Risk and compliance

Debarment and suspension

Also called debarment, suspension, permanent bar, sanctions, notice of intent to sanction, graduated sanctions.

Debarment and suspension are the EB-5 sanctions the USCIS Director imposes on a non-compliant regional center or the individuals behind it: a suspension is temporary and lifts if the violation is cured, while a debarment is a permanent bar, and both sit on one graduated ladder that also carries fines and termination of the regional center's designation.

What it decides

Under 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(G)(iii) the Director shall sanction a regional center that fails to file its annual statement, knowingly submits an untrue statement of material fact, or acts inconsistently with its designation. Clause (II) sets four graduated rungs: fines of up to 10 percent of the capital alien investors put into the new commercial enterprises or job-creating entities directly involved, never paid from investor capital and paid into the EB-5 Integrity Fund; temporary suspension, liftable once the violation is cured; a permanent bar on associated individuals or entities; and termination of designation. Separate permanent bars under (N)(iii) and (O)(ii) reach any knowing participant, an alien investor included, where an entity is terminated for public safety, national security, fraud or criminal misuse, each on a discretionary preponderance finding. USCIS issues a notice of intent to sanction, usually allows 30 days to respond, and in practice levies only suspension, debarment or termination. A sanction is appealable to the AAO under (P)(i)(V) and becomes final when the appeal window closes or the appeal is decided.

Governed by 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(G)(iii): (I) makes sanctions mandatory on a non-compliant regional center and (II) sets the four graduated rungs, fines capped at 10 percent of capital in the directly involved new commercial enterprises or job-creating entities, temporary suspension liftable on cure, permanent bar and termination of designation. The associated-person permanent bars are (N)(iii) for public safety or national security and (O)(ii) for fraud, misrepresentation or criminal misuse, both on a preponderance finding of knowing participation; related suspend-or-bar powers sit at (H)(iv), (I)(iv) and (K)(ii), and the good faith investor rescue that USCIS preserves by debarring rather than terminating an enterprise is (M). Appeal of any sanction is (P)(i)(V) and (P)(ii) bars judicial review before administrative appeals are exhausted. The notice of intent to sanction, the 30-day response, the USCIS practice of levying only suspension, debarment or termination, and the reading of enterprise debarment come from the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part G, Chapter 8, Section A (policy alert 16 July 2024, last technical update 26 February 2025); the statute states none of those.

Where this is explained properly

Pages here that go into debarment and suspension rather than mentioning it.

Related terms

Regional center terminationRegional center termination is USCIS ending a center's designation, after which the center may not solicit, generate or promote EB-5 investors or otherwise take part in the program, and its investors lose their petitions 180 days after USCIS notifies them unless they move to another center or another new commercial enterprise.
Good faith investor protectionGood faith investor protection is the rule at 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(M) that keeps an EB-5 petition or conditional residence alive after USCIS terminates the regional center or debars the new commercial enterprise or job creating entity, provided the investor cures within 180 days of being notified and was not a knowing participant in the conduct behind it.
Administrative Appeals OfficeThe Administrative Appeals Office, or AAO, is the USCIS body that reviews denials of EB-5 investor petitions, regional center applications and project approvals, looking at the whole record afresh rather than deferring to the officer below, and no court may take up an EB-5 determination until its review has been exhausted.
EB-5 Integrity FundA US Treasury fund created by 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(J) to pay for EB-5 oversight, financed by an annual fee on every designated regional center plus $1,000 collected with each initial Form I-526E.
Threats to the national interestThreats to the national interest is subparagraph (N) of the EB-5 statute, which obliges the Secretary of Homeland Security to deny or revoke any EB-5 petition, application or benefit, and to end the resident status it produced, once the Secretary decides in discretion that approval would be contrary to the national interest for reasons relating to public safety or national security.

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