The EB-5 investor visa program is a popular immigration route to the USA. An EB-5 visa can be turned into a green card after a few years, which makes the opportunity especially attractive. Please read on to find out more about the EB-5 visa and the procedure of acquiring one. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us directly!
What is an EB-5 visa?
The official name of the program is US Employment-Based Fifth Preference Category / EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program. This is a mechanism of acquiring a green card (a legal residence permit in the USA) that has been available since 1990. The main applicant’s family members also can qualify for residence permits.
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The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) administers the EB-5 visa program. A foreign national has to make a substantial investment in the American economy to qualify for an EB-5 visa.
The terms and conditions of the visa program have changed several times since the program was launched. The current terms and conditions have been in force since the program was significantly amended on March 15, 2022. This fact is often referred to as an ‘EB-5 visa program reform’. In addition to other things, the candidate for an EB-5 visa needs to meet the following requirements:
- Prepare the application documents set with an immigration lawyer’s assistance. The key documents are those that confirm the legality of the investment capital.
- Finance a business project in the United States. You can invest into your own business project in the USA or finance a business venture approved by a regional center (see below). The minimum amount of investment is US$ 0.8 million if you finance one of the projects in the Targeted Employment Area and it is US$ 1.05 if you finance any other business project.
- Pay a state duty of US$ 3,675 +US$ 1,000 as a fee payable to the EB–5 Integrity Fund.
- Apply for an EB-5 foreign investor visa. This can be done in the USA or at a US embassy/ consulate in a foreign country.
- Create 10 or more permanent jobs for American citizens or legal residents holding work permits.
- Fall within the quotas: normally, not more than 10 thousand EB-5 visas are issued to foreigners per year. Besides, there are country-specific quotas that depend on the portion of applicants from a particular country in the total number of applicants for EB-5 visas.
Advantages of an EB-5 foreign investor visa to the USA
- Citizens of all countries are eligible to apply for EB-5 visas, even the sanctioned ones. As far as the quotas are concerned citizens of China, India, and South Korea demonstrate the highest demand for EB-5 visas. For this reason, it is hard for them to keep within the yearly quotas.
- The visa holder is eligible to live and work in the USA and use the entire educational and healthcare infrastructure available in the country.
- An EB-5 visa opens the way to green cards for all family members (the main applicant’s spouse and unmarried children up to 21 years of age can be added to the application). An EB-5 visa is a single entry visa to the USA. When arriving to the USA on an EB-5 visa, the foreign investor obtains a temporary and then a permanent green card. After living on a green card for five years, the foreigner can apply for citizenship of the United States (if he or she desires).
- No employer or sponsor in the USA is required for obtaining an EB-5 visa.
- The foreign investor does not have to manage the business venture in the USA on his/ her own. If you invest in a business project managed by one of the regional centers (640 such centers are in existence as of today), you can obtain an EB-5 visa in exchange for a passive investment.
- If you choose the investment project wisely and if you are able to find a qualified immigration lawyer, the investment can be returned after a few years and a profit can be made.
The process of acquiring an EB-5 investor visa to the USA
We are going to assume that you would like to make a passive investment in one of the business projects administered by one of the regional centers and describe the process of acquiring a green card via the EB-5 visa program with this assumption in mind.
Stage 1: Preparation for applying for an EB-5 investor visa
- Filling out the investor questionnaire. Any regional center licensed to administer the EB-5 program in the USA will ask for your brief biography. Only when the officer of the regional center gets to know you a little bit can you gain access to all the application documents. You have to provide the following information in the questionnaire in addition to other things:
- The number of family members added to the application for an EB-5 visa;
- The sources of the investment capital;
- The degree to which you are familiar with the EB-5 visa program and your understanding of the investment process within the framework of the program;
- Your preferred investment projects;
- Your experience in making investments, and so on.
- Hiring a licensed immigration lawyer in the USA. The regional center can recommend a licensed immigration lawyer to you but it has no right to appoint one. This regulation helps avoid conflict of interests between the foreign investor and the regional center.
- Choosing the business project to invest in. After an interview with a case manager, the foreign investor usually understands what sector of the US economy he or she wants to invest in. Often the investor even knows what particular business project he or she wants to finance. In this case, the project-related documentation has to be studied thoroughly because the US legislation requires that candidates for EB-5 visas act consciously.
