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January 11th, 2010 |
 Putting together a personal EB5 timetable is good advice Each investor and his or her family have ideas about what they would like their own personal timeline to look like. You should have some idea of a target date or estimated date when you would like to be living in America. Formulating your personal timeline can be difficult and this is where the guidance of an experienced EB5 immigration attorney will prove invaluable. He or she will help you match your goals and needs with the reality of the process and capabilities of processing within the constraints set by outside factors; namely the regional center you choose to invest in and the USCIS.
No discussion of time lines for EB-5 investing is complete without at least introducing the basic timeline for investing from the regional center perspective. USCIS’s procedures and processing times determine most of the timeline in this process; however, you should not underestimate the impact of the regional center and its time lines and procedures on your personal goals.
The timeline for investing from start to finish will vary. In fact, the proposed timeline for a center and their track record for abiding by it may be one of those considerations that you and your immigration consultant weigh when choosing the right regional center for your investment. For further information on time lines for various regional centers contact Which EB-5
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Tags: America, eb-5, eb5, immigration attorney, immigration consultant, processing time, regional center, uscis, visa, Which EB-5
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
May 29th, 2009 |
As you research regional centers, it’s not at all uncommon for you to find regional centers and projects that have a definite targeted audience—a definite culture or nationals of a specific country or countries whom are being obviously catered to as potential immigrant investors. The targeting can be so obvious that it leaves you wondering if the center is interested in investors outside that culture or country at all. It can almost leave you thinking that perhaps they do not want your money if you do not fit their targeted profile.
The question is whether or not this is an issue, and whether or not you need to be concerned with this—either as a member of that targeted population or as an outsider with an interest in such a project. The answer to the question is that yes, this is definitely something you will want to discuss with your immigration consultant.
Again, it is not that this practice is across-the-board problematic, and it is not illegal, but there are certain implications for projects that do cater to certain investors. You see, when you have a specific target audience in mind, you put a lot of work and emphasis on serving the needs and wants of the people who make up that target audience; those are people who usually, as a group, have similar goals and motivations. Those goals and motivations may or may not be in line with yours, even if you are a member of that targeted group.
The potential implications are wide-ranging, and whether or not they are a positive or a negative, or even a neutral factor for you needs to be determined. You would be surprised at the insight your immigration consultant can provide to you in this regard.
You should also know that the regional center and their representatives will not be very willing to divulge the possible implications behind their targeting practices, as they know that they do have very serious implications. Very rarely will you find a center that can take an objective look at the possible implications of such a practice and lay it out in meaningful terms for you; for that, you need a truly impartial party who has other options to present to you as well.
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Tags: eb-5, immigration consultant, regional center
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
May 27th, 2009 |
There is no way for you to gather the information you need if you don’t know what questions to ask. Being new to the prospect of immigration and EB-5 investment, there is almost no way for you to know what those questions might be, unless you put the advantage of professional advising on your side.
Part of the job of that advisor is to spot potential problems and red flags. There is really no telling what form those red flags might take, and this is in a way the “catch all” that is left when all other issues have been attended to. That may sound as if we are being intentionally vague, but we are not; we are simply pointing out to you that there are certain things that will raise the awareness of a good advisor, and that will require further investigation. These are issues that will be unique to the regional centers and projects that you are considering. To the trained eye, these issues will be spotted quickly and will be very telling of the project and center’s operations, while to the untrained eye they would be easily glossed over by sales spiel and largely ignored until it is too late.
Realistically the potential problems and red flags that an impartial third party will find and address, and the ability to recognize those issues or lacking elements will come as a direct result of experience. Being able to spot red flags and address them in a proactive way is a skill that is developed as one works with several regional centers and their projects over time, as well as the process and regulations regarding EB-5 immigration. It’s not something that can be learned by reading and research alone—this ability comes from direct, hands-on investigations and information saturation of the sort that only time and involvement can bring.
