The employment-based fifth preference visa category for immigrant investors, commonly referred to as “EB-5,” has grown significantly over the last several years. However, the EB-5 investor presents a number of unique challenges for immigration attorneys, including matters of economic modeling, securities law and international tax law.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) administers the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, which provides a path to U.S. lawful permanent residence that avoids most of the backlogs and delays associated with other green-card categories. That’s provided, of course, that the applicant has at least $500,000 of disposable capital to invest in a USCIS-approved regional center. Regional centers are essentially private equity funds that pool multiple EB-5 investments into a single fund used by larger-scale projects to create hundreds or thousands of new jobs.
