The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa: What is it and how is it attained?
The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa: What is it and how is it attained?
The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa is one of the easiest and most flexible routes an immigrant can take if they are interested in gaining a United States green card. These visas are contingent on an investment being made in the United States along with the creation, either directly or indirectly, of a set amount of jobs. An applicant can attain one of these visas by satisfying any of the following criteria:
1) If the immigrant invests at least (1) one million dollars and hires at least ten employees anywhere in the United Stated
2) If the immigrant invest (5) five hundred thousand dollars and hires at least ten employees in an area of the United States where the unemployment rate of that area exceeds the unemployment rate of the country (national unemployment rate) by a ratio of 1.5 to 1.
3) If the immigrant invests in a Regional Center.
It is important to make some notes in regard to these criteria. First, the immigrant does not necessarily have to manage the day-to-day operations of the business they start. Neither must they actually begin a new business; they may instead invest in an existing business as such that their investment facilitates the requisite amount of new jobs.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has designated specific areas as Regional Centers. These Centers are eligible to receive funds from an immigrant seeking an EB-5 visa. By contributing to one of these regional centers, immigrants will be relying on a more indirect form of job creation, instead of the outright hiring involved in the other criteria. In the case of using a Regional Center contribution, an independent expert must verify the validity of the donation and its potential to create jobs. While Regional Center donations require a (1) million dollar donation to be considered, if the Regional Center is located in an area of high unemployment as outlined in criteria two (2), area the required capital will then be reduced to (5) five hundred thousand.
There are 10,000 of these visas available per calendar year, with half of those being designated for Regional Center contributions. While the Regional Center donations portion of the visa allotment does see some unused slots each year, the remaining 5,000 visas are usually exhausted.
