A sign outside an event where Nicole Kushner Meyer, sister of White House adviser Jared Kushner, was promoting a real estate development in Shanghai

The family of White House advisor Jared Kushner says Kushner's sister was in no way seeking to 'lure investors' when she mentioned her powerful brother's name at an event at the Beijing Ritz Carlton encouraging Chinese nationals to kick in $500,000 each for the project.

The apology came after weekend reports about Nicole Kushner Meyer's trip to Beijing, where she touted a Kushner family project in Jersey City and mentioned the controversial EB-5 visa program.

The program allows investors qualify for U.S. citizenship when they invest in the United States. It was extended over the weekend when President Trump signed wide-ranging legislation to keep the government running.

The pitch raised concern over potential conflicts of interest and set off a media firestorm in the United States, leading Kushner Companies to issue a formal apology on Monday.

Ivanka and Jared walked hand in hand on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland

'In the course of discussing this project and the firm's history with potential investors, Ms Meyer wanted to make clear that her brother had stepped away from the company in January and has nothing to do with this project,' the firm said in a statement.

'Kushner Companies apologizes if that mention of her brother was in any way interpreted as an attempt to lure investors. That was not Ms Meyer's intention.'

Nicole Kushner Meyer was in China at the weekend, seeking more than $150 million in investment in a luxury apartment complex known as 'One Journal Square,' on which ground is scheduled to break early next year.

Jared Kushner had been listed as a manager of several entities related to the project as of January, the New York Times reported.

She urged wealthy Chinese to buy stakes through the EB-5 visa program that offers US residency in exchange for at least $500,000 investment in a US business that must also create at least 10 American jobs.

At an event in Beijing on Saturday, Meyer told investors that the project 'means a lot to me and my entire family,' and mentioned her brother's former role as chief executive of Kushner Companies.

Jared Kushner, 36, is senior adviser and son-in-law of US President Donald Trump. He stepped down from the family business in January to join the US administration where he has far-reaching influence over both domestic and foreign policy.

His wife, Ivanka Trump, embarked on a 'listening tour' of federal cabinet agencies, where she is set to meet with cabinet secretaries to discuss a global climate change pact and other issues.

Representatives of Chinese government-approved immigration agency QWOS, which hosted the investment drive, pointedly dropped the name of Trump's daughter Ivanka, who is Jared Kushner's wife and popular in China.

Attendees were reassured by a US lawyer that despite his tough talk on immigration, Trump himself was a key decision-maker for EB-5 policy and was unlikely to make any changes to it in the near future -- making it a safe path to US residency.