How To Evaluate An EB-5 Regional Center

There are currently more than 900 entries on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services list of approved EB-5 regional centers. With so many to choose from, what is the best way to evaluate an EB-5 regional center and determine if it’s the right one for you?

Placing capital into an EB-5 regional center project requires at minimum a $500,000 investment. In return for making this investment into an EB-5 regional center commercial enterprise project, foreign nationals and their immediate family can qualify for U.S. green cards.

For a list of the top reasons why foreign nationals are flocking to the EB-5 Program, visit here:

Seeking professional guidance:

For assistance with conducting due diligence you could consult with an immigration attorney and/or a broker-dealer. An immigration attorney can provide information on the immigration ramifications of investing in a particular regional center project. A broker-deal can recommend a project to you and review the financial risks.

Looking at a regional center’s history:

• Do they have a record of approvals for I-526 and I-829 petitions?
• Upon project completion, did they repay investor capital?
• How many years of experience do the principals have in developing similar projects that create jobs?
• What managerial experience does the regional center have?
• What is the track record and reputation of the project developers and partners?
• Does the regional center regularly update the EB-5 investors on the project’s status?
• Can you speak with past EB-5 investors who have worked with the project developer?

Reviewing their job creation methodology:

While there is more than one way to model indirect job creation, when it comes to direct job creation, the economic models used are fairly standard. Is the regional center you’re researching using realistic economic modeling? Are they being conservative in their projections? Do they have a job creation buffer to ensure that all the EB-5 investors will fulfill their job creation program requirements?

Determining if the business plan is credible and EB-5 compliant:

Potential EB-5 investors typically choose projects in familiar industries. Therefore, if a project’s EB-5 business plan does not sound credible to the investor, it is less likely it would sound credible to USCIS. Since an EB-5 project’s business plan must meet certain EB-5 Program criteria, finding an EB-5 regional center with successful past project experience may be beneficial.

Send us a message if you have any questions about evaluating EB-5 regional centers.