What’s Going On With The EB-5 Regional Center Program?
A pause in re-approval from Congress has foreign investors worried about the long term health of the foreign investor green card program
The Immigration Act of 1990 ushered in new opportunities for immigrant investors who were eager to bring their work and investment to the United States through the EB-5 program.
Since 1990 the EB-5 program has enabled foreign nationals who make a significant investment in a U.S. entity to obtain a green card to oversee their investment. There are a number of qualifying criteria in order to enroll in the EB-5 program, including investment amount, the area in which the investment is made, as well as the amount of jobs that must be created as a result of the investment.
Foreign investors must make a standard minimum investment of $1 million in order to qualify, however an investment of $500,000 in a Targeted Employment Area is also acceptable. These areas are either parts of the U.S. that are experiencing an unemployment rate of more than 150% the national average, or rural areas outside of a Metropolitan Statistical Area. The incentive in investing in a TEA is to create jobs in parts of the U.S. that would most benefit from this economic investment.
EB-5 investments also must prove to generate ten full-time positions to qualifying employees…
