Jobs
Matter of Ho
Also called In re Ho.
Matter of Ho is the 1998 EB-5 precedent decision that set the minimum contents of the comprehensive business plan a petition must carry when the ten jobs have not been created yet, and it is the decision behind the phrase a Matter of Ho compliant business plan, which USCIS itself uses to separate an actual project from a hypothetical one.
What it decides
In re Ho, Interim Decision 3362, 22 I&N Dec. 206, decided 31 July 1998 by the Associate Commissioner, Examinations, reversed a petition the service center had approved. On the business plan, at 213, it reads 8 CFR 204.6(j)(4)(i)(B) as requiring a plan detailed enough for the agency to draw reasonable inferences about job creation rather than accept conclusory assertions, and it lists the minimum: a description of the business, its products or services and objectives; a market analysis naming competing businesses with their strengths, weaknesses and pricing and describing the target customers; the required permits and licenses obtained; the production process, materials and supply sources; any supply or distribution contracts; the marketing strategy; the organizational structure and personnel experience; a staffing timetable with job descriptions for every position; and sales, cost and income projections with their bases. Most importantly the plan must be credible. The same decision holds that establishing and capitalizing an enterprise and signing a lease do not put capital at risk, and USCIS still cites it for that.
Where this is explained properly
Pages here that go into matter of ho rather than mentioning it.
Related terms
- Ten full-time jobsTen full-time jobs for qualifying employees is the EB-5 job creation requirement: each investor's capital must produce its own ten, which is the number an offering's economic report has to show for every investor it takes in.
- Economic impact reportAn economic impact report is the economist's analysis that turns a project's spending, revenues or direct hiring into an estimated job total, and the project application a regional center files for each investment offering must include one. The statute and USCIS call it a credible economic analysis.
- Comprehensive business planA comprehensive business plan is the document showing that a new commercial enterprise will need at least ten qualifying employees within the next two years, with approximate hiring dates; a standalone investor files it with the petition, while a regional center offering now carries it in the regional center's Form I-956F project application instead.
- Matter of IzummiMatter of Izummi is the 1998 EB-5 precedent decision, thirteen holdings long, that treats an agreement giving the investor a right to be repaid as a debt arrangement barred by 8 CFR 204.6(e), so the money was never a contribution of capital and was never at risk.
- Material changeA material change is a change in the facts after a petition is filed whose changed circumstances would have a natural tendency to influence, or are predictably capable of affecting, the decision. Because eligibility is fixed at the time of filing, a material change arising before the investor obtains conditional residence makes the petition unapprovable rather than amendable.
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