July 2nd, 2009 |
An audio CD interview of Stephen Parnell covering multiple aspects of the EB-5 investment visa is now available.
Some of the topics covered include: Should you be considering moving to the United States? What is an EB5? How does a regional center help me obtain a green card? What types of investments are these? Who is eligible to apply for this type of visa? What are the political implications of this program? Is the investment safe? How long does it take to get a green card? What is the process to obtain an EB-5 visa? What do you have to know before searching for an EB-5 regional center investment? Do I need to live in the same area as the regional center I invest in? What do Which EB5 do for their clients? Finding an experienced EB-5 immigration attorney, how to do it correctly. Are other visa categories a viable alternative to the EB-5?
This informative interview is available free. Simply let us know you would like a copy via email for current clients or for potential clients by registering for information here now.
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Tags: eb-5, eb5, green card, immigration attorney, investment visa, regional center, stephen parnell, united states, visa, Which EB-5
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 26th, 2009 |
Most discussion around the EB-5 focuses on the amount of money you need to invest in order to qualify for the visa; what a lot of people do not realize, and what a lot of regional centers aren’t as quick to share, is that the total cost of your visa is not just a flat $500,000 or $1 million. The total cost will be higher when all is said and done.
In addition to the requisite amount of your investment as determined by the USCIS and the project you are investing in, there will be an additional set of fees charged by the regional center. This varies between each center, and is set by the administrators; these fees are in no way regulated by the U.S. government, and are entirely separate from your investment. As a bare minimum, you are probably looking at something more in line with $540,000 just to get started on the process and investing. This figure is arrived at by taking the minimum amount of $500,000 required by USCIS, and adding in the average basic fee of $40,000 that the regional center will charge in administrative and other fees.
Many of these fees are real reflections of costs of business and investment, and are justifiable. They may be used for a variety of applications, including administrative fees and legal fees accumulated by the regional center in the course of processing and overseeing the project. It is not that it is shady business for a regional center to charge a set of additional fees, and in fact this is the norm; the trouble comes when investors are not prepared for them, because they have only been given the bare basics of investment requirements.
The other problem that often arises is that investors are not told specifically what is and is not covered by the fees that are disclosed to them. For instance, the legal fees charged are the fees incurred by the regional center for legal services—they are completely separate from the legal fees that you will incur for your own representation. It is also not uncommon for an investor to be lead to believe or assume that the fees they are charged will cover all of their expenses with USCIS for application and petition fees, but this also is something separate that you need to be prepared for.
A true determination of the potential cost of doing business with a given regional center really only comes through a thorough analysis of the center’s costs and charges. You need to know exactly what is and is not included in any fee structures, but then you also need to go beyond that published list and ask the questions the centers are hoping you would not think about (at least not until it is too late and they’ve already got you on the hook for $500,000 to$1 million!). Most of these, like project evaluation itself, are not questions that you would know to ask unless you have had extensive dealings with a number of regional centers, policies, and projects. Potentially, any small variation from the “normal” application (which is usually to say, very basic and “by-the-book”, if such a thing exists) is grounds for additional charges and processing fees from the center. There are myriad potential charges that should be discussed well ahead of any commitments or payments.
Both the published and the hidden costs and fees of a regional center need to be determined before you can make a real, informed choice of a regional center investment project. Only when you know the real cost potentials will you know the real cost of doing business with the centers you are considering. And only when you know all the costs of all the centers on your list do you have a real basis for comparison between centers and projects. This is an overwhelming amount of information for one person to pursue and flesh out, but with the help of an experienced immigration consultant the information will be much more quickly forthcoming and provided in a way that makes comparisons easier, giving you the confidence to make a good decision.
Next we’ll look at potential problems and red flags associated with an EB-5 investment visa. 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, costs and fees, eb-5, regional center, stephen parnell, US Government, uscis, visa, Which EB-5
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
May 21st, 2009 |
This is one of the primary questions to be explored as you and your advisor undertake your due diligence in evaluating the safety of your investment and the potential of a regional center. If the original project hits one or more roadblocks, does the center have a plan to maintain the program? Can it still produce that all-important job creation element?
There are many reasons why a project may not proceed according to the original plan. It is very difficult to presume all the potentials that can happen, but a good third-party advisor will know what to look for, and what to look for in a fall-back plan. To give you an idea, suppose that the project that you have chosen is underfunded—that it fails to recruit the number of investors that were originally planned for, and so the whole project cannot proceed. What happens then?
