The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Report regarding the “Investigation into Employee Complaints about Management of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ EB-5 Program” was released March 24,
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Inspector General
The Office of the Inspector General Releases Report Critical of the USCIS Administration of the EB-5 Regional Center Program
By Laura Foote Reiff on
Posted in Inspector General
On December 12, 2013, the Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) for the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) released a long awaited report analyzing the United States Citizenship and Immigration…
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Senate Confirms USCIS Director Mayorkas for DHS Deputy Position and President Obama Announces His Pick to Replace Him
By Laura Foote Reiff on
Posted in Inspector General, USCIS
The U.S. Senate confirmed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas to be the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security by a straight partisan vote of 54-41. President Obama…
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U.S. Senate Confirms Jeh Johnson as Secretary of Homeland Security
By Nataliya Dominguez on
Posted in General, Inspector General
On December 16, 2013, the U.S. Senate confirmed Jeh C. Johnson, the former general counsel of the Pentagon, to lead the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a resounding…
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Investigating Director Mayorkas and the Inspector General Investigating Mr. Mayorakas – The Impact on the EB-5 Regional Center Program
By Laura Foote Reiff on
Posted in EB-5 Program, Inspector General
As previously discussed this Fall, Inspector General Investigations and whistle-blower driven reviews by Congressional Oversight Committees are very commonplace in Washington, D.C. The nomination of Alejandro Mayorkas, the current…
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Insights on EB-5 Adjudications in the Shadow of Inspector General and Congressional Reviews
By Laura Foote Reiff on
Inspector General (IG) investigations and whistle-blower driven reviews by Congressional Oversight committees are not new and are commonplace in the federal bureaucracy of the U.S. The recent publicity surrounding Alejandro…
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Update on EB-5 Processing from USCIS
By Jennifer Hermansky on
Kate Kalmykov, Alissa Brodie and I attended the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association Mexico City EB-5 Conference, “Show Me the Jobs,” on May 2, 2013 in Miami, Florida. The lunch…
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USCIS Releases Long Awaited Draft EB-5 Policy Memorandum
By Kate Kalmykov on
Posted in Inspector General, USCIS Public Engagement
In November of 2011, and later on in January of 2012, pursuant to a directive by USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas USCIS issued two draft policy memos meant to consolidate all EB-5 guidance into a single overarching policy memorandum. The EB-5 community has been awaiting a third iteration of that memorandum for over a year and on February 14, 2013, USCIS issued a new version meant to include stakeholder comments and policy changes enacted over the course of the past year. The Service will accept comments from the public on the draft guidance until April 1, 2013.…
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My EB-5 Wishlist for 2013
By Kate Kalmykov on
1. Faster processing times for EB-5 related petitions across the board. For the better portion of 2012, USCIS has repeatedly stated at EB-5 Stakeholder events that their target processing times…
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USCIS Announces Creation of New “EB-5 Program Office”
By Kate Kalmykov on
In the following message publicized today by the USCIS, Director Alejandro Mayorkas announced the creation of a new EB-5 Program office, as well as the implementation of a special review…
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