If you are considering the EB-5 visa as your best method to gain permanent residence in the USA you may need to act in the next three/four months to make certain of obtaining the visa.
Currently applications are taking approximately six months for your initial petition to be processed by USCIS and a further three to four months for either an adjustment of status or consular processing. If you want to be sure you have enough time to go through the process with a margin of safety you probably need to apply before the end of December 2011.
The program has faced closure before but Congress has granted typically last minute extensions. However, this time closure is due in the period of a run up to The Presidential election, this adds some uncertainty to the process.
There has been lots of talk that premium processing would be introduced for the EB-5 visa program which could reduce the processing time down from the current six months to a few weeks. While this is currently under continued discussion it could take many months to implement. Meaning it MAY NOT be available until late into 2012. This would leave many applicants exposed to perhaps not getting their petition adjudicated prior to the expiry of the program.
It is very important for you to carry out full due diligence before committing to a particular Regional Center program. A number of Regional Centers have received Requests for further Evidence (RFE), some have had refusals at the initial (I-526) stage and others, more alarmingly, have had refusals at the removal of conditions (I-829) stage.
If you would like to discuss the implications of this program, or would like impartial information about the various Regional Center programs, our network of consultants and attorney’s can provide a free in-depth personal consultation to you. We currently have over 250 clients and a 100% record success record.
If you are trying to find out as much information as possible about the EB-5Regional center program the task facing you can be daunting.
Inquiries to Attorneys can sometimes be met with being passed off to a junior member of staff, or a stream of complex legal information or even in certain cases a quasi sales pitch actually promoting a particular program that the Attorney may receive a fee from, but which they may never have visited.
Inquiries to the Regional Centers are usually met with a mass of information that often falls into two types: There is the glossy promotional material, usually one sided saying how great their program is. Following this can be an extremely large document written in one sided legal language that may be very difficult to understand without expert help.
If you do not speak/read English fluently you may be relying on an agent who speaks your language who receives a commission from the Regional center if you buy the program through them; or perhaps material translated by that very same agent.
The problem is, choosing the most appropriate regional center that best matches your personal requirements is fundamental to the success or failure of your immigration path and the return of your $500,000 capital.
Get this wrong and you and your family could face deportation and/or loss of some or all of your $500,000.
It is important that you receive impartial, independent and experienced advice from experts with a 100% track record working with EB-5 clients.
Many have found it useful to begin the process by reading the only published consumer guide on the EB-5 visa pilot program Green card via the Red Carpet.
When a client expresses how they feel about your service it can be enlightening and can also remind you how, when you have the clients interests at heart, people appreciate what you do. We recently received the following unsolicited comments from a Which EB5 client and thought we should share these with you.
“Had it not been for the advice & guidance from the folks at Which EB-5.com, we would likely have ended in an EB-5 project that takes us nowhere: no Green Card &/or very risky.
Their knowledge and honest dedication to their clients is a blessing to all of us who are getting into this process. No attorney has done the research of the different options as Chase Brodsky and Stephen Parnell have done. They went through every project in the market with us explaining the risks and benefits of each. They pointed us towards a most helpful attorney, their help was of great value.
We recommend Stephen and Chase to everyone interested in getting the Green Card through the EB-5 method. And best of all, there is no cost for their services. SM “
Our client has requested that we do not use his full name here due to safety issues. (Original letter available in our office).
We would really like to add you to our growing list of happy clients. Please contact Chase Brodsky, our client services director, to arrange a free personal one-on-one consultation.
When your I-526 petition is filed to obtain your conditional Green Card, in addition to the petition itself, there are two specific and important pieces of information that will be included within the application.
The detailed personal and investment funds documentation that you will have submitted to your Attorney.
Full documentation of the regional center you selected and their program. Your choice of regional center program will play an extremely important role in your application.
That is why it is vitally important that you chose your regional center carefully. It is critical to take a careful look at the histories and track records of the regional centers.
