What Happened at JTC and Saul Ewing’s 2024 EB-5 Conference?

Law360 covered the event in an article featuring JTC’s Jill Jones.

October 24th, 2024 saw JTC and Saul Ewing LLP’s Third Annual Advanced EB-5 Conference in Miami, Florida. The event was covered by Law360 in a recent article that discussed some of the key issues facing the EB-5 industry, many of which were major topics of conversation at the conference.

The article, “EB-5 Industry Eyes Legislative Fixes To USCIS Struggles,” details how the industry was strengthened by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA), specifically the law’s integrity measures that improved security and transparency in EB-5.

“I think we’ve seen a lot of people who were not in it for the long haul step aside, and you’ve seen those who’ve been in it for years move to make it institutional, really step up and do some wonderful projects and put out to the market that there’s a best practice here and a way to do things that’s going to give EB-5 the good name that it deserves,” said JTC’s Jill Jones to Law360.

The article also covers how the addition of reserved visas for rural and high-unemployment projects has affected EB-5 visa demand, particularly from China and India. The conference included additional discussion of EB-5’s place in real estate capital stacks and how that has shifted over time.

“Where pre-RIA, we might have seen projects that were nearly 100% EB-5 money … now, we see that be a smaller piece,” said Jones. “And we’re seeing the investors demanding that developers have skin in the game. It gives them a comfort level in the projects they’re choosing … and it makes EB-5 still an important piece and an alternative funding source that’s valuable, but it’s not the main one.”

The article goes on to discuss H.R. 7220, the EB-5 Regional Center Program Advisory Committee Authorization Act, and the need for better communication from USCIS. The event has generated a great deal of excitement, and JTC has been thrilled with the response from attendees who understand the importance of EB-5 and the need to work together as an industry to improve the program.