In this instance, your advisor will be looking to see if the regional center has a plan to pursue other funding sources, such as commercial lending. This would enable the center to utilize your investment capital and also to secure the necessary additional funding to complete the project so that its qualification status can be maintained. These kinds of safety-nets are even more reasons to thoroughly evaluate the center and its project. You need assurances that the center/project has the means to secure outside funding in the event that it is needed—that a commercial lender or other investment mechanism would find the center to be a good investment risk. This is also an example of why you need someone to dig really deep and find out who potential fund recipients will be, so that it can be determined how likely your investment is to be repaid, and to determine how fit those entities are as “collateral” for the project.
Additionally, if other sources of funding are to be secured, you need to know that your project will still continue to qualify as a basis for EB-5 immigration. This is where things really start to get complex again, and where a solid team of professionals and consultants to back you and guide you prove invaluable. At this point, not only are you talking about the numbers of the investment, but the legalities of investment law and visa approval; it takes a great deal of experience and knowledge in all the applicable arenas to lend the amount of confidence you need to such an undertaking.
As we said, this is only one example of the variables affecting the security of your EB-5 investment. There are many others that a third-party consultant can help you deal with. Expect your advisor to speak frankly with you and perform this deep level of due diligence so that you can determine the safety of your investment in all respects to the extent that is prudent and reasonable.
Next we will look at: What happens to your money once invested in an EB-5 Regional Center? 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, commercial lending, eb-5, Immigration, job creation, regional center, stephen parnell, visa, Which EB-5
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
May 20th, 2009 |
Any investor will always have concerns over the safety of their investment. When that investment is the key to your chosen future, however, safety becomes a very subjective term. In the case of EB-5 investment, safety takes on a very unique life of its own, and often leads to investors going to extremes rather than considering the best balance between investment safety and immigration qualification.
Not uncommonly, and really not surprisingly, people who are looking to immigrate through the EB-5 will do one of two things; they either
• Focus intently on the investment potential at the expense of attending to the visa implications of the project, often assuming that the one will take care of the other, or they
• Focus intently on the visa implications without attending to the business end of their investment.
At least on the surface there are fairly obvious repercussions of either practice. Potentially, you could end up with a great return on investment and never gain visa approval, collecting on your investment while still living in your home country, or you could gain that visa approval and be here in the States and see almost no return on your investment. Even these are not the worst things that could happen, though. It is just as possible that, without the right level of thorough due diligence, you could lose all your invested monies and not qualify for a visa because the project failed when there were no jobs created. We’ve already discussed the possibility that a poorly planned and executed investment could gain you conditional status, but not full green card status. Having your green card revoked at the two-year mark is a very real possibility, too, if that job creation component cannot be solidified.
When you are talking in terms of investment safety with the EB-5 program, you have to consider it from different angles. One angle is the amount of risk that the investment itself carries—that is why your advisor will go through the proposed business plan thoroughly, as well as all claims and documentation to make sure everything makes good business sense. The safety of your EB-5 investment is something that needs to be handled carefully, and with a perspective of balance. On the one hand, there is no 100% safe investment, because all investments must carry some risk in order to qualify for visa approval. On the other hand, that is not a reason to choose a risky investment project—the CIS expects a reasonable amount of risk, and a reasonable amount of safety as well.
Determining investment safety and risk goes beyond the business or investment plan, though. It also requires due diligence in terms of how prospective fund recipients will be chosen, and/or who those fund recipients are (if already known). This will give an indication as to the likelihood of loans and investments being paid back or their seeing a return.
The other angle that needs addressing when considering safety and choosing an EB-5 regional center investment is the safety of your money as an immigration vehicle. You need to know that a successful project will be a qualifying EB-5 project—one that has what it takes to be approved by CIS as a green card condition. It’s not enough for an investment to produce a return on your money, it must also meet the stringent requirements laid out by CIS.
Part and parcel to determining how safe your investment is, and how likely it is to gain you approval at both the I-526 petitioning stage and the I-829 stage, is knowing not only what happens according to plan, but also knowing what happens if things do not go accordingly. When the unexpected happens, does the center have a plan for dealing with it? Is there a solution that will preserve your immigration or petition status? You need a way of determining whether or not such a plan is in place, and whether that plan is reasonably viable as well. Again, that means more due diligence, and a lot of in-depth research.
Next we will look at: Should a regional center have a fallback plan? 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, green card, I-526, I-829, investment, job creation, regional center, safety, stephen parnell, visa approval, Which EB-5
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
May 19th, 2009 |
The location of the regional center and the center’s proposed projects is often (mistakenly) thought to be irrelevant to EB-5 regional center investors. It’s easy to make that assumption, because unlike the standalone investment investing in a regional center means that you have the freedom to live anywhere in the United States, as far away or as close to your investment project as you like. Regardless of where you have your heart set on living, the location of a regional center and its projects does still have a definite impact potential on your investment and visa success. There are a couple of reasons why this is true.
