In recent years, the EB-5 Investment Green Card Program has gained popularity among high net-worth individuals seeking the freedom and flexibility to live and work in the United States. This visa allows foreign investors and their immediate family to obtain a Green Card to live permanently in the United States by investing in a business that creates at least 10 jobs for qualifying U.S. workers. The investment amount is $1 million. This number is reduced to $500,000 if the investor invests in a targeted employment area, which is a rural or high unemployment area.
The investment amount is also reduced to $500,000 if the investor invests in a designated regional center. In 1992, Congress expanded the EB-5 program by permitting the designation of Regional Centers to pool EB-5 capital from multiple foreign investors for investment in USCIS-approved economic development projects within a defined geographic region. Regional centers can be publicly or privately owned or be a public-private partnership. These centers maximize the program’s job creation benefits by facilitating the investment of significant amounts of capital in large-scale projects often in coordination with regional economic development agencies which use the EB-5 funds to leverage additional capital.
