Everything You Need to Know About EB-5
The Immigrant Investor Program, more commonly known as EB-5, was created by the United States Congress’ Immigration Act of 1990. It provides eligible investors to obtain permanent lawful residency in the United States. Investors must meet specific requirements in order to obtain an EB 5 investor green card. It requires one to invest either $500,000 or $1 million capital investment into a United States Commercial Enterprise.
The EB 5 visa processing time can take as long as one and a half to two years. During which, the investor must find a project or business to invest in. Depending on if the investment is made in an area that is considered a targeted employment area, the minimum $1 million investment can be lowered to $500,000. A targeted employment area is a rural area or an area with high unemployment rates. To qualify as a high unemployment location, the demographic must have an unemployment rate that is over 150 times the national unemployment average at the time of the investment application. It is wise for an investor to hire an immigration attorney or an overseas migration agent to help them find a project that will work best for their situation.
The next item on the EB 5 timeline is to create jobs. The investor must be able to create at least 10 jobs in the two-year EB 5 visa processing time. In this two year period. The investor will have a conditional residency, which is set up by immigration attorneys. The investor either has to prove that their investment funded full-time jobs that are directly within the investment or indirect jobs that are connected to industries that sell goods or services to the Eb 5 project.
Once these steps in the EB 5 visa process is complete, an immigration lawyer will file an I-829 petition at least 90 days before the second anniversary of the investor date where the applicant received the two-year conditional residency. If the applicant has met all of the requirements they will receive their permanent residence status along with their spouse and unmarried children under the age of 21. They will be able to apply to be a United States citizen on the fifth year anniversary of their conditional residency.