Announced on December 17, 2024, Kim was awarded the 2024 Top 5 Economists badge from EB5 Investors Magazine.
Vermilion Consulting would like to thank EB5 Investors Magazine for their recognition and continued support of our work. We take pride in our business, and strive to provide customers with reasonable results and industry insight.
Ian and Chris were welcomed on Mona Shah’s podcast, EB-5 Investment Voice on November 27, 2023.
Wondering if those TEA maps you use online are accurate to base a project or investment on, or why the TEA data changes every December and April? Maybe, your burning question has to do with placement of job positions and how exactly remote or hybrid jobs count towards job creation in a TEA location?
Join EB-5 Investment Voice’s Mona Shah and Rebecca Singh as they ask these questions and more with our special guests Chris Atteberry and Ian Perry from Vermilion Consulting!
Experts in the field of data analysis, Chris and Ian specialize in EB-5 compliant applied economics and impact analysis guiding hundreds of projects worth tens of billions of dollars invested.
In this episode, Mona and Rebecca pull back the curtain on what economists do, their vital role in the EB-5 industry, and how it is projects get designated as rural or TEA.
Announced on September 5, 2023, Kim was awarded the 2023 Top 5 Economists badge from EB5 Investors Magazine.
Vermilion Consulting would like to thank EB5 Investors Magazine for their recognition and continued support of our work. We take pride in our business, and strive to provide customers with reasonable results and industry insight.
Announced on October 18, 2022, Kim was awarded the 2022 Top 5 Economists badge from EB5 Investors Magazine.
What do you think about the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022?
I’m relieved that Congress has finally authorized the regional center program for an extended period. Although some of the language in the bill could have been worded more clearly, I believe we now have a set of workable rules for our industry. My hope at this point is that USCIS steps up and provides clarification with a new, well-considered regulation, and that the adjudication process begins to move again. After that, I hope Congress can work out the visa situation and put the EB-5 program on the same footing as the other immigration programs.
What new types of projects and trends are you seeing in the EB-5 industry?
Since the passage of the Act, many clients have approached us to help them apply for new regional center geographies that are considerably larger than what they had before. This makes sense on two levels. First, the larger geographies allow the regional centers to capture rural areas they might not have considered important in the past. The new, legislative emphasis on rural projects is certain to encourage this approach across the industry. Second, with the creation of the “integrity fund” and its large annual fee per regional center, it’s wise to request as much geography as possible.
Kim was Welcomed onto the Investment Migration Report Podcast Co-hosted by Abteen Vaziri and Preeya Malik.
Podcast aired on September 30th, 2021.
Abteen, Preeya, and Kim discuss topics ranging from Kim’s historical experience as the former chief economist of USCIS to the ongoing changes within the industry — including the recent changes to TEA rules.
Announced on May 10, 2021, Kim was awarded the 2020 Top 5 Economists badge from EB5 Investors Magazine. Due to the pandemic, the Top 5 Economists award was combined between 2020 and 2021.
Vermilion Consulting would like to thank EB5 Investors Magazine for their recognition and continued support of our work. We take pride in our business, and strive to provide customers with reasonable results and industry insight.
Kim was welcomed on Mona Shah’s podcast, EB-5 Investment Voice on May 31, 2018.
In the EB-5 program, the creation of ten jobs is perhaps the most important step in ensuring an investor receives a green card for herself and her family. However, counting jobs is not always as simple as looking at a payroll report, and it takes a skilled economist to accurately count projected direct and indirect job creation in a regional center project. On this episode, Mona and Mark are joined by senior economists Kimberly Atteberry (Vermilion Consulting), Scott W. Barnhart (Barnhart Economic Services) and David R. Evans (Evans, Carroll & Associates) who specialize in preparing EB-5 economic impact studies for EB-5 projects using a variety of job counting methodologies. Listen in to hear how the Targeted Employment Area (TEA) methodology was changed by the new regulations (in effect as of November 21, 2019), which type of job counting methodology will produce the highest number of jobs and how the pandemic may affect TEA classifications in the future.
Announced on April 8, 2020, Kim was awarded the 2019 Top 5 Economists badge from EB5 Investors Magazine.
