EB5 investment visa.

M

marie52

Registered Users (C)
We have just had our application approved pending medical and interview at the USA Embassy in London. Has anyone on here been through this procedure? would be interested to hear others experiences of this. Not sure what to expect.

Sorry if I have put this in the wrong place, not familiar with forum procedure.
 
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Yes, we invested almost a year ago now, with American Life in the Seattle Marriott Courtyard project. You get interest on the money while its in the bank but once they start spending on the builiding it obviously goes down until you get to the point the tenant is in, then we get an income based on the profit.
This project is due to finish next year. It is the biggest one AL have done so far, amost 150 investors, mostly from Japan and China.
 
marie52 said:
Yes, we invested almost a year ago now, with American Life in the Seattle Marriott Courtyard project. You get interest on the money while its in the bank but once they start spending on the builiding it obviously goes down until you get to the point the tenant is in, then we get an income based on the profit.
This project is due to finish next year. It is the biggest one AL have done so far, amost 150 investors, mostly from Japan and China.
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I havent personally applied for this. However bit surprised it took a yr to get approved. I dont think it should be an issue for the interview. Must be just a formality.
 
Thank you for your reply. It actually took 6 months to be approved. Our application l-526should have been submitted after the $500k was invested, in October 07, but there were some problems that delayed it being submitted until the end of March 08.

We have been told recently the interview is a formality following the medicals and the USCIS have said if we haven't got our visa 90 days after approval we should contact them. Who knows we could be there by christmas, that would be nice.

Thank you for your comments and for setting up this site, just reading through others experiences has been very useful, its great to be able to communicate with others going through a similar process.
 
Marie:
I was researching on the internet because I also invested in the EB-5 program and am not 100% familiar with the processing times.
I saw your post and see that you invested in the American Life program (the Seattle marriott). I invested last year and only filed around February 08.
I got the approval for the I-526 a week ago and now we have to file for the I-485.
Anyways just wanted to say hi and to say what a small world the internet is!!
I am now in the process of doing the medical exams and filling out biography, etc and I think we (my husband and I ) will be filing soon!
I am not clear on how long could it take to get the approval of the I-485?
 
clauds said:
Marie:
I was researching on the internet because I also invested in the EB-5 program and am not 100% familiar with the processing times.
I saw your post and see that you invested in the American Life program (the Seattle marriott). I invested last year and only filed around February 08.
I got the approval for the I-526 a week ago and now we have to file for the I-485.
Anyways just wanted to say hi and to say what a small world the internet is!!
I am now in the process of doing the medical exams and filling out biography, etc and I think we (my husband and I ) will be filing soon!
I am not clear on how long could it take to get the approval of the I-485?
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For EB5 category its usually current which means it shouldnt take more than few months. You can always call USCIS if they delay it based on the receipt number you get while filing I-485.
 
marie52 said:
Thank you for your reply. It actually took 6 months to be approved. Our application l-526should have been submitted after the $500k was invested, in October 07, but there were some problems that delayed it being submitted until the end of March 08.

We have been told recently the interview is a formality following the medicals and the USCIS have said if we haven't got our visa 90 days after approval we should contact them. Who knows we could be there by christmas, that would be nice.

Thank you for your comments and for setting up this site, just reading through others experiences has been very useful, its great to be able to communicate with others going through a similar process.
Click to expand...

Yes, 90 days should be the maximum.
 
clauds said:
Marie:
I was researching on the internet because I also invested in the EB-5 program and am not 100% familiar with the processing times.
I saw your post and see that you invested in the American Life program (the Seattle marriott). I invested last year and only filed around February 08.
I got the approval for the I-526 a week ago and now we have to file for the I-485.
Anyways just wanted to say hi and to say what a small world the internet is!!
I am now in the process of doing the medical exams and filling out biography, etc and I think we (my husband and I ) will be filing soon!
I am not clear on how long could it take to get the approval of the I-485?
Click to expand...

Hello, great to hear from you. Be interesting to confer on this one see how our experiences match up.
 
marie52 said:
We hope so, another source has told us waiting times are 6-8 months:eek:
Fingers crossed they are wrong.
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If USCIS has told you 90 days and if they dont honour, you have every right to take action. You are doing their economy a favour by investing.
 
