SBA has provided additional guidance on the steps lenders need to take to obtain verification of the status of any beneficial owner of an applicant business who is not a U.S. citizen or U.S. national. Per those instructions, lenders must upload the required documents into E-Tran and then notify the Sacramento Loan Processing Center (SLPC) [[email protected]] of the need for verification of the immigrant status of any beneficial owner(s) of the applicant company. That notification will include the borrower/principal name(s), lender name and E-Tran application number. The SLPC will process the request, update the clearance indicator in E-Tran, and email the results to the lender. The new guidance does not indicate how long this process is expected to take.
Please see SBA Notice 5000-865754, Policy updates to comply with Executive Order 14159 regarding citizenship requirements for obtaining 7(a) and 504 loans (effective March 7, 2025) for complete information regarding the eligibility requirements that apply when any beneficial owner of an applicant company is not a U.S. citizen or U.S. national.
Also, to clarify a common question, please note that in accordance with the notice (p. 3):
Businesses owned by Naturalized Citizens are eligible, and the naturalized citizens are not subject to any special restrictions or requirements. No further status verification is required if an individual is reflected as a U.S. Citizen on the SBA application.
NAGGL expects that SBA will cover the new eligibility requirements and this new process during the April 22 7(a) Connect Quarterly Update. To help SBA address lender concerns during that presentation, please send any questions regarding these requirements to naggl.org/AskNAGGL. NAGGL will share the information with SBA without attribution to the sender.
