A Real Witches’ Brew: Vietnamese Seek to Use Cryptocurrency for EB-5

The EB-5 (immigrant investor) program, already scandal-ridden and just lately suspended by Congress for 9 months for wanted reforms, simply took one other (self-inflicted) blow.

An EB-5-supporting legislation agency has filed a federal court docket case with a witches’ brew of elements together with advocating these doubtful coverage positions:

• Controversial cryptocurrency, comparable to that concerned within the FTX and Silvergate monetary collapses, ought to be used within the EB-5 program by international traders;
• By implication, even borrowed cryptocurrency ought to rely when shopping for one’s approach into U.S. citizenship;
• Legal guidelines of Vietnam in search of to keep away from capital flight needs to be skirted; and
• Whereas the lawsuit requires governmental transparency, the reporting of the swimsuit doesn’t present a reputation for the case or tell us the place it was filed.

Or, you would possibly say, simply one other day within the shrinking, self-destructive EB-5 program.

As background, after years of scandals, often involving U.S. residents in search of to fleece immigrant traders of the identical background, Congress paused its authorization of the principle a part of this system in an effort to pull collectively a reform package deal, which got here into impact about 12 months in the past. At the moment, aliens with no different declare for immigration standing than their would-be investments, can, with a stake of a minimum of $800,000 made by USCIS-designated regional facilities, safe a family-sized set of non permanent inexperienced playing cards, which might blossom into everlasting inexperienced playing cards if the cash stays invested.

Apparently — and this was information to me — our authorities used to simply accept cryptocurrency investments, however has since had second ideas about such investments.

In the previous few days, an American legislation agency (that we, charitably, is not going to identify) has filed a Freedom of Data Act (FOIA) swimsuit in opposition to USCIS in search of to study extra concerning the (obvious) destructive resolution on the usage of cryptocurrency within the EB-5 program.

Over and above the unnecessary linking of a doubtful immigration scheme to a doubtful funding scheme, the attorneys have additionally:

• Reminded the general public that aliens can use borrowed cash to purchase their strategy to citizenship by linking the principle article to an earlier one on that topic; and
• Needlessly linked the present article to the Vietnamese neighborhood, reminding some Individuals that we as soon as have been concerned in a battle in that a part of the world.

FOIA lawsuits are moderately widespread — we at CIS usually have interaction in them with DHS — and there’s no must contain any ethnic group in a single’s seek for USCIS info. But when a legislation agency is so tone-deaf that it can not see the issues with enlisting cryptocurrency for its purchasers’ trigger, it might make different errors as nicely.