Have they been realistic in their aims and objectives?
How much do they really care about you and your family as immigrants to the USA or is it all about their own profits?
Do they not only have a good idea for the project but the experience to make it happen successfully?
What qualities make for the most appropriate regional center program options for your particular requirements?
The EB-5 visa requires a $500,000 investment in a United States Citizenship and Immigration center (USCIS) Regional Center Program. The track record of these programs varies considerably and investment terms can be as little as four years. It is vital you obtain independent information from experienced advisers prior to making a decision on Regional Center programs.
If you would like more information on these visa options and a free consultation contact Chase Brodsky at Which EB5 who will be happy to set up a free personal consultation for you with one of our senior partners.
We recently received a question from a gentleman who had been looking at the EB5 visa for some time. He felt it was the most appropriate visa to relocate him, his wife and children to the USA and provide them with permanent residence.
The question was straightforward – I have been told by my Attorney that Center X will guarantee the return of my funds as well as a 4% annual rate of return, is this right?
We have been advising people considering the EB5 visa for many years, have 100% success with over 200 applications and talk to an average of 20 people a day about the EB-5 but this question really worried us.
You may ask why, I will explain the reasons.
Regional Centers are not allowed to guarantee the return of the funds. USCIS require the investment to be at risk. Guaranteeing the return would contravene USCIS requirements and lead to eventual refusal.
No one can guarantee a 4% return per year on investment without adding some severe conditions to the claim; this is subject to market forces and circumstances.
This information was given by an Attorney. Potential immigrant investors have to trust someone and usually it is their Attorney. Yet the information given by the attorney is completely wrong!
Following a request under the Freedom of Information Act, USCIS recently released the vast majority of the material it uses to train its staff adjudicating EB-5immigrant investor cases.
Over the next few months it is likely that Attorneys and Consultants will provide their analysis of this information, some of their views will undoubtedly differ in interpretation.
What is clear is that the EB-5 visa can be a confusing mine of information and feedback from those that have actually successfully applied for the card and are now living in the USA can be very helpful.
If you would like to read of the experiences of immigrant investors from all over the world their details are here.
While many immigrants to the USA have made a completely successful relocation to the USA on the EB-5visa there has been concern recently about the advice some families are receiving about this visa.
The visa requires an investment of $500,000 in certain specific areas of the USA (rural / high unemployment) and allows successful applicants, their spouse and their unmarried children under 21 to receive conditional green cards (permanent residency in the USA).
The investment is required to be in what is termed a Government approved Regional Center program and there sometimes lies a potential problem.
Whereas a few years ago there was only a handful of such programs this year there could be eventually over two hundred. The vast majority of the newer programs have very little statistical evidence of performance.
To obtain information about programs some prospective immigrants approach Attorneys and Consultants for impartial advice. However, some of these Attorneys and Consultants have a worrying conflict of interest as they are also advising companies on how to set up as a Regional Center and how to obtain clients.
Additionally, with so many EB-5 Regional Centers and a limited number of interested immigrant investors, there is pressure to “deliver” investor clients and the tactics and techniques employed by some of the Center’s, their agents and “finders” are a cause for concern.
Further information on the EB-5 Regional Center program is available in the book written for immigrants on this subject – Green Card via the Red Carpet
There are many websites that define a Targeted Employment Area (TEA) but unfortunately many fail to explain why a TEA is important if you are considering the EB-5 visa and importantly, what can go wrong.
A TEA is either a rural area or an area that has experienced an unemployment rate at least 150% of the national average unemployment rate.
The concept of the TEA is important because:-
The investment required for the EB-5visa is $1,000,000 outside a TEA but half that amount $500,000 inside a TEA.
Although the definition of a TEA may seem straightforward it has and continues to be an area of some argument with accusations of gerrymandering regarding whether an area qualifies or not. There can be unfortunate implications if your chosen regional center project got it wrong.
