If you are interested in obtaining permanent residency in the United States and you have a substantial capital investment, the EB5 investor immigrant visa program was designed for you. It was first established in 1992 after a 1990 decision by the United States government to create an investment-oriented visa modeled on the successful visa programs put in place by other countries. To qualify for this visa, you will need to fulfill the three core requirements of the program. Read on for EB5 investor information designed to help you successfully navigate those requirements.
1: Investments Create Jobs
In order to qualify for the EB5 visa program, investments need to be able to create jobs. Specifically, they must create 10 jobs for each immigrant investor. If you invest through an approved regional center, you have the opportunity to work with other EB5 investors to pool your resources and have a bigger impact. This allows you to take your capital further while making it easier to meet the requirement of 10 jobs created for each applicant.
2: Investments Meet Thresholds
Investors looking to qualify need to do more than just create 10 jobs. They also need to meet minimum investment criteria. To qualify, an EB5 project needs to invest $1 million per applicant into programs that create the jobs. There are targeted employment areas in certain states that create zones and industries where this limit is lowered to $500,000 to encourage more rapid development, though. It is worthwhile to look into the opportunities for projects that meet TEA requirements as you are researching other EB5 investor information.
3. Applicants Must Meet Residency Requirements
Investors can’t simply invest in American ventures from abroad to gain this visa status. They must also fulfill residency requirements during their two-year conditional residency period. Typically, this includes staying in the country for the majority of the time, because leaving it for a year or more results in the applicant being required to file for re-entry.
Finding Investments That Fit These Requirements
If you are currently seeking investments that will fulfill the EB5 requirements but you don’t know where to start, EB5 regional centers exist to help. There are currently 325 such centers operating, and they help investors fulfill EB5 requirements in the following ways:
- Identifying commercial projects investors can participate in
- Bringing together groups of investors to fully fund projects
- Regional center ventures can count indirect jobs toward the requirement
- Regional centers can work with states to identify opportunities in targeted employment areas
If you are looking for help finding the opportunities that will fulfill your EB5 requirements without worrying about whether or not the venture will be larger than your available investment funds, you should really work with a regional center. Not only do they bring the projects to you, they also provide you the opportunity to work with other investors when large projects come up. That way, they can maximize the benefits to EB5 investors without imposing new costs on them.
For more EB5 investor information, keep checking out our helpful blog articles.
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