The job of an EB-5 attorney is often misunderstood.  An EB-5 attorney is not a business attorney.  She is not a securities attorney. She is not a business plan writer or an HR consultant. Yet, a good EB-5 attorney must be proactively engaged with each of these issues.

We were recently retained by an investor who started a business in the U.S. and filed the initial EB-5 petition I-526.  The investor’s due diligence revealed that his prior attorney failed to present the I-526 required evidence to USCIS. Upon our review of the I-526 petition filed, several other red flags were spotted. The company’s business documents were not prepared professionally and lacked some basic elements required by the California Corporations Code. The business plan was not EB-5 compliant and the Company’s HR practices were unconventional.

As an EB-5 attorney, I couldn’t fix all of the identified issues but I explained all the issues to the Client. I explained their impact on the Client’s eligibility for EB-5 – and that’s when the Client understood the importance of having an EB-5 attorney who understands and is willing to review all aspects of an I-526 petition.

I connected the Client with several professionals experienced with EB-5 and, as a team, we began the work of fixing the petition. We filed a supplemental filing with over 200 pages of supporting evidence. Given the USCIS lengthy processing time, some time will pass before we know whether our “supplemental filing” is successful.  But the Client now knows he has demonstrated his eligibility for the immigration benefit sought and hopefully USCIS does not punish him for the less-than stellar first application.