What is EB-5?

• It’s an employment-based Immigrant Investor Visa Program, provides a method for eligible immigrant investors to become lawful permanent residents (Informally known as “green card” holders) by investing to finance a business in Unites States that will employ at least 10 American workers. The criterion of 10 American workers does not include the investor and their immediate family. This program affords not only the investor but also their spouse and unmarried children under 21 to become lawful permanent residents.
• The EB-5 program is intended to encourage both foreign investments and economic growth.
• Applicants have the choice of investing individually or they can choose to work through a larger investor pool via Regional Center (hereafter referred as RC) which are federally approved third-party intermediaries that connect foreign investors with developers in need of funding and take a commission.
• If an EB-5 investment is made in a RC, the jobs may be created indirectly through economic activity, as opposed to a direct investment, where the investment vehicle must directly employ the 10 U.S. workers.
• This program was created in 1990 by the Immigration Act of 1990. However, by 2015, this program had become an important source of capital for developers and for the RCs. Most investors come from China, South Korea, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Than its Canada, India, Maxico, Iran and Japan.

Investment amount:

$500,000        - For investment in a Targeted Employment Area (hereafter referred as TEA)
$1,000,000     - For other areas

Targeted Employment Area: A rural area or area with high unemployment.

Regional Centers: These are usually private, for-profit businesses that are approved by the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (hereafter referred as USCIS) which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

Investment amount                      - $500,000 or $1,000,000
RCs administration fee                - $50,000 or $100,000 (Approx. – will be confirmed by the RC)
Attorney Fee                                - $25,000 (Approx.)
Ventura Pranas Fees                   - $6,000 (Approx. – It will be billed at our average hourly rate of $125 which is
                                                       estimated for 50 hours)
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               Total                                $581,000 or $1,131,000 (Approx.)
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Stage 1

1. First of all, the investor should qualify as an Accredited Investor. Refer the criterion below to qualify as an accredited investor.
2. Source documentation for the amount of investment for EB‐5 program and the related administrative fees of RC.
3. Review of source documents by the attorney and approval from attorney if the source documents are in line with the requirements of USCIS.
4. Enquiry with the RC for ongoing projects and selection of the project by the investor.
5. Filling in and submitting to the RC a set of forms for subscribing to the project. The necessary forms will be provided by the RC after the selection of the project.
6. Transfer of funds to the escrow account of RC.
7. Submission of necessary documents by the RC to the attorney to proceed with preparing the paper documents for EB‐5 application.
8. Filing of I‐526 petition along with other necessary forms by the attorney with USCIS after getting the forms reviewed and signed by the investor.

Stage 2

1. Receipt of I‐526 approval from USCIS.
2. Attend interview at U.S. Consulate and receive EB‐5 visa.
3. Immigrate to the U.S. and receive two‐year conditional green card.

Stage 3

1. Within 3 months before the expiry of two‐year term of conditional green card, the attorney will file I‐829 with USCIS, submitting the evidence documenting that the full required investment has been made and that 10 jobs have been maintained / created.
2. Upon the satisfaction by USCIS on the pre‐conditions of EB‐5 program, I‐829 approval will be received and permanent green card will be issued.
3. There after investors’ return if any determined and distributed pursuant to the Limited Partnership Agreement.

The investor must satisfy either of point a) or point b) below in order to qualify for the EB-5 Program.

1. The applicant’s net worth, taken together with the net worth of spouse, exceeds $1,000,000.
2. The applicant’s individual income exceeds $200,000 in each of the two most recent years or the applicant’s joint income (with spouse) exceeds $300,000 in each of the two most recent years and the applicant reasonably expects to reach at least that income level in the current year.

For the purpose of calculating net worth:

• The person’s primary residence shall not be included as an asset.
• Indebtedness that is secured by the person’s primary residence, up to the estimated fair market value of the primary residence at the time of sale of securities, shall not be included as a liability.
• Indebtedness that is secured by the person’s primary residence in excess of the estimated fair market value of the primary residence shall be included as a liability.

Sources documentation                                                                                                                                                     : 2-4 months
Review of sources documents by attorney and additional information if any                                                                    : 1-2 months
I-526 petition filing by attorney                                                                                                                                           : 2-3 weeks
I-526 petition filing to approval of I-526                                                                                                                              : 1-2.5 years
Conditional green card                                                                                                                                                       : 2 years
I-829 approval and issue of permanent green card                                                                                                           : 3-6 months

1. The United States has decided to effect a steep increase in the application fee for its Immigrant Investor Visa Programme, EB-5.
2. Although a hike was under consideration since January 2017, the U.S. administration kept pushing the decision, at least half a dozen times, until the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) took a final call on June 29, 2019 after it completed its review of the EB-5 modernisation regulations.
3. Under the revised scheme, the application fee for projects under Targeted Employment Areas, will go up to $1.35 million from the current $500,000. The standard minimum investment will also rise to $1.8 million from the existing $1 million.
4. The date of the new fee implementation and details of the final regulation will be known in the next 60 days through a publication in the Federal Register.
5. Applicants have the choice of investing individually or they can choose to work through a larger investor pool via Regional Center (hereafter referred as RC) which are federally approved third-party intermediaries that connect foreign investors with developers in need of funding and take a commission .
6. Ventura Pranas has rich experience in helping investors navigate through this process and provide wide range of services to support an EB 5 application.

Scope of Ventura Pranas Includes:

1. Preparing the source documentation by collecting the documents and interaction with the investor.
2. Calculating the net worth to confirm if the prospective investor qualifies to be an accredited investor and preparing the net worth certificate.
3. Interaction with the attorney from review of source documentation to filing of I‐526 petition and filing of I‐829 before the expiry of conditional green card.
4. Interaction with RC for project related information, transfer of funds and filling the necessary forms and submission to RC thereof.