EB-5 is an immigrant visa category and as such is overseen by USCIS. The best source of information is uscis.gov. There have been recent developments and changes continue to occur that any potential investor should make himself aware of. Go to the source.
EB-5 visas require you to invest 1 million dollars and create or preserve 10 full time jobs for qualified U.S. workers. The investment MAY be reduced to $500,000 in a Targeted Employment Area (TEA). A TEA is either a rural area or an area of high unemployment. Both of those areas are defined in the laws and regulations, look it up, don't just assume it qualifies, get proof.
Most EB-5 petitioners (95% or more) invest through a Regional Center. It is easier and is usually quite a passive investment. A Regional Center investor can rely on "indirect job creation" that is predicted through econometric models by a professional economist. The Regional Center will do all the hard planning, the EB-5 investor basically just has to come up with lawful funds for the investment and be otherwise admissible as an immigrant to the U.S.
EB-5 petitioning is a multi-step process. You first have to choose a viable investment that is most likely to produce enough jobs to satisfy that requirement. If you are joining with other Regional Center investors in a large group project (Limited Partnership) make sure that there are enough jobs to go around. 10 EB-5 investors require a project that will create or preserve 100 jobs (10 jobs for each investor). If an investment opportunity requires more money to achieve the required number of jobs than what the alien investors are required to put up then it is important that the project include additional investors that are NOT seeking a U.S. visa through the investment (U.S. Domestic investors or foreign investors who don't want a visa).
If those 10 alien investors who need the 100 jobs were to each invest 1 million for a total of 10 million into a project that requires 15 million in order to create 100 jobs, that means that the investment overall needs 5 million more from investors who don't need a U.S. EB-5 visa.
Beware of the Regional Center projects that are offered, seek advice from an unaffiliated investment advisor that you trust.
You can invest before or after starting the USCIS paperwork. Take into consideration the needs of the investment project and the timeline for job creation. This is an important consideration.
When ready, you file a form I-526, just to get classified for the visa cagtegory (EB-5) for you as the investor and your spouse and your unmarried children under 21 years of age.
To get the I-526 approved you need to show that your money is lawful (a bunch of bank statements, tax records, records for sale of property, a gift, wills for inheritance, etc... see an accountant: "DUE DILLIGENCE" regarding the funds) AND you need to present your business plan. The plan must make good business sense and must show either that you have already hired 10 qualified U.S. workers (does not include you or your family) full time OR the plan shows the need to hire 10 workers by the time you will be required to file the I-829 to lift conditions.
If seeking an EB-5 visa on your own, in order to lift conditions, all the jobs will need to be for people on your payroll and you will need to show their IRS payroll documents.
If seeking an EB-5 visa through a Regional Center then, in order to lift condition, you do not need to show that you have anyone on the payroll and the Regional Center would help you gather the required evidence.
Once you file your I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur, and it gets approved (that should be anywhere from 3 to 6 months) you then seek adjustment if within the U.S. or an immigrant visa if you are outside the U.S. That second step may take another 4 to 6 months.
If adjusted in the U.S. by having your form I-485 approved then you immediately become a Conditional Resident right there at your adjustment interview in a USCIS office or most likely it will be done at the California Service Center without any interview and you will be notified by mail.
If you get a visa from a U.S. Consulate then you have additional time to actually travel to the U.S. and be admitted by a CBP officer. From time of visa issuance to entry in the U.S. can add another 6 months (or maybe a year since the I-526 was approved) before you become a Conditional Resident.
Upon entry in the U.S with a visa, as soon as the CBP officer stamps your passport you become a Conditional Resident.
As soon as you become a Conditional Resident (CR), the clock starts ticking on the investment and job creation deadline.
After being a CR for 1 year and 9 months you will have to file a form I-829, Petition to Remove Conditions...
In order to get conditions lifted, you have to show that you have made the complete investment into the project and have created or preserved the 10 jobs for qualified U.S. employees just like you said you would in the I-526.
If things go wrong with the investment and you need to change the plan/project BEFORE becoming a CR, then you just re-file a new I-526 and proceed from there.
If things go wrong with the investment and you need to change the plan/project a little bit later AFTER you are a CR, you have to file a new I-526 and give up your current CR status by filing a form I-407 with the I-526 to restart the clock and re-adjust with a new I-485 (at this point, you will be in the U.S.).
If the job creation is based on a Regional Center economic model, then you have to show that the assumptions in the model have become reality.
