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PUSLINCH · EB-5 FIELD GUIDE

What happens to a Puslinch investor's petition if the project changes its plan?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

It depends on when. A material change while the petition is pending can require refiling, because a petition is decided on the facts as they stood when it was filed. After approval the question becomes whether the programme's requirements will still be satisfied. Either way it is a matter for specific advice, not a formality.

Timing decides how serious a change is

Investors treat the project's business plan as background information and it is in fact part of their case. The petition asserts that a qualifying amount has been placed at risk in a particular enterprise which will create a required number of qualifying jobs, and the evidence for that is the plan and its job model. If the enterprise materially changes its site, its tenants, its scale or its job creation model while the petition is pending, the assertion no longer matches reality, and the usual consequence is that the petition must be refiled on the new facts, with the delay and cost that implies.

After approval the analysis is different, because the focus shifts to whether the capital remains sustained and the jobs will be created, and a change that does not undermine those may be manageable. The investor's own filing date therefore determines which conversation they are having, which is why the first question to counsel is a date, not a description.