- Preparing supporting documents to be added to the application for an EB-5 visa. With the help of the immigration lawyer, you will have to collect the documents that confirm the legality of the sources of investment capital. It is important to make sure that the lawyer has worked with applicants from your country before and that he/ she knows what documents are used there to confirm the legality of the sources of income.
- Making an investment commitment. Then you have to sign the investment-related documents and transfer money to an escrow account with the regional center.
- Applying for an EB-5 visa. The immigration lawyer is going to apply for an EB-5 visa to the USCIS on your behalf.
The duration of the preparatory stage will largely depend on your motivation. Case managers in the regional centers are trained to give clear presentations of investment projects. Immigration lawyers specializing in the EB-5 visa program are good at what they do too. Some obstacles may arise at the stage of transferring the money to the USA due to the currency control regulations.
Stage 2: Application processing
The USCIS is going to process your application for an EB-5 visa. The immigration agency will assign a number to each application. The applicant is entitled to send inquiries to the agency by email. In practice, immigration lawyers do that: an experienced lawyer will know how much time the application processing normally takes and if a delay should happen, he/ she will make an inquiry.
Stage 3: An interview at a US embassy
A personal interview is required to obtain an EB-5 visa. The interview can be held at a US embassy/ consulate or at the USCIS if you are in the USA. The timeframes of acquiring an EB-5 visa can vary between several months and several years. You may have to wait for your EB-5 visa for a long time due to the annual quotas that we have mentioned above. When you arrive to the USA, you are issued a temporary green card that is valid for 2 years.
You have to meet two requirements to be able to turn your temporary green card into a permanent one. (You can live in the USA on a permanent green card all your life but you have to extend it every 10 years):
- You cannot withdraw from investments for at least two years (that is, while the temporary green card is valid). If you take the waiting time into account, you may have to keep your money invested for some 5 or 6 years.
- Your investments have to create at least 10 jobs in the USA over the investment period.
A temporary green card is as good as a permanent one with respect to the rights and obligations that it brings to its holder.
After two years, you can file an application for a permanent green card with the help of your immigration lawyer if you manage to meet both requirements specified above. Meeting the first requirement rests solely with you. However, meeting the second requirement rests with the regional center. This shows how important it is to choose the regional center wisely when applying for an EB-5 investor visa.
The USCIS publishes the quarterly statistics related to the EB-5 visa program. The latest available data are for the III quarter of fiscal year 2023 (the fiscal year lasts from October 1 to September 30 in the USCIS. Consequently, the data are for the period between April 1 and June 30, 2023).
Immigrant investors are spoiled by the wide choice of options. Dozens of countries besides the USA offer ‘golden visa’ programs. It is easy to get confused because the choice is so great. Our experts will be happy to help you navigate through the available golden visa programs and put you through the most reliable immigration agent in the jurisdiction of your choice. Please supply your email address in the form below to learn more. We will consult you free of charge!
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According to the recent statistics, the number of rejected applications for EB-5 visas has grown considerably in fiscal year 2023. The number of applications processed by the USCIS in the second quarter is twice as high as the number in the first quarter. However, the figure is extremely low anyway if you consider the number of applications for EB-5 visas awaiting processing. By the end of the second quarter of fiscal year 2023, the backlog exceeded 12.8 thousand applications.