First of all, the location of the center, and more specifically the particular project that you are investing in, matters because the amount of your required qualifying investment depends on that location. We’ve discussed this before as you’ll recall, your minimum investment will be either $500,000 or $1 million depending on the location of the project. The lower figure applies only to Targeted Employment Areas and designated rural geographic regions.
It is imperative to make a distinction between the location of the regional center and the location of the project itself. It is entirely possible that projects within a given regional center will have different investment minimums depending on where the money is actually invested. You cannot assume that just because a center’s offices are located in an area that meets lower-level investment minimums that the project funds will be invested there. You can also not assume that just because the last project was invested in a TEA or rural area that the next project will take place in a similarly qualifying area. The investment minimum for visa approval could vary quite easily from one project to the next.
These are the most basic reasons to consider the location of a project, but there are reasons that go deeper. These are the more in-depth considerations that an impartial advisor will research to determine how they apply to your situation. Let’s expand on that.
A regional center can be greatly influenced by their location and the location of their investments. There are many tangible and intangible influences of the region where your center operates that may come into play. Factors like business climate, property markets, workforce, local and state support of the project, and the presence or absence of worthwhile investment recipients can all make or break a project that sounds very good on paper. Add to this the more fluid factors like public perception of the center, its projects, and even immigration and the EB-5 program itself, and suddenly something that looks very good as a business plan can be much more tenuous as a dual-purpose investment and immigration vehicle.
Another very important consideration is the proposed exit strategy for the project. The location of a center can have a tremendous impact when it comes time to try to exit your investment at a profit. This is one of the areas that centers often gloss over. Your impartial advisor, however, will not take them at their words, and will explore and discuss with you all the potential impacts of location for both now and the future.
Often the only way to know how a regional center’s location may impact upon its investments and investors is to take a lot of time getting to know the region, its potential, and its personality “quirks”. Actually physically visiting these regions is the only way to get to know the pros and cons of the particular area, and to know what other factors need to be looked into further. Taking that time can bring critical issues to light that would not come up through paper research. This is one area where impartial advisors can prove their particular worth, because as we’ve already established there is no possible way for a single investor to undertake this kind of travel and physically present due diligence on his or her own.
On the other hand, it is the job of the advisor to amass this kind of knowledge, and to know the centers, their regions, and the potential impact of that location on all of that center’s projects. So, while it may seem like a regional center’s location shouldn’t need to matter to you because you can live anywhere you choose, you can see that in fact that location is still a big consideration. It may not come into play as you choose where to live, but it will certainly come into play as you decide the best, safest, most appropriate place to invest your money so that obtaining your visa and being cleared of conditional status is not a struggle.
Next we will take a look at the safety of your EB5 investment. 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, regional center, stephen parnell, TEA, Which EB-5
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
April 14th, 2009 |
Regional center track records are one of the first forms of comparison that help investors choose between various investment possibilities. Early on in the EB-5 program, that was almost enough to compare center to center and come up with the best investment. As there were only a handful of approved centers, comparisons were fairly straightforward. That situation has changed dramatically in recent years. With more than 30 approved centers and more being added to the list on a regular basis, it is much harder for immigrants to compare all the centers, to understand the diversity of information and statistics that are found, and to be able to confidently choose which center is best for their needs. Add to that the facts we discussed before—the fact that the centers should not be your one and only reliable source of research and information—and what you have is an unmanageable situation for the average immigrant investor.
In addition to this, and this is a very important fact to highlight and always remember, there can be quite a lot of differentiation even within an established and trusted regional center. A good track record with a specific or past project may not be a guarantee of the investment and visa potential of the next planned project. For this reason it is always necessary to evaluate not only the overall and long-term track record of the center, but also the track record of each project in conjunction with an in-depth analysis of the proposed projects that are being offered by the center at the current time.
It is also critical to know that designation or approval as a regional center by the USCIS does not mean that all projects and petitions emanating from that center will automatically be approved. Each project that the center undertakes is evaluated individually, as are all petitions and applications. It is true that designation as a regional center is a more secure avenue of investment for immigration, but this is only a threshold requirement—the project and the petition still need to prove their worth beyond doubt to the USCIS.
The track record of a regional center, while not a guarantee of individual approval, is a strong indicator of what the center and its management are capable of achieving. It indicates whether or not the program and its principals have the “know how” to develop strong investment programs that will qualify as immigration investments and get approved by the USCIS, and whether or not the individual investor’s petitions will be approved, both at the I-526 Stage for Conditional Permanent Residence and at the I-829 stage for Removal of Conditions.
