- Hi everyone.
The EB-5 Investor Visa is
an extremely powerful option
for people to get their Green Card.
There's 10,000 EB-5
Visas granted every year.
And the EB-5 Visa was specifically exempt
from President Trump's Executive Order
that was signed back in April.
As many of you know,
back in April President Trump
signed an Executive Order
suspending the issuance of certain visas.
Well, the EB-5 Visa
was specifically exempt
from that Executive Order.
In this video,
I'm gonna answer the most
frequently asked questions
about the EB-5 Visa.
So, make sure to stick around.
(soft music)
Hi everyone, so, as I mentioned,
in this video I'm gonna answer
the most frequently asked questions
about the EB-5 Visa.
This visa is very powerful.
Again, it's explicitly excluded
from the April Executive Order,
which suspends the issuance
of certain immigrant visas.
10,000 of these visas
are available every year
and thousands and thousands of people
have gotten their Green Card
through the EB-5 process.
So, in this video,
I'm gonna give you the important details
that you need to know about,
if this is your first time here,
make sure to subscribe to our channel,
and make sure to hit that Like button
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with a broader audience.
So, let's get started.
Question number one,
what is the EB-5 Visa?
Well, the EB-5 Visa is an
investment-based immigrant visa.
What this means is that,
basically it allows somebody
to invest in a business
in the United States,
and based on that investment,
they can get a Green Card for themselves,
for their spouse and for
their unmarried children
under 21 years old.
The basic idea of EB-5,
is that it allows somebody
to invest in a business,
and create jobs for US workers,
and in exchange for that
investment and that job creation,
which benefits the US economy,
the US allows that person to qualify
for a permanent residence,
for a Green Card.
Question number two,
what are the requirements to qualify
for an EB-5 Visa?
Well, the first requirement is that,
the person has to invest at least $900,000
in a US business.
In addition, the person's investment,
must lead to the creation of
at least 10 full-time jobs
for US workers.
Also, the person's investment
funds must be at-risk,
meaning that they must
actually have been committed
to the business.
Also, the investment funds must
have been obtained lawfully.
This is called the lawful
source of funds requirement.
Additionally,
the investment must be made in
a new commercial enterprise.
Basically the business
that's being invested in,
must be engaged in some
sort of commercial activity.
It cannot be for example,
a passive investment in stocks and bonds,
it actually must be an investment
made in a commercial business,
and also the investor must be engaged
in the management of the business.
Meaning that in some
capacity they are involved
in the operations of the business.
Question number three,
what is the process to get an EB-5 Visa?
Well, the EB-5 Process
actually involves multiple steps
and I'm gonna talk to you
about it, step-by-step.
The first step is filing
a Form I-526 with USCIS.
The Form I-526 is the
initial Immigrant Petition.
When you submit this form,
you have to show that your
funds have been invested,
that you've invested
the minimum requirements
to qualify for EB-5,
so again, at least $900,000,
you have to include a business plan
with your Form I-526,
showing how the funds are being spent,
and showing that the investment will lead
to the creation of 10
full-time jobs for US workers,
you include evidence
showing how your funds
were obtained lawfully,
so, you'll provide evidence of tax returns
showing how you earned the funds,
or perhaps the funds were gifted to you.
So, you will include a declaration
from the person that gifted you the funds,
showing that they're in fact,
making a gift to you.
And there's several other documents
that go into the Form I-526,
and the petition that's
submitted to USCIS.
Now, after the Form I-526 is approved,
The next step is to either
file an Adjustment of Status
or to apply for your immigrant visa.
You would apply for an
Adjustment of Status
if you're lawfully present
in the United States,
and if you're outside
of the United States,
then you would file for
your immigrant visa.
Now upon your entry to the United States
on your immigrant visa,
or upon approval of your
Adjustment of Status,
you would now be considered
a conditional permanent resident.
Basically, you get a
Green Card for two years.
During this two-year period,
you're required to
maintain your investment
in the business.
Meaning that you cannot
pull your investment funds
out of the business,
and for example, withdraw
your investment funds,
or pay yourself the totality
of your investment funds.
You must keep your funds
invested in the business.
In addition,
during this two-year period
of conditional permanent residence,
this is the time where you
have to actually create
those 10 full-time jobs for US workers.
So again, during this two-year period,
you must maintain your investment,
and you must create
those 10 full-time jobs.
Now, three months before
your two-year period
of conditional permanent
residence expires,
you're eligible to file a Form I-829.
The Form I-829 is the petition
to remove the condition
from your Green Card,
so that you can become an
unconditional permanent resident.
Again, this is called the Form I-829.
At the time the Form I-829 is filed,
you show that the 10 jobs were created,
and that you've maintained your
investment in the business.
Once the Form I-829 is
approved, congratulations,
you're now an unconditional
permanent resident.
After a certain amount of time,
you are potentially eligible to apply
for citizenship as well.
Question number four,
what is a regional center?
Basically a regional
center is a business entity
that is specially designated by USCIS,
and what a regional center does,
is that it pools investment
from multiple EB-5 investors
to fund a project of some kind.
Now, when somebody invests
in a regional center,
that regional center usually develops
some sort of a large scale
real estate project, but again,
there are many regional centers,
and many regional center projects,
and they're engaged in
many separate areas.
There are regional center projects
that have funded major hotel developments,
there are regional center projects
that have funded shopping centers,
there are regional center projects
that have funded sporting arenas.
There are many, many,
many different types of regional centers.
