In a last minute move, Congress passed a so called “Omnibus” funding Bill to fund the U.S. government for the year 2016, which included a provision to extend the popular EB-5 Investor Visa (Green Card) program until September 30, 2016.
The Bill extends the program without any changes, including allowing investors to continue to receive Green Cards through Regional Centers and business investments in specified areas within the U.S. for $500,000.
This came as a big surprise, since a bipartisan deal had already been agreed on by both Democrats and Republicans to drastically reform the program, including increasing the minimum investment to between $800,000 to $1.2 Million. However, in the end, due to the complexity of new provisions in the proposed measure, Congress opted instead to spend additional time work out the technical details before making the new program permanent.
