting a denial at the end.
Moan Shah (15:19 – 15:24)
I think you actually did that for a lot of people. You made that decision for quite a few people.
Rebecca Singh (15:24 – 15:40)
Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot that we’re not ready to file.
And we’ve seen it from the last filings. Skeletal filings were, you know, USCIS were denying left, right and centre. And like we said, it’s even harder now.
So we need to be careful this time around.
Mona Shah (15:40 – 16:21)
And we also saw that last time when the fees went up for projects, there was a tonne of projects which just were not shovel ready. And they still went forward and they all got denied. I know why Raj is sitting there with his wonderful hotel in Times Square, which is a TEA and people ask about TEA.
But we did an article not so long ago about where we really kind of dissed a lot of the TEA projects. Sorry, the rural projects as not being as well collateralised as the TEA ones. And generally overall, quite a few investors have said that to us.
But they’re still opting to go into a rural because of the speed. What do you say?
Sam Hussain (16:21 – 17:42)
That’s correct. So initially you see investors want to go for the priority processing, right? Potentially with the rural.
Then when you actually get an opportunity to speak to them and tell them the difference, because ultimately the EB-5 investment is at risk and you really want to consider which project is going to most likely to stabilise, which one is going to pay your money back. And once they start doing that analysis, they start realising, well, actually, I don’t mind waiting because it’s all about my money and my security for my family. So what’s going to make most economical sense for me if we invest?
Is it just getting the visa or is it actually also getting your money back? So that’s what we really advise. And it’s really important where we step in is where we do a lot of due diligence because we’ve seen a number of rural projects.
Unfortunately, they don’t tick the boxes, you know, in terms of would I put my own money into this rural project? So I always say, look, look at rural projects. Also look at some TEA projects.
What is most feasible? Does it stand up? Is it going to stabilise?
Are you going to get your money back? Does it make sense? So once they start looking into these matters and these key questions and they start looking at the capital side, that’s when they start realising, wow, actually, you’re right.
Mona Shah (17:42 – 18:21)
You know, you’re looking at a rural project as well for putting one up. So people like what Desam just said, that are saying, OK, TEA is more capitalised. It’s in a better location.
You can’t compare. I mean, how can you compare a rural project in a town with 20,000 people as opposed to being in New York City where there’s 70, 11 million people in any one time? You can’t compare the two.
So why would you be considering doing a rural project? And how would you how would you interact with people? You’ve just done this TEA and you’re saying, hey, my TEA is much better capitalised than rural.
Sam Hussain (18:23 – 18:25)
I love that question. Right.
Raj Guru (18:28 – 19:05)
That’s a question that should be coming from a banker, but I’ll try best to answer it. This is my feeling. I’m looking at a rural project.
If the overall plausibility of the project doesn’t work, if the financial, the economics of the project doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter whether it’s in New York City, Times Square or in the boondocks somewhere out there, Timbuktu, it doesn’t matter. As a developer, the first thing that I need to see is to make sure that the overall economics work and it’s a safe project.
Rebecca Singh (19:05 – 19:34)
No, but it’s good to hear because that’s what investors, I think the experience. Yeah, they want to hear because there are good rural projects out there. Right.
At first, you’re sceptical. But, you know, and, yeah, TEA, they would think those are better projects. But, I mean, we’ve we’ve seen some good rural as well.
And I think that’s good to know. Like what what is a developer looking at to see whether a project works, whether it’s TEA, high unemployment area or in a rural area? I think that’d be interesting to know.
Mona Shah (19:34 – 20:09)
Yeah, especially once the amount has gone up to over 940 or 960 or however much that USCIS is going to come back on. Because now you’re talking of investments of easily over a million. By the time you’ve done all your fees and things, it’s easily over a million.
So I don’t know what you what a person would actually see, because for a lot of people, it is speed. And we have seen, we know now, you know, Senitor Grassley got his way, really made sure that the rural projects got pushed forward.
Sam Hussain (20:09 – 20:53)
But also a lot of investors want a rural project that is I-956F approved. And sometimes that does take a bit of time. Like, you know, Raj just kind of illustrated that he’s looking into rural projects.
