LA Times Says The EB-5 Program May Be Surest Path To Green Card

In a new article published on April 10th, the LA Times delves into the appeal of the EB-5 Program.

The EB-5 Program offers wealthy foreigners green cards, and a pathway to U.S. citizenship, in exchange for investing $1 million, or more typically $500,000, into qualifying projects that create jobs.

As the LA Times points out, the major two draws to the program for many individuals who have the funds to invest, include:

1. Being a potentially faster path to a green card than other visa categories
   • Once a potential investor has filed their I-526 Petition and it’s approved they can apply for a conditional green card. EB-5 investors and their immediate family can live, work and go to school in the U.S. on their conditional green cards while they wait approximately two years for their investment to fulfill the program requirements. Wait times do depend on the applicant’s country of origin. There is a visa backlog for applicants from Mainland China. Applicants can obtain visas when they become available. Then when their investment project fulfills the program requirements, the investor can file their I-829 Petition to remove the conditions on their green card. After approximately 5 years, an investor may become eligible for U.S. citizenship. In comparison, an H-1B visa holder could wait up to 10 years to obtain a green card.
2. Having more benefits than other visa categories
   • An EB-5 investor, their spouse, and their unmarried children under 21 years of age, can all live, work, and attend school anywhere in the U.S. These are strong benefits compared to the issues with he popular H-1B visa. H-1B is a work-authorization visa and requires an employer-sponsor. This then limits the type of work a visa holder can do and where they can live.

What about the other visa categories?

Other visa categories have strict requirements that limit who can apply. For example, the E-2 visa requires applicants to be nationals of countries that the U.S. has treaties of commerce and navigation with. Or, the ‘O’ visa requires applicants to have certain types of extraordinary ability.

Under President Trump’s administration the lengthy measures taken to limit immigration have resulted in an increased interest in the EB-5 visa in particular. EB-5 is popular among wealthy foreign entrepreneurs who see the benefit of investing in U.S. businesses that create jobs for qualified Americans, rather than utilizing visas like the H-1B that take jobs away from U.S. workers.

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