COSTA MESA, CA—Bridge lending has become necessary to developers of EB-5 projects, which are also intriguing other segments of the lending landscape, Adam Salis, part of the real estate and land use practice group at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, tells GlobeSt.com exclusively. As EB-5 becomes more popular for foreign investors interested in US real estate, finding time-effective ways to bring the money to developers of these projects has become necessary. We spoke with Salis about what he's seeing in the EB-5 landscape and why 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 the piece of EB-5 that deals with bridge lending. That has come about as a result of delays in getting United States Citizenship and Immigration Services approval for the initial petitions filed by these immigrant investors. The first step is they file a petition with the government called a Form I-526. The government is currently taking about 12 to 15 months to process these petitions. Under the terms of the project documents, typically those monies the immigrants come into the country with are held in escrow with a bank until all the petitions are approved and then given to the developer for project costs. But they need money to pay for their construction drawings, and they need to get going on their projects, so having the money in escrow doesn't help.