Example #1, the model predicts at the I-526 stage that the infusion of X amount of money invested in project/company Y will result in Z number of jobs. At the I-829 stage you must show that X actually was invested in Y and USCIS will accept that Z number of jobs have been created.
Example #2, the model predicts that you will invest in a mall and X number of mall tenant's jobs will be created and because of that, Y number of indirect jobs will be created based on investment of Z amount of money. Here you would need to show that Z was invested in the mall and tenants have taken leases on the stores in the mall. Because of this you can assert that X number of tenant jobs have been created, therefore, Y number of indirect jobs have also been created and you have meet the requirements to lift conditions on your residence status.
After your conditions are lifted, all the conditional time is converted to Permanent Resident time and counts towards your basic 5 years of residence required for naturalization. That is not the only requirement for naturalization but you have lots of time to figure that out later.
BEWARE: Many new Regional Centers have been approved in the last couple of years while a few have been around for over 10 years. Carefully check them out before deciding. Longevity does not equal posession of quality nor does newness equal lack of quality. What matters is business skills and sound good-quality investment opportunities.
BEWARE: It is illegal for the Regional Center to guarantee a return on investment, if anyone does, run away.
BEWARE: Any good Regional Center will require some kind of service charge to cover adminitrative costs for lawyers, overhead, econimists or accountants etc... They can do this for $25,000 to $30,000.
If they charge nothing, that means they will likely try to divert some of your minumun investment to cover their costs, this will cause your investment not to qualify under the immigration law and you won't get approved by USCIS to lift your condition. Instead you will get put in Removal Proceedings.
If they charge less, use caution because they may be too inexperienced, if they charge more demand justification (it may be worth it) but if they ask for $60,000, $70,000, $100,000 or more then they may be ripping you off. Does that include immigration filing fees? Will they hook you up with an immigration attorney by providing references? Will they force one on you (possible conflict of interest on the part of the attorney)? Will they leave you on your own with no immigration help? Ask about it.
BEWARE: Track records are only as good as the investments offered. NOBODY can gaurantee a greencard or citizenship.
CONCLUSION: If you have the money, business sense, and find a quality investment, EB-5 is quicker than most family based immigration categories. Immigrating as the Immediate Relative of a US Citizen (spouse, child or parent) is faster but if you had that, you wouldn't even be looking here.
Good Luck!
EB-5 visas require you to invest 1 million dollars and create or preserve 10 full time jobs for qualified U.S. workers. The investment MAY be reduced to $500,000 in a Targeted Employment Area (TEA). A TEA is either a rural area or an area of high unemployment. Both of those areas are defined in the laws and regulations, look it up, don't just assume it qualifies, get proof.
Most EB-5 petitioners (95% or more) invest through a Regional Center. It is easier and is usually quite a passive investment. A Regional Center investor can rely on "indirect job creation" that is predicted through econometric models by a professional economist. The Regional Center will do all the hard planning, the EB-5 investor basically just has to come up with lawful funds for the investment and be otherwise admissible as an immigrant to the U.S.
EB-5 petitioning is a multi-step process. You first have to choose a viable investment that is most likely to produce enough jobs to satisfy that requirement. If you are joining with other Regional Center investors in a large group project (Limited Partnership) make sure that there are enough jobs to go around. 10 EB-5 investors require a project that will create or preserve 100 jobs (10 jobs for each investor). If an investment opportunity requires more money to achieve the required number of jobs than what the alien investors are required to put up then it is important that the project include additional investors that are NOT seeking a U.S. visa through the investment (U.S. Domestic investors or foreign investors who don't want a visa).
If those 10 alien investors who need the 100 jobs were to each invest 1 million for a total of 10 million into a project that requires 15 million in order to create 100 jobs, that means that the investment overall needs 5 million more from investors who don't need a U.S. EB-5 visa.
Beware of the Regional Center projects that are offered, seek advice from an unaffiliated investment advisor that you trust.
You can invest before or after starting the USCIS paperwork. Take into consideration the needs of the investment project and the timeline for job creation. This is an important consideration.
When ready, you file a form I-526, just to get classified for the visa cagtegory (EB-5) for you as the investor and your spouse and your unmarried children under 21 years of age.
To get the I-526 approved you need to show that your money is lawful (a bunch of bank statements, tax records, records for sale of property, a gift, wills for inheritance, etc... see an accountant: "DUE DILLIGENCE" regarding the funds) AND you need to present your business plan. The plan must make good business sense and must show either that you have already hired 10 qualified U.S. workers (does not include you or your family) full time OR the plan shows the need to hire 10 workers by the time you will be required to file the I-829 to lift conditions.