EB5 Process & Requirements

Is EB5 process something one could initiate themselves? or hire a lawyer? Any help in starting this and requirements would be appreciated.


Regards, v
 
Like any other visa petition, EB5 could also be applied by the investor. However, many consider the EB5 visa application to be quite tricky and rejection rate very high:hence the investor would be better off using an attorney WHO HAS DEALT WITH EB5 CASES.
 
Does anyone know what would happen if the application gets rejected? Does it mean the the $500K or $1M will be gone forever or it simply means that you are now an non resident investor and still able to recoup the profits from the project, if any.
 
Complicated situation. Up until the Marriot project the investment was not a risk in that if you were rejected you got your investment back. However, with the latest American Life project, Marriott Courtyard in Seattle, came a 2nd RFE, which argued the investment had to be a risk to qualify, certain wording was removed from the contract and it went though. As we understand it, if you were rejected, having made your investment, you would still have that investment and could sell or recoup the profits made, and yes, be a non resident investor.
This is a popular visa with everyone, especially with the US government as it is a great way to bolster their economy, as most investors don't just invest, they bring more money into the country when they relocate. Win, win for all.
 
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Thanks Marie52, I am so happy for you, must be such a relief getting approved and not having to subject yourself to the typical process for most others have to go through.

btw, did you have to pay a consulting fee or something on top of the $500K to Am Life or the company who facilitated the process?

I found another company who does the same but they ask for $50K as a consulting fee. Just wonder if that is typical.....
 
Ah well, that would have been a relief but as far as we can tell that is not the case, EB5 applicants seem to go through all the same stuff every other type of visa does. We have been at this 2.5 years so far. If your attorney is on the ball an EB5 can usually be acquired in about 12 months.

Our visa application went in in March 08 and was approved in Sept 08. (it took 14 months to get the paperwork together, then we were told we could not use our UK attorney, we had to use one affiliated to AL). But we still have medicals, going tomorrow, vaccination palava, of which we are applying for excemption via an attorney that deals only with innoculation law. Then the inverviews, and the fact that you can go through all this only to find that they might not let you in at immigration at the airport! Like I said, anyone applying for any kind of visa, needs to be determined, resiliant and patient.

Yes, there was a fee paid to American Life, for UK investors it is $35,000, $25,000 for US or other countries. (or was when we applied) + all attoney fees and the fees for each filing of papers.
 
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Hi Marie52: I have seen many lawyers promoting EB-5. Why they are doing it? Are they counting on getting legal fees or more like referral fees or they are general partners in that particular investment etc.

Why to pay consulting fees? As I understand as an investor you are limited investor of this LLC but who is general investor. Usually general partners get rich at the expense of Limited partners. Like they have a threshold of profits if projections met, general partners take 50% or more profit even though they invest like 2% in the project.

Could you provide some details like what could be upside potential in your case?
 
Hi. I will try and answer as many of your questions as possible;

it is my understanding that there are near or over 100 different types of visa in which to get into the USA. For all emigrants there are only a few that will apply to the individual's circumstances. For some the investment type visa's are the only option they have.

Yes, the lawyers get their fees from the client, and yes they get a referral fee too.
Lawyers are not involved in the investment, they simply do the paperwork and are paid accordingly.

"Why to pay consulting fees? As I understand as an investor you are limited investor of this LLC but who is general investor. Usually general partners get rich at the expense of Limited partners. Like they have a threshold of profits if projections met, general partners take 50% or more profit even though they invest like 2% in the project."

A fee is payable to the investment company and that is standard practice, there is no way out of that other than to not invest. I don't know the answer to the other part of that question, sorry.

The upside for us is simple; we get a conditional greencard, allowing us to live and work in the USA (changeable after 2 years into a full GC providing the investment remains in that project for that length of time and that 10 jobs have been created as a result) After the 2 years are up and we have our full GC, we can sell our share if we want to. We also get some sort of income from the investment. Initially that is in the form of bank interest, then later a cut of the rent from the tenant.
 
Hi marie52, thank you so much for all the information you have give me so far. I just wanted to ask how you went about choosing the Regional Center and the project? The immigration lawyers can help with the USCIS related paperwork but not give any advice on which regional centers are good/bad. Is that correct?
 
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