In many ways, this ability to address the ethereal red flags and potential problems is the most valuable service that an experienced impartial advisor can deliver to you. Throughout the entire process of regional center evaluation and investment it is not the known and obvious that will cause you problems—it is the unknown, the unquestioned, and undisclosed; but as we’ve said many times, given the complexity of investing and immigrating through the EB-5 visa, there is hardly a way for a single investor, or even small group of potential immigrants, to know exactly what to look for, or what information to trust.
If an impartial advisor, Immigration Advisor, or Immigration Consultant does not have these concerns, you should think twice about why that is. Is it possible the advisor is not as impartial as you originally were led to believe? Is there a conflict of interest? Or is the advisor simply not that good at his or her job?
These are things you want to consider to ensure you are getting value from the partnership, and also to ensure that the advisor has first and foremost your concerns at heart. To be even more clear, and hopefully preempt these troubles entirely, we’ll look at how to find a good Immigration Consultant or third party advisor after we address a couple more issues wherein your impartial third-party advisor will certainly prove his or her worth.
Next, POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS OF SOME REGIONAL CENTER PRACTICES AND POLICIES. In the meantime, if we can answer any of your questions please contact Stephen Parnell or Andrew Bartlett at Which EB5
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Tags: andrew bartlett, eb-5, Immigration, immigration consultant, investment, partnership, stephen parnell, visa, Which EB-5
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
May 6th, 2009 |
………what might not be obvious, and what information might be missing that would strongly influence, or even make the decision for them. Secondly, many investors say that they just do not have the time to complete the entire tour; they certainly do not have the time to complete more than one or two of the available centers (and at this point there are well over 30!). In order to make an informed decision, though, you really need to have all the information on a number of optional regional centers.
Regional center visits certainly do have their value, but they are not the mechanism that you want to rely on to make your choice in a regional center. With the right information resources, you can certainly confidently choose a center without having to visit one. A visit to a regional center is probably best done later in the process after you have narrowed down your search to just a top few contenders. That gives you a more manageable list, and hopefully some experience working with an Immigration Consultant who can help you know what to ask and what to look for, and give you the tools to maximize the visit. The best consultants have made these visits and tours, and gone deeper in their regional center research than what you will be presented anyway, and so they will prove much more valuable to you than any regional center visit. The choice of whether or not to visit prospective regional centers is up to you, and can do a lot to confirm information you already have as well as give you an opportunity to ask questions and look into matters once you know what to look for, but on its own it is really not enough to base your choice of a regional center upon.
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Tags: eb-5, eb5, immigration consultant, regional center
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
April 20th, 2009 |
Answer: Use a consultant. That may be a simplified answer so let’s look at this in a little more depth.
A consultant is a person who delivers objective, hard-hitting advice; that advice will sometimes validate the client’s (your) suspicions or existing perceptions, or it will dig out and bring to the surface problems or issues that the client was not fully aware of, or, in some cases, was unwilling to face.
In some ways, this can sound a harsh description of what a consultant is, and what a consultant does. After all, given a choice, not many of us would opt to have someone make us face issues that we’d rather pretend did not exist. But with half to a full million dollars or more on the line, isn’t it worth a little disillusionment or discomfort?
Realistically, though, there is no reason that working with a immigration consultant needs to be an uncomfortable experience—even if some of your perceptions need to be corrected in the process. It all comes down to what your consultant has as his or her motivation; and that motivation in this case, as we know, is to protect your rights and to ensure that you make the best possible decisions for the best possible outcome while achieving your goal of relocating to the United States as a permanent resident.
If at times it seems that you consultant is making life difficult by forcing you to face facts and make difficult decisions, always remember that that is his job, and that everything he does, he does with your best interests foremost in his thoughts. When you can remember that everything that is done is done only to better your experience, it becomes far easier to appreciate and swallow what is given to you.
To get back to answering the question at hand, a consultant is essentially someone who is paid to look out for your best interests. Really, their function goes far beyond that—your consultant is also a researcher, investigator, representative, resource, industry expert, and much, much more. For all the things that your consultant is, the one thing that you can always rely on is that their expertise is working specifically for you—not for the regional center or some other entity. You consultant is the one person throughout the entire process that is working expressly for you.
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Tags: immigrant investor, immigration consultant, permanent resident, regional center, united states
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
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