If seeking an EB-5 visa on your own, in order to lift conditions, all the jobs will need to be for people on your payroll and you will need to show their IRS payroll documents.
If seeking an EB-5 visa through a Regional Center then, in order to lift condition, you do not need to show that you have anyone on the payroll and the Regional Center would help you gather the required evidence.
Once you file your I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur, and it gets approved (that should be anywhere from 3 to 6 months) you then seek adjustment if within the U.S. or an immigrant visa if you are outside the U.S. That second step may take another 4 to 6 months.
If adjusted in the U.S. by having your form I-485 approved then you immediately become a Conditional Resident right there at your adjustment interview in a USCIS office or most likely it will be done at the California Service Center without any interview and you will be notified by mail.
If you get a visa from a U.S. Consulate then you have additional time to actually travel to the U.S. and be admitted by a CBP officer. From time of visa issuance to entry in the U.S. can add another 6 months (or maybe a year since the I-526 was approved) before you become a Conditional Resident.
Upon entry in the U.S with a visa, as soon as the CBP officer stamps your passport you become a Conditional Resident.
As soon as you become a Conditional Resident (CR), the clock starts ticking on the investment and job creation deadline.
After being a CR for 1 year and 9 months you will have to file a form I-829, Petition to Remove Conditions...
In order to get conditions lifted, you have to show that you have made the complete investment into the project and have created or preserved the 10 jobs for qualified U.S. employees just like you said you would in the I-526.
If things go wrong with the investment and you need to change the plan/project BEFORE becoming a CR, then you just re-file a new I-526 and proceed from there.
If things go wrong with the investment and you need to change the plan/project a little bit later AFTER you are a CR, you have to file a new I-526 and give up your current CR status by filing a form I-407 with the I-526 to restart the clock and re-adjust with a new I-485 (at this point, you will be in the U.S.).
If the job creation is based on a Regional Center economic model, then you have to show that the assumptions in the model have become reality.
Example #1, the model predicts at the I-526 stage that the infusion of X amount of money invested in project/company Y will result in Z number of jobs. At the I-829 stage you must show that X actually was invested in Y and USCIS will accept that Z number of jobs have been created.
Example #2, the model predicts that you will invest in a mall and X number of mall tenant's jobs will be created and because of that, Y number of indirect jobs will be created based on investment of Z amount of money. Here you would need to show that Z was invested in the mall and tenants have taken leases on the stores in the mall. Because of this you can assert that X number of tenant jobs have been created, therefore, Y number of indirect jobs have also been created and you have meet the requirements to lift conditions on your residence status.
After your conditions are lifted, all the conditional time is converted to Permanent Resident time and counts towards your basic 5 years of residence required for naturalization. That is not the only requirement for naturalization but you have lots of time to figure that out later.
BEWARE: Many new Regional Centers have been approved in the last couple of years while a few have been around for over 10 years. Carefully check them out before deciding. Longevity does not equal posession of quality nor does newness equal lack of quality. What matters is business skills and sound good-quality investment opportunities.
BEWARE: It is illegal for the Regional Center to guarantee a return on investment, if anyone does, run away.
BEWARE: Any good Regional Center will require some kind of service charge to cover adminitrative costs for lawyers, overhead, econimists or accountants etc... They can do this for $25,000 to $30,000.
If they charge nothing, that means they will likely try to divert some of your minumun investment to cover their costs, this will cause your investment not to qualify under the immigration law and you won't get approved by USCIS to lift your condition. Instead you will get put in Removal Proceedings.
If they charge less, use caution because they may be too inexperienced, if they charge more demand justification (it may be worth it) but if they ask for $60,000, $70,000, $100,000 or more then they may be ripping you off. Does that include immigration filing fees? Will they hook you up with an immigration attorney by providing references? Will they force one on you (possible conflict of interest on the part of the attorney)? Will they leave you on your own with no immigration help? Ask about it.
BEWARE: Track records are only as good as the investments offered. NOBODY can gaurantee a greencard or citizenship.
CONCLUSION: If you have the money, business sense, and find a quality investment, EB-5 is quicker than most family based immigration categories. Immigrating as the Immediate Relative of a US Citizen (spouse, child or parent) is faster but if you had that, you wouldn't even be looking here.
Good Luck!
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