That being said, track record alone is still not enough for you to commit to any regional center. The project that you are considering investing in also needs to be thoroughly evaluated on its own merits. Success with a past project is a good start, but in conjunction with this you need professional advice to determine the potential viability of the project that you will be investing in.
To add yet another contributing factor to the mix, all the recently launched centers and new projects must also be evaluated and considered. It takes an even higher level of care, research, and due diligence to evaluate the potential of a brand-new project where there is little or no record of success to fall back on. In order to consider a new center and/or project on your regional center “short list”, it must be thoroughly researched in conjunction with economic forecasts and business plans in order to determine its potential viability.
Contact Andrew Bartlett or Stephen Parnell for additional in-depth analysis of any potential regional center you are considering.
In the next blog we will look at the geographic location of a regional center and what they may mean to you as a potential investor.
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Tags: andrew bartlett, eb-5, I-526, I-829, immigrant petition, regional center, removal of conditions, stephen parnell, uscis
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
April 9th, 2009 |
Yesterday we looked at some important questions you need answers to when considering which regional center you choose for your EB-5 visa. Today we’ll take a look at one of those considerations; job creation.
Why is the job creation element of a regional center investment so important? Quite simply because without the requisite number of jobs being created by your investment, your green card could possibly be of a very temporary nature.
Looking at job creation by a regional center consider, in part, the following:
“Show, using reasonable methodologies, that 10 or more jobs are actually created either directly or indirectly by the new commercial enterprise through revenues generated from increased exports, improved regional productivity, job creation, or increased domestic capital investment resulting from the pilot program. The requirement of creating at least 10 new full-time jobs may be satisfied by showing that, as a result of the investment and the activities of the new enterprise, at least 10 jobs will be created indirectly through an employment creation multiplier effect. To show that 10 or more jobs are actually created indirectly by the business, reasonable methodologies may be used, such as multiplier tables, feasibility studies, analyses of foreign and domestic markets for the goods or services to be exported, and other economically or statistically valid forecasting tools which support the likelihood that the business will result in increased employment”.
When evaluating which EB-5 you are going to choose it is very important that you have an understanding of how the 10 jobs required to be generated by your investment are going to be created; are they all direct jobs? i.e. will the new enterprise you invest in employ 10 people by utilizing your investment? Alternatively, will the regional center you choose be able to show by “reasonable methodologies” that your investment has created 10 “indirect jobs”?
Your understanding of the job creation element of the regional center investment is perhaps the first and foremost of your considerations in choosing which regional center you will invest in.
Tomorrow we will take a look at exit strategy; how you get your investment back. Until then, if you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to let us know.
Andrew Bartlett & Stephen Parnell
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Tags: andrew bartlett, direct jobs, eb-5, green card, indirect jobs, investment, job creation, regional center, stephen parnell, visa
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
April 8th, 2009 |
Over the last week I have been traveling America continuing my quest to meet with representatives and/or attorneys representing regional centers. I am digesting the content of my notes from this trip and will be looking for points that affect our client’s choice of EB-5 Regional Center. We will feature many of these observations here on our Which EB-5 blog in the coming weeks.
Some of my early observations still come back to the same important questions:
1. How safe is the job creation methodology, will my Green Card become permanent?
2. What is the exit strategy – How will I get my investment back and when?
3. What are the implications of a regional center requiring the client to use a designated attorney and does that create a conflict of interest?
4. How do relatively new regional centers compare to those with a track record?
5. Does the geographic location of a regional center have an impact on the client’s choice of where to invest? Should it?
6. With so many new EB-5 regional center choices becoming available, what is the best way for a potential immigrant investor to choose where to invest, who to trust?
As we progress through 2009 our clients around the world will undoubtedly be bombarded with creative advertising offering all sorts of exotic camera shots of fantastic looking destinations all in an effort to promote any one particular regional center. Don’t let that glamour cloud your judgment. Forget the sales spiel; focus on the cold hard facts, some of which may be a little cloudy!
Despite what you might be told by employees or representatives of regional centers I have one sage piece of advice: Don’t be hasty! Even if you are told that spaces are limited, or time is running out (both of these statements may be perfectly true). Make sure you are entirely happy with your decision before you sign agreements or part with your funds. A very wise and wealthy friend once said to me “If it’s a good deal today, it will be a good deal tomorrow”.
Keep watching this space for updates. Contact me directly for a chat or with questions if you want help with your EB-5 visa choices.
Stephen Parnell
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Tags: America, conflict of interest, designated attorney, eb-5, green card, immigrant investor, job creation, regional centers, stephen parnell, where to invest, Which EB-5
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
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