Who does what

Certifier

Also called certifying official.

A certifier is the person in a position of substantive authority for the management or operations of a regional center, new commercial enterprise, affiliated job-creating entity or issuer of securities, such as its principal executive officer or principal financial officer, who knows its EB-5 compliance policies and signs the certifications the statute requires.

What it decides

8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(D)(iii) supplies the definition, and three filings turn on it. USCIS may not approve a regional center designation or an amendment to one unless the center certifies, to the best of the certifier's knowledge and after a due diligence investigation, that it and the parties associated with it comply with federal and state securities law. Each project application carries a matching certification from the regional center and from any issuer of securities offered to investors. The annual statement then reissues that certification and adds ones on the bona fides of the persons involved, on the written agreements with promoters, and on the accuracy of the accounting of investor capital, fees collected and jobs created. The stakes sit on the signature: a certification containing an untrue statement of material fact, or omitting one needed to keep it from misleading, lets USCIS suspend or terminate the designation, and the Director must sanction a regional center that knowingly submits one.

Governed by 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(D)(iii) for the definition; subparagraph (I), Compliance with securities laws, clause (ii) subclauses (I) and (II), for the designation and annual securities certifications; subparagraph (F)(i)(VI) for the project application certification; subparagraph (G)(i), items (I) to (III) and (VI)(hh), for the annual statement certifications; subparagraph (I)(iv)(III) and subparagraph (G)(iii)(I)(aa) for the consequences of an untrue certification. USCIS Policy Manual, 6 USCIS-PM G.4(B), lists the securities certification among the Form I-956 evidence. The forms carrying these certifications are I-956, I-956F and I-956G.

Related terms

Form I-956Form I-956, Application for Regional Center Designation, is the application an economic unit files to be designated by USCIS as an EB-5 regional center under INA 203(b)(5)(E), or to amend a designation it already holds.
Form I-956FForm I-956F, Application for Approval of an Investment in a Commercial Enterprise, is the application a designated regional center must file for each particular investment offering before any investor may petition on that offering.
Form I-956GForm I-956G, Regional Center Annual Statement, is the yearly filing every designated regional center must submit to support its continued eligibility for designation, accounting for investor capital, project progress, fees collected from investors and required compliance certifications.
Bona fides certificationBona fides certification is the integrity screen at 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(H) that bars whole categories of person from being involved with a regional center, new commercial enterprise or job-creating entity, together with the attestation each such person files on Form I-956H so USCIS can run background and criminal record checks against it.
Regional centerA regional center is an economic unit, public or private, that USCIS has designated to sponsor pooled EB-5 investment within a defined, contiguous and limited geographic area, and it is the only route on which a petition may count indirect and induced jobs.

Checked against primary sources on 10 August 2026. Back to the glossary