Question number five.
What is the difference
between making a Direct Investment
and making a regional center investment?
Well, first off, let me define
what a direct investment is.
A Direct Investment is
basically any investment
that is not made in a
regional center project.
So, for example,
if you're starting your own business,
or you're investing in your own business,
or you're purchasing an existing business,
these are all examples
of a Direct Investment.
Now, if you're going to invest
in a regional center project,
that would be a Regional
Center Investment.
One of the main aspects
of a Direct Investment
is that typically,
you're much more in
control of the business.
Again, as we mentioned, when
you make a Direct Investment,
it's almost like you're...
An example of a Direct Investment
is investing in your own business.
So, this is something that you
would have more control over.
You would have more
decision making abilities
by making a Direct Investment.
Whereas if you're going to
invest in a regional center,
there will be a managing
member of the regional center
that will be making most of the decisions.
Now, typically, as an investor
in a regional center project,
you will typically be given voting rights,
but for the most part,
your day to day involvement
in the management
of the project, is minimal.
Another major difference
between Direct Investments and
Regional Center Investments,
has to do with job creation.
Now, if you're going to
make a Direct Investment,
you have to create 10 actual jobs.
This means that at the
time that you're applying
and you're filing for your Form I-829,
you have to show evidence
of 10 actual jobs
that were created by your business.
This is called direct job creation.
However, if you invest in
a regional center project,
the regional center gets special benefits
regarding job creation.
In addition to counting the direct jobs
that the regional center project creates,
the regional center project
is also able to take
credit for indirect jobs.
So, lemme give you an
example of what this means.
Let's say the regional center
project that you invest in
is a large scale hotel development.
Again, let's say this is a 500 room hotel.
Now, this hotel development
is going to directly employ
perhaps hundreds of employees.
They're gonna have chefs,
a cleaning crew, concierge,
receptionists, you name it,
all of those people that
work directly for the hotel,
those are all classified as direct jobs.
But in addition,
as a result of the fact
that this hotel development
is going to be constructed in this city,
neighboring restaurants
are also going to see
presumably a boost in business.
The restaurant that's
located right down the street
from the hotel,
is now going to get busier
as a result of this hotel
that was constructed.
So, now this restaurant is
going to need more busboys,
and more waiters and more chefs.
Well, a regional center
is able to take credit
for those jobs that are created
in surrounding businesses.
These are classified as indirect jobs.
So, that's one of the major benefits
of investing in a regional center.
So, typically if you want
more hands-on involvement
in running the business,
then you would likely
pursue a Direct Investment.
However, if you wanna be less involved
in the day to day
operations of the business,
and you want someone
else to run the business,
then you would most likely elect to invest
in a regional center project.
Question number six,
what is a Targeted Employment Area?
So, for those of you that
are interested in EB-5,
you've probably heard of the
term Targeted Employment Area
thrown around quite a bit.
So, lemme explain what this means.
Remember back when I was
talking about the requirements
of the EB-5 program,
and I said that you had to
invest a minimum of $900,000?
Well, in reality,
you actually have to either
invest $900,000 or $1.8 million.
I know it sounds like
a radical difference.
Well, the way it works is like this.
You're actually only
eligible to invest $900,000,
if the business that you're investing in
principally does business within
a Targeted Employment Area.
Basically, a Targeted Employment Area
is either a rural area
or an area that's experiencing
high unemployment.
Basically, through the EB-5 Visa Program,
the government wants to
incentivize investors
investing in these areas,
these troubled areas,
these either rural areas
or these areas that are
experiencing high unemployment.
The government wants to
incentivize investment
in these areas,
and so, they allow investors
to qualify for EB-5,
by investing half of the
normal investment amount.
So, rather than investing a
standard amount of 1.8 million,
through the EB-5 program,
USCIS allows somebody to invest $900,000,
if the investment is made within
a Targeted Employment Area.
But if the investment is located outside
of the Targeted Employment Area,
then the minimum investment
amount is actually $1.8 million.
I know this is a little bit confusing,
so, if you have any questions about this,
or if you wanna know
whether the area that you're
planning on investing in
qualifies as a Targeted Employment Area,
just shoot me an email.
You can find my details
in the description below.
Question number seven.
Is EB-5 safe.
To answer that question,
EB-5 is just like any other investment.
Before you make the investment
you need to do your due diligence,
and you need to assess
your own risk tolerance
for this business.
Now, there's a couple of
different types of professionals
that you can work with,
to help you analyze different businesses
and make the appropriate
financial decisions.
You can either consult with a
registered investment advisor,
or you can consult with a broker dealer.
Both of these types of professionals
should be registered with FINRA,
and they can better be able to guide you
in selecting a business to invest in.
So there you have it, everybody.
Those are seven of the most
frequently asked questions
regarding the EB-5 Visa Program.
I hope you guys got a ton
of value from this video.
If you did,
please make sure to like this video
so that YouTube knows to share
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if you haven't yet
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make sure to hit that Subscribe button,
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Again, just to do a quick recap.
In this video we answered seven
of the most commonly asked questions
about the EB-5 Program.
We talked about what is the EB-5 Visa?
What are the EB-5 Visa requirements?
What's the process to get an EB-5 Visa?
What is a regional center?
What's the difference between
a Regional Center Investment
and a Direct Investment?
What is a Targeted Employment Area?
And is EB-5 safe?
Again, I hope you guys like this video.
Thank you so much for tuning in,
and I'll see you on the next video.
