Patricia Moulton, secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD), and Susan L Donegan, commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation (DFR), announced today that DFR has agreed to assist ACCD in providing oversight of EB-5 projects. EB-5 is federal program that ACCD has been approved to administer in Vermont. The EB-5 program was designed to grant permanent residence visas to foreign investors and their immediate family members in exchange for the new economic development and job creation.
Under the interagency MOU, ACCD will evaluate the benefits of a proposed project in light of the state’s overall economic development strategies. Business proposals supported by ACCD will be forwarded to DFR to verify compliance with securities regulations. DFR’s review will include a careful analysis of business plans and economic studies before approving the project for seeking EB-5 investments. As projects go forward, DFR will monitor their progress and oversee ongoing compliance by requiring quarterly reports, conducting site visits, reviewing documentation, and even auditing as needed.
As a result of the tremendous growth of Vermont’s EB-5 program since its beginning in 1997, ACCD last year reached out to DFR for assistance in determining securities law compliance of EB-5 projects which have grown in number and complexity. ACCD will continue to coordinate the overall program with the federal government, as well as marketing and promoting Vermont’s statewide EB-5 Regional Center worldwide.
“The extraordinary growth in the EB-5 program nationally has led to closer scrutiny by state and federal agencies, particularly related to securities aspect of the projects,” said Moulton. “With the new and significant regulatory requirements, we realized it was essential to enlist DFR’s financial expertise in selecting and monitoring projects. The unique collaborative effort between ACCD and DFR will place Vermont’s Regional Center head and shoulders above all of the approximately 600 other regional centers. This will also allow us to significantly increase marketing and promotional activities which is critical in the highly competitive market for EB-5 investment. This is similar to how ACCD and DFR share responsibility for Vermont’s gold-standard captive insurance program.”
Donegan said she is pleased to join forces with ACCD on EB-5 matters.
“ACCD and DFR have very different functions when considering EB-5 projects,” she said, “so working together we can both support Vermont’s Regional Center as well as provide a broader range of supervision and oversight of selected projects.”
ACCD and DFR finalized the MOU on December 22, 2014, and notified the US Citizenship and Immigration Services last month. DFR’s collaboration with ACCD covers both already-approved projects and new applications.
Source: ACCD 2.19.2015