The concept of a TEA is so important to the EB-5 visa process that it has been a subject of a number of questions and debate at the regular stakeholder meetings at the Californian Service Center attended by USCIS Senior staff, regional center staff and attorneys.
In a US economy marked by constant changes in unemployment figures there is no guarantee an area will automatically meet the TEA criteria over time. These changes may have implications on your EB-5 visa which we can explain to you.
As an example, let us say the regional center project you decide on takes a long time to sell the number of places in the program and in that time the TEA the program is in is affected by a change in unemployment ratios. This is a potentially damaging issue we need to cover with you.
Of course, simply because a program is in a TEA is in itself not the only issue you need to consider.
As an example let us say a regional center program is in a rural TEA with a very small population. Although this may seem good news other questions may then apply such as has the program a sound exit strategy, are you likely to get your money back?
When considering the EB-5 visa many points need to be taken into consideration, but it is important that they are not considered in isolation.
If you are considering the EB-5visa you may feel the more information you can find out about the visa the better. The problem is that it is not easy to obtain the information as:-
Attorneys obviously focus on the legal process, however many will not have actually visited the actual regional center programs. Additionally there is a view from some leading Attorneys that they should not be advising clients on the strengths and weaknesses of various center programs.
Regional Centers provide a one sided view, in other words their own program is best, they do not point out their weaknesses.
Some of the independent advisers are also working closely with the regional centers providing paid advice on how to sell their program and attract as many clients as possible, a clear conflict of interest.
All these issues were evident at the Vegas conference where a number of regional centers provided details of their programs to several hundred immigration attorneys attending a one day training session on various aspects of the EB-5 visa.
As was apparent in Vegas the industry behind the EB-5 visa is becoming bigger and more established which is not surprising given the number of new regional centers being authorized by USCIS to offer programs and Immigration Attorneys taking courses so they can work for clients wishing to apply for EB-5 visas.
However, there can be a huge difference in experience between Regional Centers which have just been approved and those that have been operating successfully for many years, similarly between Attorneys who have successfully filed for hundreds of EB-5 visas and those who may only work on a few in a year.
If you are considering the EB-5 visa and would like more information on EB-5 Regional Centers and or Immigration Attorneys contact Which EB5 using the form on the right of this page.
Last week I attended a conference on the EB-5 visa in Las Vegas with several hundred Attorneys from all over the USA. A few days later I was in California for a meeting at the USCIS service center in California where US government officials presented an update on the EB-5 visa and answered questions from the audience who in the main were Immigration Attorneys and officials from the many regional center programs.
These two events were not attended by those of you who are planning to use the EB-5 as their preferred visa to obtain permanent residency in the USA and it would therefore be helpful over the next two days to give you relevant information from these meetings that could help you understand what is happening in the EB-5 world.
It is becoming more and more apparent that those of you who are looking at the EB-5 are finding it difficult to obtain impartial information that can assist you to easily understand the process. For the majority of EB-5 applicants travelling all over the USA to visit over 130 regional centers would not be possible and with a number of immigration attorneys working closely with particular regional centers it may be difficult to obtain totally independent advice.
For impartial and independent information on the EB-5 visa options contact us using the form on the right of this page.
WhichEB5.com, its owners and associates, do not function as attorneys or legal counsel and do not attempt to interpret immigration law and do not provide or offer legal advice or legal services or investment advice. Anyone considering an Investment based Visa should seek independent professional advice. The information on this site is intended to be general on the subject of the EB5 investment visa green card program and should not be relied upon for any specific situation. Any reference to designated regional centers on this website is posted as reference material only. For legal advice, please contact one of our attorneys. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Results depend upon a variety of factors unique to each person. Which EB5 is a service of Ireeco LLC 1515 N.Federal Hwy. Suite 300 Boca Raton Florida 33432 USA Telephone: +1-561-771-1330.
