the EB-5 Visa Requirements
Foreign investors who want to obtain EB-5 visa through the EB-5 visa program must fulfill a set of requirements specified by the United States Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS). The following are the requirements that the investor needs to meet:
According to the USCIS specifications: For EB-5 visa application, the general minimum qualifying investment amount is $1.8 million to be invested in any U.S. commercial enterprise. The investment source can be cash, equipment, inventory, other tangible property, cash equivalents and indebtedness secured by assets owned by the applicant.
All capital investment amount is valued at a fair-market value in United States dollars. At any given time the immigrant investor must establish that he or she is the legal owner of the invested amount. The other option that is explored by many EB-5 visa applicants and the petitioner is an investment of $900,000 if the investment is made in a commercial entity that is located in a Targeted Employment Area (TEA).
As per the USCIS criteria, an EB-5 applicant must make an EB-5 investment that will result in 10 full-time jobs for U.S. workers. The jobs must be created within two years of the investor getting the conditional permanent residency. The different job categories include “direct” “indirect” and “induced” jobs. The direct jobs are those where the employee will be working directly within the entity to which the investment was made. If the EB-5 investors make an investment in a regional center, then the investor will only have to show that 10 full time indirect or induced jobs were created.
- The indirect jobs are those that, are not under the commercial enterprise in which the investor has invested, but are formed as the result of the commercial enterprise.
- The jobs created due to the increased spending by the EB-5 project workers in the community where the regional center is located are called induced jobs
The EB-5 visa applicant can invest in different types of business entities which includes a U.S. regional center or a new commercial enterprise in the U.S. The business that is established after Nov. 29, 1990, is considered as a new commercial enterprise. Commercial enterprises established on or before Nov.29, 1990 can also be considered as new enterprises provided, they are restructured to such a level like new commercial enterprise results or the investment generate at least a 40 percent increase in the number of employees or net worth. The lawful for-profit entities in any one of the business structures including but not limited to a sole proprietorship, limited or general partnership, holding company, joint venture, corporation, business trust or other entity (which may be publicly or privately owned) comes under commercial enterprises.
