North AmericaPodcast

Fighting City Hall and Winning: Matt “Sue ‘Em” Galati on Making the US Govt. Follow its Own Rules


Our guest on the Mobility Standard podcast this week was Mr. Matt Galati, an American immigration lawyer who has made a big name for himself as one of the world’s foremost EB-5 litigation attorneys. We spoke to him about how, and why, he sues various departments of the US government on behalf of his EB-5 clients, as well as why he’s been so successful at it.

We also had Matt explain, in layman’s terms, what’s been going on with the EB-5 regional center program over the last couple of years. Why does the price keep switching back and forth? Why was the regional center program not reauthorized? What legal or regulatory events and dates should we be keeping an eye on to understand what might happen to the program in the next few months? What if there isn’t any reauthorization?

We also spoke about the nature of the dissonance between the EB-5 program’s two main lobby groups, the IIUSA and the EB-5 Investment Coalition. What, specifically, do they disagree about and will they eventually be able to coordinate their work for the benefit of the program?

Now that there’s no regional center program, what are American EB-5 attorneys doing to fill their time? Are they pivoting to other programs? Focusing on different types of visas?

“We’re a nation of laws, in the United States. Litigation is quite common. And while it might seem a little new to immigration, there is an enormous amount of case law […] We’ve seen an explosion in lawsuits. Not just for myself and my practice but across the board. […] One of the tactics of the previous administration was to purposely slow down the awarding of immigration benefits.”

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Matt says he believes it was the work of immigration lawyers like himself and his colleagues in suing the government was what made processing times recover last year.

“By filing numerous lawsuits because the agency wasn’t doing anything in 2019 throughout most of the year, we finally got the agency moving again.”

Listen to the podcast through the player below or search for “Mobility Standard” in Spotify or Apple Podcasts.


Christian Henrik Nesheim AdministratorKeymaster

Christian Henrik Nesheim is the founder and editor of Investment Migration Insider, the #1 magazine – online or offline – for residency and citizenship by investment. He is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, documentary producer, and writer on the subject of investment migration, whose work is cited in the Economist, Bloomberg, Fortune, Forbes, Newsweek, and Business Insider. Norwegian by birth, Christian has spent the last 16 years in the United States, China, Spain, and Portugal.

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