Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act: Reporting Requirements, Avoiding Unintentional Violations
Covered Interests in "Agricultural Land," Broadly Defined Foreign Persons, Steep Penalties
A live 90-minute premium CLE video webinar with interactive Q&A
This CLE webinar will guide practitioners through the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) and its reporting requirements for foreign persons with an ownership interest in U.S. agricultural land. The panel will discuss AFIDA's broad definition of what constitutes "agricultural land" as well as the low threshold for who is considered a "foreign person" to educate counsel on who may unknowingly be within the scope of coverage and could be subject to steep penalties for noncompliance. The panel will also address interaction with other federal and state laws and best practices for compliance.
Outline
- History of AFIDA and legislation governing foreign ownership of U.S. real estate
- Navigating AFIDA
- Foreign persons
- Agricultural land
- Covered ownership interests in agricultural land and exemptions
- Reporting requirements and deadlines
- Penalties
- Other considerations
- Interaction with other federal and state laws requiring disclosure of foreign ownership interests in U.S. real estate
- Best practices for compliance
Benefits
The panel will review these and other important considerations:
- How may AFIDA's broad definition of "agricultural land" require reporting for land that is not purchased for agricultural purposes?
- How does the statute's definition of "foreign person" encompass domestic entities?
- Under what circumstances may a domestic entity become a "foreign person"?
- What are the statute's reporting requirements?
- What are the penalties for noncompliance?
- How does AFIDA interact with other federal and state laws requiring disclosure of foreign ownership interests in U.S. real estate?
Faculty

Marisa N. Bocci
Partner
K&L Gates
Ms. Bocci works on a range of transactional matters, including purchase and sale agreements, financing, and leasing.... | Read More
Ms. Bocci works on a range of transactional matters, including purchase and sale agreements, financing, and leasing. Her practice focuses on hotel and resort properties, commercial real estate assets, and agriculture/agribusiness matters. In the agriculture sector, Ms. Bocci has specific experience in matters relating to farmland real estate investments. She handles transactions across the country involving the purchase, sale, leasing and financing of farmland. Further, she is familiar with operational issues specific to the food packing and processing industry, including supply chain and labor arrangements. In addition, she also advises clients on agribusiness-related M&A transactions and regularly speaks and writes on agribusiness topics.
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Kari L. Larson
Partner
K&L Gates
Ms. Larson’s practice focuses on commercial real estate including the acquisition, disposition, leasing,... | Read More
Ms. Larson’s practice focuses on commercial real estate including the acquisition, disposition, leasing, financing, and development of commercial, timber, and food and agribusiness holdings, including controlled environment agriculture (CEA) facilities. She regularly represents both borrowers and lenders (foreign and domestic) in lending transactions secured by commercial and agricultural properties, including the negotiation of intercreditor and co-lender arrangements. Ms. Larson also regularly advises clients on investments in various food and agribusiness assets. She regularly advises on jurisdictionally-specific permitting, licensing, certification, and product-specific requirements for producers, processors and retailers of food, including those applicable to CEA facilities. Ms. Larson also counsels clients on filing requirements for foreign investors under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act and analogous state statutes.
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Lysondra E. Ludwig
Counsel
K&L Gates
Ms. Ludwig works on a range of real estate transactional matters, with a focus on agriculture and agribusiness matters... | Read More
Ms. Ludwig works on a range of real estate transactional matters, with a focus on agriculture and agribusiness matters and natural resource investment activities. Her background in tax structuring allows her to provide unique insight with respect to regulatory regimes addressing beneficial ownership. As such, many of Ms. Ludwig’s matters involve foreign investment in U.S. real assets, and advising clients on federal and state laws related to foreign and corporate ownership regulations and aiding clients with their AFIDA and state-analogous disclosure filings. In addition to transactional compliance, she aids clients in identifying and complying with applicable reporting guidelines and forming risk mitigation strategies for ongoing awareness of the evolving regulatory landscape. This includes advising clients with respect to real estate portfolio management matters, including audits of existing assets for compliance, and annual compliance monitoring for real property located in jurisdictions with annual filing obligations.
CloseEarly Discount (through 12/15/23)
Cannot Attend January 11?
Early Discount (through 12/15/23)
You may pre-order a recording to listen at your convenience. Recordings are available 48 hours after the webinar. Strafford will process CLE credit for one person on each recording. All formats include course handouts.