Immigration Attorney Jessica Meng

Posts Tagged ‘EB-5’

EB-5 Investment visa was created by Congress in 1990 for use by an entrepreneur to petition the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for status as an immigrant to the U.S. pursuant to section 203(b)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended. The basic amount required to invest is $1 million. Congress created a pilot program in 1993, reducing the amount to no less than $500,000 in “designated regional centers.”

1.Qualifications

You may file this petition for yourself if you have established a new commercial enterprise:

In which you will engage in a managerial or policy-making capacity, and
In which you have invested or are actively in the process of investing the amount required [unless adjusted downward for targeted areas or upward for areas of high employment, the amount of investment shall be $1,000,000 (one million dollars)] for the area in which the enterprise is located, and
Which will benefit the U.S. economy, and
Which will create full-time employment in the U.S. for at least ten U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or other immigrants authorized to be employed, other than yourself, your spouse, your sons or daughters, or any nonimmigrant aliens.
The establishment of a new commercial enterprise may include:

Creation of a new business;
The purchase of an existing business with simultaneous or subsequent restructuring or reorganization resulting in a new commercial enterprise;
The expansion of an existing business through investment of the amount required, so that a substantial change (at least 40 percent) in either the net worth, number of employees, or both, results; or
Investment in a USCIS designated Regional Center; or
Investment in a troubled business (A troubled business is one that has been in existence for at least two years, has incurred a net loss for accounting purposes during the 12 or 24-month period before the petition was filed, and the loss for such period is at least equal to 20 percent of the business’s net worth before the loss. To establish investment in a troubled business, the petitioner must show that the number of existing employees will be maintained at no less than the pre-investment level for at least two years.)
2. Removing the Conditions

Assuming the INS approves an investor’s visa petition, he or she becomes a conditional resident for two years. Prior to the second anniversary, the immigrant investor must file a petition to remove the conditions, accompanied by evidence showing that a commercial enterprise was established, that the alien invested or was in the process of investing the required capital, and that the alien created or will create 10 full-time jobs.