COSTA MESA, CA—Bridge lending has becomenecessary to developers of EB-5 projects, which are also intriguing othersegments of the lending landscape, Adam Salis,part of the real estate and land use practice group atManatt, Phelps & Phillips, tells GlobeSt.comexclusively. As EB-5 becomes more popular for foreign investorsinterested in US real estate, finding time-effective ways to bringthe money to developers of these projects has become necessary. Wespoke with Salis about what he's seeing in the EB-5 landscape andwhy bridge lending has become such a crucial piece.

GlobeSt.com: Regarding the current EB-5 landscape,what are you seeing?

Salis: I've been most active in thepiece of EB-5 that deals with bridge lending. That has come aboutas a result of delays in getting United States Citizenshipand Immigration Services approval for the initialpetitions filed by these immigrant investors. The first step isthey file a petition with the government called a FormI-526. The government is currently taking about 12 to 15months to process these petitions. Under the terms of the projectdocuments, typically those monies the immigrants come into thecountry with are held in escrow with a bank until all the petitionsare approved and then given to the developer for project costs. Butthey need money to pay for their construction drawings, and theyneed to get going on their projects, so having the money in escrowdoesn't help.