EB-5 Benefits
If you’re a foreign national looking to move to the U.S., EB-5 may be the answer. An EB-5 Green Card allows you and your family to live and work in America for your entire lives and even become citizens.
EB-5 U.S. permanent residency through investment offers many benefits you won’t receive with other visa programs.
A permanent solution: Unlike with other visas, an EB-5 Green Card allows you and your family to live permanently in the U.S. It can even lead to citizenship in five years.
Faster EB-5 t is a quicker way for you to become a U.S. permanent resident. Wait times are considerably shorter compared with other family-based or employment-based visas. Some investors have received their physical Green Cards less than two years after investing.
Education As an EB-5 Green Card holder you or your immediate family members can attend American universities, ranked among the best in the world, and are eligible for in-state tuition discounts, and other financial aid. Also, EB-5 students have a considerable advantage in attracting employers, compared with short-term visa holders.
No sponsorship With an EB-5 Green you don’t need sponsorship from employers or family members.
No special skills While some visas require you to have special skills or education qualifications, EB-5 does not. You and your family are not even required to speak English.
Healthcare As a permanent resident, you can take advantage of American healthcare, among the best in the world as well as social security, including retirement benefits.
Freedom to Travel An EB-5 visa allows you to travel freely in and out of the U.S. This is a significant benefit if you have business or family ties in other countries.
Citizenship While U.S. residency by investment offers you a life of freedom and opportunity, it still doesn’t allow you to vote or sponsor family members; citizenship does. With a Green Card, you can apply for U.S. citizenship after five years.
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About EB-5
U.S. Congress created the EB-5 program in 1990 to boost the U.S. economy through foreign investment that creates jobs. Each year, at least 10,000 EB-5 visas are available for approved investors and their immediate family members.
The Regional Center Program established in 1992 became an even easier way for foreigners to make an investment without running their own business. An EB-5 regional center is a U.S. business that oversees the investments of multiple investors and businesses, often called EB-5 projects, that use investor capital to create jobs.
The EB-5 U.S. permanent residency by investment program is managed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This government agency reviews the applications filed by businesses raising EB-5 capital and investors.
The program allows investors, their spouses, and unmarried children under 21 to apply for U.S. permanent residency. The investment has two primary requirements:
Invest in a U.S. for-profit business.
Create or preserve 10 full-time jobs for U.S. workers.
The EB-5 program allows for investment in new commercial enterprises (NCE) formed after November 29, 1990, or older businesses that are restructured or expanded significantly. These businesses can take various forms, such as sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, and more.
EB-5 Requirements
Understanding how to get U.S. residency through investment requires that you meet multiple requirements that USCIS will evaluate when processing your investor application, officially known as an I-526E petition. Here are the main EB-5 visa requirements:
Investment in a new commercial enterprise: The NCE must be a for-profit business established after November 29, 1990, or an older business that is significantly reorganized or expanded. If you buy a house, for example, this will not qualify as an eligible investment.
Create 10 full-time jobs: The investment you make must create or preserve at least 10 full-time jobs for eligible U.S. workers. As part of the Regional Center Program, this can include direct jobs (jobs hired directly by the EB-5 project), indirect jobs (jobs in supplier industries), or indirect jobs (general jobs created in the local economy to support the new jobs in the workforce). If you make a single-investor EB-5 investment outside of the Regional Center Program, only direct jobs can count.
Qualifying employees: Your investment must create jobs for U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, or other immigrants authorized to work. Job-creation totals cannot include you as the investor and your family members.
Full-time employment: This means a minimum of 35 hours per week per qualifying employee. Job-sharing arrangements for multiple workers are allowed but only if they meet the hourly requirement.
Capital investment: Your eligible capital can include cash, equipment, inventory, and other tangible assets. It must be owned and controlled by you, the investor, and valued at fair market value in U.S. dollars. The minimum investment amount investment amount is $800,000 for an investment made in a rural or high-unemployment location or in an infrastructure project. Otherwise, you must invest at least $1,050,000.
Eligible capital does not include: assets you acquired by unlawful means; capital invested in exchange for a note, bond, convertible debt, obligation, or any other debt arrangement between you the investor and the NCE; capital invested with a guaranteed rate of return; or capital invested that involves any agreement between you and the NCE that with a contractual right to repayment.
Targeted employment areas (TEAs): Targeted employment area is the designation for investments made in rural areas or high-unemployment areas (150% of the national unemployment rate). TEA investments qualify for the lower $800,000 investment amount and can offer immediately available set-aside visas upon application approval.
TEA benefits also apply to regional center investors who invest in infrastructure projects run by government entities to build, maintain, or improve public works projects.
Visa Set-Asides
The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 was important new legislation enacted by Congress that made several notable improvements to the EB-5 program. This included the introduction of visa set-asides, also known as reserved visas, for investors in specific categories.
Visa set-asides are important in that they may be immediately available upon application approval, even for investors born in countries that have long line-ups for available EB-5 visas. These countries include China, India, and Vietnam. If you are from one of these countries and don’t want to wait several years for available visas, make a qualifying investment in a category with set-aside visas.
Each fiscal year, a percentage of EB-5 visas is reserved for investments in:
Rural Areas: 20% of all new EB-5 visas are set aside for investments in rural areas.
High Unemployment Areas: 10% of visas are set aside for investments in areas with unemployment at least 150% of the national average.
Infrastructure Projects: 2% of visas are set aside for investments in qualifying infrastructure projects.
Unused visas in these categories remain available in the same category for the next fiscal year. If these visas remain unused, they are added to the general EB-5 visa pool in the third fiscal year.
If you’re interested in obtaining U.S. permanent residency by investment, it's essential to work with an experienced lawyer. Green Card By Investment can help you understand the program and find an experienced lawyer and multiple vetted investment options that are offered under broker-dealer supervision.