Once he finds his petition application, it will take some time for his approval. So I’ve seen really good rural projects out there, but that haven’t been approved. And once it gets an approval, the slots go very quickly.
So, you know, yeah. So it’s also you have to consider that, Raj, because in the market, people want an F approval. So whenever we speak to investors, they want a rural project, F approval.
And then you have to go and explain to them about the timeline and the processing it takes to get an F approval.
Mona Shah (20:54 – 21:10)
Well, we have lots to discuss in the future. One of the big ones is, which I don’t want to really touch on now, but one of the big ones is, hey, Sam, how much your clients are using AI to actually decide their projects? Oh, yes.
I know, I know.
Sam Hussain (21:14 – 21:39)
I think there should be like an ‘AIEB5.com’ or something, you know, because they ultimately, regional centres and developers are actually seeing the same question again and again being asked by investors because they can see it’s the same chat GBT, Claude, asking the same questions. And sometimes they don’t want to answer that.
Mona Shah (21:40 – 22:04)
Well, a lot of times they talk nonsense too. But we can discuss that one, along with the fact that visa numbers. And Rebecca, that’s going to be a big deal, especially considering last year, we really only hit 3% of the visa capacity.
It was crazy. So now that those 75 countries are back in the market, let’s see where we go on the visa front.
Rebecca Singh (22:05 – 22:12)
Yeah, I think that’ll be important because we’re still waiting for that backlog, but, you know, we could see it coming soon. So, yeah.
Moan Shah (22:13 – 22:20)
So to wrap up, guys, what’s next? Sam, what’s next for you guys?
Sam Hussain (22:20 – 23:20)
Honestly, look, we know the investment for filing fees is going up. There’s going to be a lot of rush to file. And my advice is really, if you’re really looking to do EB-5, start.
And I always ask the question, have you retained an attorney? It’s very difficult to be getting a good attorney to file your petition. What I advise a lot of investors is really start with your attorney, because once you have your source of funds in place, you’re in a really good position.
Why you’re in a really good position? Because you can run, perhaps, negotiate with the regional centre, the projects. And really, some projects, the slots go within 24 hours.
I’ve had a case where someone actually sent an email and said, we’re going ahead. But they’ve actually gave them a deadline. You have to confirm with 5 p.m. and the slots went. That’s how busy it is.
Mona Shah (23:22 – 23:24)
Raj, any final thoughts about what’s next?
Raj Guru (23:25 – 23:47)
I completely agree with Sam here. Besides having a great project, I think it’s extremely important to have the right attorneys. Because one small miss here or there can completely mess up your file and can cost you months and months of delays.
So it’s very important to go through some of that experience.
Mona Shah (23:47 – 24:14)
I think, very honestly, experience really does matter. And even if, Raj, you haven’t had that much experience in EB-5, you have a tremendous amount of experience in development projects. Because you’ve been wonderful when we ask you, how is that hotel?
And you’re like, I’m going to go anywhere near it Mona. So it’s very useful. And you, Sam, as well.
We’ve been through a lot together these last 12 years.
Sam Hussain (24:15 – 24:23)
Can we talk about EB-5 Direct as well? Because a lot of people are starting to ask me about EB-5 Direct. Or do you want to do another podcast?
Rebecca Singh (24:23 – 24:30)
But it’s just a lot of information. So I think, yeah, we can definitely do another podcast on EB-5 Direct. Sam, I can tell you love the camera.
Rebecca Singh (24:31 – 24:32)
What?
Sam Hussain (24:32 – 24:45)
Listen, they deprive me of such information. And I get to get this information on these podcasts. Not just from an investor.
I even listen to these podcasts just to get information.
Rebecca Singh (24:47 – 24:57)
Well, Sam, I’m going to tell you, though. Please do not give us a client like two days before a deadline. We want you to look out.
Let’s end our holidays this time.
Mona Shah (24:59 – 25:04)
All right. Well, thank you all so much. And we look forward to talking to you all again.
Sam Hussain (25:05 – 25:09)
Thank you very much. No problem. Thank you very much, Mona.
Thank you, Rebecca. Thank you, Raj. Thank you, Rebecca.