Vermilion Consulting would like to thank EB5 Investors Magazine for their recognition and continued support of our work. We take pride in our business, and strive to provide customers with reasonable results and industry insight.
Announced on July 22nd in 2018, Kim was awarded the 2018 Top 5 Economists badge from EB5 Investors Magazine.
WHY DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE EB-5 INDUSTRY?
In 2009, I was hired by USCIS as the agency's first economist. After a short time there, I was asked to launch and lead a new division within USCIS focused on economic and statistical analysis. While my duties ranged from procurement oversight to regulatory analysis to special projects for leadership, my mostinteresting task was to train and advise EB-5 adjudicators on economic impact studies, business plan review and unemployment analysis. Once I left government employment, it made sense to incorporate EB-5 work into my overall consulting practice.
WHAT NEW TYPES OF PROJECTS AND TRENDS ARE YOU SEEING IN THE EB-5 INDUSTRY?
Given recent uncertainties in our industry, I have seen a shift toward pursuing rural projects and obtaining approval for regional centers that include extensive rural areas. More importantly, since the SEC has started to enforce securities laws within the EB-5 industry, and USCIS has begun to terminate unlawful and unproductive regional centers, it seems the industry is shedding many entities that probably should not have been in EB-5 in the first place. As a result, project quality has improved significantly as well-educated professionals enter the industry.
Kim was welcomed on Mona Shah’s podcast, EB-5 Investment Voice on May 31, 2018.
In this episode, Mona welcomes Kimberly Atteberry, President of Vermilion Consulting and a former Chief Economist of USCIS from 2009 to 2011, to demystify the economic side of EB-5, the perceived risk of being among the last investors to sign on to a project, and the benefits of using the Regional Center model for a standalone project.
Recently, I was surprised to hear Nicholas Colucci tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that USCIS does not possess the authority to terminate Regional Centers that break laws. More specifically, Mr. Colucci testified:
“Authorizing USCIS to Act Quickly on Criminal and Security Concerns: USCIS lacks explicit statutory authority to terminate a regional center for criminal or security concerns. Under current regulations, USCIS may terminate a regional center’s designation if the regional center is no longer promoting economic growth or fails to submit required information to USCIS (on an annual basis, on a cumulative basis, and/or as otherwise requested) on Form I-924A. Criminal activity or national security concerns are not provided as a basis to terminate a regional center. Currently, in instances where USCIS has criminal or security concerns about a regional center, USCIS has to either demonstrate these concerns are related to the regional center’s failure to promote economic growth or demonstrate the regional center’s failure to promote economic growth separately from any criminal or security concerns, which is an unnecessarily lengthy and circuitous route to terminate a regional center.”
I believe that USCIS has the authority right now to terminate Regional Centers involved in illegal activities, and I will prove my point in this position paper.
As an experienced developer, you can identify a good project when one comes along. You look for something feasible, legal, profitable, and ethical. However, you might not realize that your good project might be a poor fit within the framework of the EB-5 immigrant investor program. A good EB-5 project focuses first on job-creating potential, a variable that is probably not part of your usual vetting checklist, and one that is not readily measurable. This article aims to provide you with some road signs on your way to a project that makes both good business sense and good EB-5 sense.
Recently, proposed legislation has shown that many on Capitol Hill undervalue or misunderstand the concept of model-derived jobs in the EB-5 context. This misunderstanding stems from two sources: the fitful evolution of USCIS’ job-creation policy and a general lack of trust for economic impact modeling. The purpose of this article to inform readers about both of these sources of confusion, including the quality and limitations of economic modeling in the EB-5 context. My goal is to help provide a solid basis for future legislative drafting. The EB-5 industry needs thorough, well-considered legislation and regulation in order to maintain integrity and create jobs for Americans.
As the former Chief Economist of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), I need to
comment on the 10 September 2015 Wall Street Journal article entitled “U.S. Visa-for-Cash
Funds Luxury Towers.” I hope the concepts outlined in this White Paper will also be considered
by Members of Congress who are weighing additional legislation concerning EB-5 Targeted
Employment Areas (TEAs).
