EB-5 Green Card Through Investment: Residency Requirements

What you should know when you get a green card through investment. It may shock EB-5 investors to learn that maintaining lawful permanent residence or green card status through the EB-5 Program in the U.S. isn’t as simple and straightforward as it seems.

People who received their green card through investment think that if they pay their taxes and don’t break any laws they’ll be safe from losing their lawful permanent residence (LPR) status. Unfortunately, there’s more to it than that.

After getting a green card through investment, the residency requirements for maintaining their LPR status may be a problem for many EB-5 investors who travel outside the country frequently.

An EB-5 investor who spends more than one year traveling outside the U.S. will not be re-admitted into the U.S. with his or her green card.

While EB-5 investors may be wondering if he or she could just come back to the U.S. for brief periods of time (days or weeks) to break up consecutive long trips, U.S. Customs and Border Control will likely question the EB-5 investors entitlement to their lawful permanent residence status. It has been said that the U.S. Customs and Border Control has problems with investors who spend more than half their time outside of the U.S.

It may be beneficial to the EB-5 investor who intends to spend long periods of time outside the U.S. to have evidence showing that they have no intention of abandoning their LPR status.

To show that they only intended for their trips to be temporary some proof they can exhibit includes:

• Family relationship ties in the U.S. *
• Property holdings in the U.S. *
• Evidence that their job is in either the U.S. or abroad *
• Showcasing that the U.S. may be a place of employment or contains the location of their permanent personal residence *
• Obtaining a reentry permit if the EB-5 investor knows they’re going to be on a long trip (travel document issued by the USCIS as a supplement to their passport)