Another Reason To Love EB-5: Potential Use To Help Disaster Areas

Greenberg Traurig’s EB–5 Insights site reported on April 16th, that Rep. Gonzalez introduced H.R.2173, a bill that would amend the Immigration and National Security Act to reserve 100 EB-5 visas for investors who select projects in locations declared major disaster areas by the president.

The EB-5 Program gives qualifying foreign nationals and their immediate family members green cards when the principal applicant invests $500,000 in a U.S. job-creating new commercial enterprise. Developed by Congress in 1990, the EB-5 Program has poured billions of dollars into the U.S. economy and created more than 100,000 full-time jobs for U.S. workers.

Using EB-5 investment to help major disaster zones would speed recovery efforts in areas that desperately need it. Setting aside 100 visas for these areas would mean they could receive $50,000,000 in EB-5 investment that, if successful, would create at least 10,000 full-time jobs at no cost to U.S. taxpayers.

The EB-5 Program has so much potential, but it needs to be reformed to utilize the benefits fully. Right now, only about 3,000 of the 10,000 EB-5 visas are used for EB-5 investors because family members are counted toward the total cap. Only counting investors toward the cap would bring billions of dollars more in investment to the U.S. and it would create tens of thousands more in jobs for U.S. workers each year.

This would help ease the EB-5 visa backlog that’s currently causing investors from certain countries to have to wait more than 10 years for a visa. Despite the United States being the number one choice, this long wait time is making potential investors consider immigrating to other countries like Canada instead.