As of today, the US Government is still in partial shutdown after 18 days, with President Trump addressing the US nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday evening. He stopped short of declaring an emergency that would have enabled him to by-pass the house of Congress, but he has escalated the rows with Democratic leaders over funding for the proposed wall on the US/Mexican border, with Democrats accusing Trump of ‘manufacturing a crisis’.

The net result for the EB-5 Regional Center Program is that no new applications are being accepted until further notice. This has led to many investors wondering what steps to take during the ongoing shutdown.

For investors looking at the more expensive Direct EB-5 Program, this has not been affected as it is permanent program. But for those looking at a Regional EB-5 Program, the advice is to still proceed with preparing your applications. The general consensus is that there will probably be only a short-term resolution to the current shutdown, so potential EB-5 investors may only have a few weeks to prepare their I-526 Petition to file. Therefore they should look for an EB-5 attorney to help advise on which regional centres to consider and to prepare their I-526 Petition documents in anticipation of the Regional EB-5 Program reopening even if only for a few weeks.