Stephen P. Pazan, Esq.
Attorney, Consular Officer, Adjudicator
Steve Pazan is uniquely positioned to serve the EB-5 and investment immigration industry. As an experienced attorney, former Consular Officer, and former USCIS adjudicator, he has a unique and complete perspective on what it takes to be successful before the agencies.
Mr. Pazan was an accomplished civil litigator before joining the U.S. Department of State as a member of the Foreign Service in 2010. While serving as a Consular Officer in Santiago, Bogota, Kyiv and Warsaw, he adjudicated thousands of immigrant and non-immigrant visas in multiple classes, including E “Treaty Trader” and L visas. He later moved to the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service’s Investor Program Office. As an Adjudications Officer, he decided over 500 individual I-526 petitions, evaluating both the source of funds, as well as projects (I-924). He worked on project issues affecting more than 20 different Regional Centers. He issued hundreds of Requests for Evidence, Notices of Intent to Deny, and Denial decisions. In addition, he decided I- 290B applications for USCIS.
In March 2018, Mr. Pazan joined Baker Tilly Capital on a contract basis. Until the regulatory changes in November 2019, he used his insider knowledge to guide Baker Tilly’s industry-leading Source of Funds portfolio, where he drafted or assisted in the preparation of over 150 reports for submission to the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service. He enjoys working directly with investors on strategies for identifying paths of funds that will be acceptable to USCIS.
He has spoken on EB5 and E2 related issues at professional conferences in Brazil, Vietnam, and in the United States, and has published several articles on EB5 and immigration topics.
Before his government service, Mr. Pazan spent over 20 years as a commercial litigation attorney for the Philadelphia law firms Clark Ladner Fortenbaugh & Young, Dilworth Paxon, and Spector Gadon. In that capacity, he was exposed to every aspect of business litigation - the same issues that are critical to almost every EB5 project, such as partnership duties, construction, and fraud. He has tried many jury and bench trials in State and Federal courts.
In addition to his native English, Mr. Pazan speaks Spanish, and courtesy level Russian, Polish and Ukrainian.