subject: Defining The Eb5 Investor Visa [print this page] The EB-5 immigrant investor visa is one of the easiest and most flexible routes an immigrant can take if they are interested in gaining a green card based off an investment in the United States. An applicant can attain one of these visas by satisfying any of the following criteria:
1)If the immigrant invests at least (1) one million dollars and hires at least ten employees anywhere in the United Stated
2)If the immigrant invest (5) five hundred thousand dollars and hires at least ten employees in an area of the United States where the unemployment rate of that area exceeds the unemployment rate of the country (national unemployment rate) by a ratio of 1.5 to 1.
3)If the immigrant invests in a Regional Center.
It is important to make some notes in regard to this criterion. First, the immigrant does not necessarily have to manage the day-to-day operations of the business they start. Neither must they actually begin a new business; they may instead invest in an existing business as such that their investment facilitates the requisite amount of new jobs.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has designated certain geographical areas as immigrant investor visa Regional Centers. These Centers are eligible to receive funds from an immigrant seeking an eb5 investor visa. By investing one of these Regional Centers, immigrants will be relying on a more indirect form of job creation, instead of the outright hiring involved in the other criteria. In the case of using a Regional Center investment, an independent expert must verify the validity of the investment and its potential to create jobs. While Regional Center investment require a (1) million dollar donation to be considered, if the Regional Center is located in an area of high unemployment as outlined in criteria two (2), area the required capital will then be reduced to (5) five hundred thousand.
There are 10,000 of these visas available per calendar year, with of half of those being designated for eb5 visa program Regional Center investors. While the Regional Center donations does see unused slots each year, the other two types of visa are often very sought after and typically get fully dispersed each year. Regardless of the method of entry into the program, immigrants utilizing the Eb5 program can look forward to an unconditional green card visa after two short years of remaining compliant with its guidelines.
