The EB-5 Program and Foreign Investors
If you want to live, work, or retire anywhere in the U.S.A. and can afford to invest Minimum $800,000 for a minimum of five years in TEA and 1,050,000 in Metroplitan area, the EB-5 visa is an option worth considering. The EB-5 visa is unusual because it provides you with a conditional (temporary) green card at the outset, regardless of your employment or residency status. When you emigrate, you do so knowing that you and your immediate family have permanent residency, ending the need to apply for U.S. residency. You may apply for citizenship after five years. Work or retire, the choice is yours.
The current legislation enables The AMERICAN REGIONAL CENTER investors to work or retire in the USA and provides their families (spouse and children under 21) with immigration security, eliminating the need and worry of reapplying, as is the case with the majority of other visa categories. It also provides the flexibility to live anywhere, take any job, own and operate any business, and change employment without restrictions.
EB-5 Program Benefits Include:
- The family included a principal visa holder without a separate application
- Freedom to live, work, travel, or retire anywhere in the United States
- Expedited green card processing (1 year vs. 5 years)
- Passive employment requirement (no day-to-day management required)
- Investor gains financial return on visa investment
- Less stringent visa qualification requirements
- Children may attend college/university at U.S. resident costs
Obtaining an Official Regional Center Designation
A Regional Center obtains its designation by submitting a detailed application to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The application must state:
The kinds of businesses that will receive capital from investors;
The jobs that will be created directly or indirectly as a result of the investment of capital;
The other positive economic impacts that will result from the investment of capital.
Once USCIS has approved a Regional Center application (I-526 form), an investor seeking an EB-5 green card through the Regional Center Investment Program must make the qualifying $500,000(Replace this to $800, 000 Rural area and 1,050,000 Metropolitan area) investment within an approved Regional Center. However, the requirement of creating at least 10 new jobs is met by showing that, as a result of the new enterprise, such jobs will be created directly or indirectly.
As with the regular EB-5 program, qualified investors investing through a Regional Center first receive a conditional green card valid for two years. At the end of that time, the investor files another application with USCIS showing that their money was “at risk” during the two-year period and that the jobs have been created. Once those applications have been approved, the investor and his immediate family become permanent green card holders and can later apply to become U.S. citizens. The EB-5 process takes approximately 3-5 years or longer depending upon the timeliness, quality and validity of the investor’s submissions.