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EB-5 INVESTORS
EB-5 INVESTMENT GREEN CARD
LEADS TO CITIZENSHIP
One of the ways to remain in America legally is to obtain "Lawful Permanent Residence," commonly referred to as "EB-5 Investment Green Card" status. There are numerous reasons why EB-5 investors want to live in America. Some EB-5 foreign nationals already have a lot of family members in the U.S. and others wish to escape threats of kidnapping or terrorism in their own country. Others are motivated by taxation issues or simply desire greater personal liberty by having more options to accommodate their personal life. Many individuals wish to pursue an education, make a career change, or retire in safer and more stable surroundings by obtaining an EB-5 green card through a $1,000,000 to $500,000 EB-5 investment.
The EB-5 Investment Green Card can be obtained by investing either $1,000,000 in your own company, or a minimum of $500,000 in an EB-5 Regional Center Project to financially revive a designated geographic area of the United States. The EB-5 investment must benefit the U.S. economy and create 10 new full time positions for authorized U.S. workers. If a foreign investor has a spouse and children under 21, they are automatically included in the EB-5 application for green cards.
The EB-5 Investment Green Card can be obtained by investing either $1,000,000 in your own company, or a minimum of $500,000 in a EB-5 Regional Center Project to financially revive a designated geographic area of the United States. The required EB-5 investment drops to $500,000 for EB-5 Regional Center Projects because they are in rural areas or targeted employment areas where the unemployment rate is 1.5 times the American national average.
The EB-5 investment must benefit the U.S. economy and create 10 new full time positions for authorized U.S. workers. If an EB-5 foreign investor has a spouse and children under 21, they are automatically included in the EB-5 application for green cards.
At the end of two years, the EB-5 foreign investor and immediate family qualifies for permanent residency if the venture creates or saves at least 10 full-time jobs. Three years after that, the EB-5 investor can apply for U.S. citizenship. Unlike other employment and family-based green card categories, which may have multiyear backlogs, as yet there is no quota backlog for the EB-5 investor category.
LIST OF EB-5 REGIONAL CENTER PROJECTS
While there’s no guarantee from the U.S. government that EB-5 investors will make money on their EB-5 investment, some EB-5 Regional Center Projects offer investors an exit strategy, allowing them to recoup their investment at the end of a five-year holding period during which their money was at risk.
Thanks to a thirst for investment capital created by the 2009 recession and tight credit, the EB-5 investor program is getting a new lease on life. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the bureau within the Department of Homeland Security that conducts background checks of foreigners who want to participate, has encouraged the Department of Homeland Security to change several of its policies and processes to “stabilize” and “energize” the EB-5 investor program.
In addition, the USCIS has approved requests in 2009 from at least four new Florida groups to set up Regional Center Projects for EB-5 investments — a kind of geographic franchise for collecting EB-5 foreign investment and funneling it into job-creating businesses.
Five thousand EB-5 green cards are available each year for EB-5 foreign investors who wish to live in America as Lawful Permanent Residents. Thus far the EB-5 green card cap has not been exceeded. According to the U.S. State Dept., the number of EB-5 green cards granted for fiscal year 2009 increased to 4,218 from just 1,443 in fiscial year 2008, and 70 percent of the EB-5 green cards went to Chinese foreign nationals.