#18: Matt Galati, Ishaan Khanna, and Suzanne Lazicki on the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act

IMI Podcasts

This week, our three guests on the Mobility Standard podcast were Matthew Galati, Principal of The Galati Law Firm, Ishaan Khanna, President of the American Immigrant Investor Alliance, and EB-5 expert, business plan writer, and author of the world's leading EB-5 blog, Suzanne Lazicki.

In this episode, the three EB-5 experts engaged in an in-depth discussion of the recently passed EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act, which Galati referred to as "the most fundamental visa reform we have seen in the American immigration system since at least 1990."

Topics under discussion included:

• Who is happy about how the bill turned out, who isn't, and why;
• Why the new bill could create a great deal of chaos in the absence of further guidance and regulations;
• What is necessary to get the program up and running again, and how long it will take;
• How the reserved visa categories - or set-asides - will work and whether they are fair to existing applicants.

"So much needs to be done here in order to get the program off the ground again for new filings," says Galati about the consequences of the comprehensive and complex new legislation. "[...] It'll take a long time for this new program to be stable. I don't know if that gets done before 2027, frankly."

Lazicki agrees with Galati's five-year horizon for program stabilization:

"Just based on how much is going to have to be figured out, and who has to figure it out […] the policy manual will need to be revised, we'll need some new regulations, we'll need all new forms for all of the form types, the Investor Program Office […] are going to have to get their people trained in the new law. All of those things take a long time to do."