Thursday, March 12, 2015

Counting EB-5 Regional Center Jobs Outside RC Geographic Boundaries

(Source: Phil Cohen) When formulating plans for the development of an EB-5 regional center, one should bear in mind that indirect jobs outside of the regional center's declared geographic area can be counted toward the EB-5 job creation requirement, as long as they are based on reasonable economic methodologies.

From the memorandum: “indirect jobs can qualify and be counted as jobs attributable to a regional center, based on reasonable economic methodologies, even if they are located outside of the geographical boundaries of a regional center.”

This clarification, which came about in the USCIS EB-5 Policy Memorandum of May 30th, 2013, has simplified some of the complications that people had been experiencing in relation to claiming indirect job creation when circumstances (and economic modelling) required that these jobs be outside the regional center's declared geographic area of focus.

As indicated in the memorandum, the key is to ensure that the justification for these jobs be based on reasonable economic methodologies.  Therefore if one is planning to claim jobs outside of a regional center's geographic area of focus, a conversation should be had early on with the economist on the team.  Furthermore, it is helpful to weave this justification into one's EB-5 business plan in order to present to USCIS a fully-rounded picture of the business as it pertains to EB-5 requirements.

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Phil Cohen is the founder and President of Strategic Element, a company that focuses on developing regional centers, EB-5 business plans, economic impact reports, feasibility studies and custom 'direct' EB-5 projects for its clients (www.strategicelementconsulting.com).