I recently attended the EB5 Investors Magazine Conference in Los Angeles and the takeaways from this national event are significant. The mood of the conference, held in late July, was somewhat mixed given the significant slowdown in the EB-5 industry and the substantial reduction in the number of new transactions. What was most telling about the EB-5 industry is the fact that EB5 Investors Magazine now publishes two different programs: the traditional EB-5 program and a new global initiative that focuses on immigration opportunities outside of EB-5.

The conference gave me an opportunity to speak with foreign agents, who help connect EB-5 investors with U.S.-based EB-5 projects, as well as professionals in the industry and their feedback was not good. They said we are now facing an approximately six-year retrogression in Vietnam. According to one of the agents I spoke with, the retrogression is having a serious impact on that market, given the fact that the potential investors are not used to the retrogression concept unlike in China where retrogression is expected. Retrogression occurs when EB-5 applications from a country surpass the quota of EB-5 visas assigned to that nation and investors have to wait several years for their Green Card.