| Period (fiscal year and quarter) | Applications for EB-5 visas | Approved applications | Rejected applications | Processed applications | Percentage of rejections |
| 2023, III qtr. | 699 | 637 | 251 | 888 | 28% |
| 2023, II qtr. | 535 | 406 | 498 | 904 | 55% |
| 2023, I qtr. | 556 | 273 | 207 | 480 | 43% |
| 2022, IV qtr. | 188 | 260 | 487 | 747 | 65% |
| 2022, III qtr. | 32 | 264 | 191 | 455 | 42% |
| 2022, II qtr. | 420 | 50 | 102 | 152 | 67% |
| 2022, I qtr. | 189 | 16 | 45 | 61 | 74% |
| 2021, IV qtr. | 456 | 50 | 266 | 316 | 84% |
| 2021, III qtr. | 169 | 592 | 135 | 727 | 19% |
| 2021, II qtr. | 98 | 752 | 130 | 882 | 15% |
| 2021, I qtr. | 91 | 1,004 | 119 | 1,123 | 11% |
| 2020, IV qtr. | 53 | 904 | 236 | 114 | 21% |
| 2020, III qtr. | 40 | 576 | 346 | 922 | 38% |
| 2020, II qtr. | 21 | 714 | 190 | 904 | 21% |
| 2020, I qtr. | 4,264 | 383 | 72 | 455 | 16% |
| 2019, IV qtr. | 1,191 | 383 | 190 | 573 | 33% |
| 2019, III qtr. | 615 | 333 | 246 | 579 | 42% |
| 2019, II qtr. | 580 | 795 | 180 | 975 | 18% |
| 2019, I qtr. | 1,808 | 2,175 | 398 | 2,573 | 15% |
| 2018, IV qtr. | 1,338 | 351 | 529 | 4,039 | 13% |
| 2018, III qtr. | 617 | 4,012 | 412 | 4,424 | 9% |
| 2018, II qtr. | 1,607 | 3,303 | 312 | 3,615 | 9% |
| 2018, I qtr. | 2,862 | 2,746 | 298 | 3,044 | 10% |
| 2017, IV qtr. | 1,637 | 2,876 | 217 | 3,093 | 7% |
| 2017, III qtr | 4,402 | 2,386 | 278 | 2,664 | 10% |
| 2017, II qtr. | 1,731 | 2,816 | 199 | 3,015 | 7% |
| 2017, I qtr. | 4,395 | 3,243 | 228 | 3,471 | 7% |
| 2016, IV qtr. | 5,509 | 2,851 | 293 | 3,144 | 9% |
| 2016, III qtr. | 1,513 | 166 | 433 | 2,093 | 21% |
| 2016, II qtr. | 848 | 1,864 | 637 | 2,501 | 25% |
| 2016, I qtr. | 6,277 | 1,257 | 372 | 1,629 | 23% |
The rate of application rejections is alarming indeed. The figures went high in 2022 and they remain high. In the second quarter of fiscal year 2023, the US immigration authorities rejected 55% of all applications for EB-5 visas. That means that more than half of the people who had made investments and waited for 50 months on average (the official backlog statistics) were unable to obtain EB-5 visas. For the sake of comparison: the average rejection rate was 13% between 2016 and 2021.
The USCIS does not publicize the reasons for rejecting applications for EB-5 visas. Experts believe that the applications are rejected for the following main reasons:
- Low quality of the investment projects proposed by the foreign investors;
- Involvement of inexperienced immigration lawyers who offer services at reduced prices;
- Problems related to currency control;
- Increased authority of the USCIS after the EB-5 visa program reform;
- Failure on the part of foreign investors to supply additional documents on request from the US immigration authorities in a timely manner.
Assistance in acquiring an EB-5 investor visa to the USA and a green card
There are many myths about the EB-5 investor visa program. It may happen that the immigration lawyer that you hire is not exactly competent in the relevant questions. His or her goals can be dissimilar to your own goals. With this factor in mind, you will be well-advised to seek professional assistance from reliable experts when applying for a EB-5 visa to the USA.
The application rejection statistics and the information about the algorithms of acquiring an EB-5 visa clearly shows that the key tasks that the foreign investor has is locating the right regional center and finding the right immigration lawyer. Our experts and our American partners will gladly help you choose the regional center if you would like acquire a green card by making a passive investment. We will also recommend an American immigration lawyer to you who specializes in the EB-5 investor visa program.
If you would like to acquire a free professional consultation on obtaining a green card via the EB-5 visa program, please contact us by email, messenger, or the pop-up chat box on the right.
How much does an EB-5 visa cost?
The lowest investment threshold is US$ 0.8 million. Please note that the cost of the immigration lawyer’s services as well as state duties have to be added to this amount.
Can I obtain an EB-5 visa to the USA on my own?
Theoretically you can, but you will run a higher risk of application rejection if you ignore professional assistance in the matter. You may even lose the investment amount. It would be wiser to involve a reliable immigration lawyer who specializes in the EB-5 visa program and who has experience working with applicants from your home country.
Do I have to manage my own business company in the USA to keep the EB-5 visa?
No, you don’t if you make the investment via one of the regional centers. The center will manage your investments on your behalf and help you meet other program requirements.
