The EB-5 visa was created in 1991 by the 1990 Immigration Nationality Act to encourage foreign investment in the United States. Initially, the program required that an investor contribute $1,000,000 to a U.S. business that would create 10 U.S. jobs. If the investor complied with the requirements, he or she would be entitled to U.S. “Green Card.”

As great as the opportunity seems, the program had been greatly underused (over the past seventeen years averaging fewer than 500 visas per year out of 10,000 available) due primarily ot simple logistics.

 EB-5 Visa − The Investment Green Card

The USCIS (the US Citizenship and Immigration Service) refers to this category as an Investment or Employment-based Green Card since it is based on an investment in a US business which will create at least ten US jobs.

The legislation does not require you to manage the day-to-day affairs of a business. Investors may invest in an existing or a new business. More than one person may invest and the investors may be minority owners. Investors may live anywhere in the US no matter where the investment is made and are they are free to study, work, run a business or retire.

An EB-5 visa has three different forms –

• Invest $1,000,000 into a business and hire ten employees anywhere in the USA, or
• Invest $500,000 and hire ten employees in an area where the unemployment rate is 150% of the national average or the rural population is less than 20,000, or
• Invest $500,000 into a Government designated Regional Center and avoid direct employment.



General EB-5 Program Summary

 Getting a Green Card through investment (and Permanent Residency) gives the holder, and his or her immediate family, the right to live, study and work anywhere in the US. The EB-5 visa is unusual in that it provides individuals with a green card at the outset.

Work, study, or retire—

The current legislation enables EB-5 Regional Center investors to retire to the USA and provides families with immigration security, eliminating the worry of reapplying and the risk of changes to immigration rules, as with most other visa categories. It is the only visa which allows retirement to the US. It also provides the flexibility to live anywhere, study or take any job, own and operate any business, and to change employment or career without restrictions.

Equal visa status for every member of the family—

All members of the immediate family have Permanent Residency. For immigration purposes, ‘immediate family’ is defined as the investor, the investor’s spouse, and all their unmarried children under the age of 21 at the time of the visa application. That is, if the EB-5 application is filed before the child is 21 – even though he or she turns 21 during the process – the child is eligible for the EB-5 visa.

Children may attend schools or apply to universities with the same rights as a US citizen. As long as they remain in the US, their rights do not end after they turn 21. Each member of the family may apply for citizenship after holding their green card for five years.

Funds for investment—

Funds may come from any legal foreign or US source; including gifts, loans, executive pension funds (SIPPS), trusts and divorce settlements. Whoever receives the visa must make the investment. Borrowed investment funds qualify as long as they are not secured by the assets of the EB-5 investment.