New Bill Passed for Per-Country Cap Elimination

The U.S. House of Representatives approved H.R. 1044, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019, that eliminates per-country quotas for all employment-based immigrant visa petitions.

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So how does this impact the EB-5 program? Well, the bill includes language helpful to the program relating to a transition period for implementation. For example, this bill eliminates the 7% cap for employment-based immigrant visas, and also removes an offset that reduced the number of visas for individuals from China.

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The bill also establishes transition rules for employment-based visas from FY '20 - FY '22, by reserving a percentage of EB-5 visas for individuals not from the two countries with the largest number of recipients of such visas. Of the unreserved visas, not more than 85% shall be allotted to immigrants from any single country.