June 2nd, 2010 |
 What happens if things go wrong in an EB-5 Regional Center? Along with having a good fall-back plan, your regional center should also be able to tell you what will happen to your investment if problems do arise with the project and / or your immigration application. Some EB-5 immigrant investors have failed to consider this question because they have been dealing with advisers or a regional center intent on selling a product and making their commission rather than going into the necessary background detail.
You will want to know is whether or not your funds will be escrowed. The next question that needs answering is what happens to those funds if your (I-526) petition for a green card is denied. If USCIS (United States Citizenship & Immigration Service) does not approve your application and grant you a green card, will your funds be refunded to you?
This again may seem another question that should be simple enough to answer. Many regional centers do engage in some process of escrowing funds and maintain a policy of refunding money for failed applications. However, do not discount the value of your independent adviser in these matters. Whether or not your money will be refunded is not a simple yes or no question.
Although most centers have a refund policy, it needs to be determined what the conditions are in regards to that—what are the terms under which you will qualify for a refund of your investment money (do not expect a regional center necessarily to want to part with an investment of $500,000 to $1 million!—don’t take assurances at face value!).
You need to know the specific circumstances under which the center is willing to refund your investment in the case of visa denial; the typical EB-5 regional center refund policy applies only if the visa petition is denied because of some problem with the center’s project. It may not necessarily apply if the visa is denied due to an issue that the center considers being the immigrant’s responsibility.
For example, if USCIS determines that the evidence supporting the legal source of obtaining your invested funds is insufficient, or if there are criminal convictions or other dis-qualifiers present, the center may deny the refund. Every regional center has its own policy regarding the refunding of invested capital, and these policies can vary widely. It is important to research the policies ahead of time and to compare and contrast between them. An experienced adviser will be familiar with the various policies and be able to point out to you which areas and dis-qualifiers could be potential cause for concern.
Even assuming good due diligence in this respect, there are even more considerations that your adviser will go to in order to help you understand exactly how safe your investment is in relation to visa approval, and what the real likelihood of a refund is. There are two more major considerations, and more that your adviser will discuss with you.
The first of those two is the attitude of USCIS toward your refund agreement. If your funds are guaranteed, will USCIS consider them to be at risk? Will they qualify as an at-risk investment capable of qualifying for visa application and later approval? Will those funds need to be released and so not be able to be subject to escrowing or refunding? These are questions and answers that a third-party adviser will evaluate and help to answer for you.
USCIS aside, you also need to consider the safety and legality of the escrow fund that your money is being kept in. If you do not use extreme caution at this point, you stand to lose all of your invested money. Let your adviser do his or her job here, and make sure that this is a real escrow fund and that your rights and ownership are being protected. Let them look further into the matter, and find out what the disposition of other funds has been—were the monies invested? Were funds returned to investors? Why? How difficult was it for failed applicants to recoup their funds?
Clearly, the matter of safety of your investment is one that requires much care and research. This is not just about good business planning; the safety of your funds is also about the center’s track record and good business practice. It’s a level of evaluation that goes layers deep beyond the transparent, and one that you will surely want to know has been explored to all the possible depths.
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Tags: eb-5, green card, I-526, immigrant investor, Immigration, regional center, uscis, visa
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
May 27th, 2010 |
 "My New Life in the USA using the EB-5 Visa" Recently an EB-5 immigrant investor who used our services when reviewing regional center programs was interviewed by a local newspaper in California concerning his EB-5 visa experience. We thought you would like to read his comments. Here is the text of the interview:
“Paul Little made the $500,000 investment and moved to Hemet, California from Manchester, England. His father-in-law already lives nearby, one of the reasons for the move.
We’ve been coming out here on vacation for nine, 10 years. We fell in love with California,” Little said. The children were 8 and 10. We thought if we’re going to move to the states, we’re going to do it now.
Little, a former travel company executive, sold the house he inherited from his parents in rainy Manchester, where housing prices are triple those in Hemet, so he could raise enough money for the investment and the move.
I expect to get it all back, plus maybe a little more, Little said. Some of the other schemes say you’re going to make X amount but it’s not guaranteed. That’s why I wanted to go for the most solid-looking.
As he and his wife adjust to Southern California life and new jobs, their children, he jokes, are already shedding their strong British accents.
It’s obviously really multicultural here. They love it, Little said. They’re not allowed to speak American to me but at school they don’t want to stand out. They use the English accent when they need it.”
Paul and his wife approached us two years ago for details of the various EB-5 program options and their track record. After a number of consultations he opted for one of the most popular programs in recent years that offers a fixed term exit strategy and has a 100% record in visa approvals to date; currently approvals are coming through in three months. For details of how we can add you to our list of happy clients please contact us using the form on the right.
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Tags: consultations, eb-5, exit stratergy, immigrant investor, USA, visa
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
May 24th, 2010 |
 Is the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa a safe option? We sometimes receive correspondence from readers of our articles, newsletters, and this blog, saying that they are concerned there may be problems with the EB-5 as we seem to regularly identify problems with this particular immigrant visa or are warning potential investors about certain issues or flagging up complaints.
We certainly feel, as advocates of the EB-5 visa, that it is important we identify issues that potential immigrants should be aware of and as the founders of WhichEB5 we, as first generation immigrants ourselves, feel particular empathy towards those taking the major step towards starting a new life with their family in the USA.
However, far from having concerns about the EB-5 visa we have a great deal of belief in the visas track record to date based on the experiences of the 150 plus families from all over the world who we have worked with over the past few years and who are all now fulfilling their dream, living permanently with green cards and permanent residency status, in many different areas of the USA.
Many of those families had been living, for a number of years, in the USA on a variety of other visas which failed to provide them with permanent residency status and were causing them and their families a great deal of concerns and uncertainty. Their need to turn to the EB-5 to resolve these problems and the subsequent granting of their EB-5 visa status has often been a source of relief and satisfaction to them and saw the end of the ongoing problems they had previously experienced with the E2, L1, H1B and F visas which they felt could have resulted in them eventually having to leave the USA, in some cases after living here for many years.
Immigration to another country is often a mixed experience combining the excitement of new opportunities and challenges with regret at what one is leaving behind. Our concerns with the EB-5 visa are not with the visa itself or indeed with many of the well proven regional centers who have enjoyed a 100% track record to date.
However, we are concerned that some families making, what is a major step in their lives, fail to obtain independent, impartial advice from experienced consultants who have spent a great deal of time researching and importantly visiting the proven regional center options. Instead every year some unwary families rely on sales information directly from a particular regional center, or on advisors who may be promoting only one center, who may not have visited the centers or may be recommending regional centers paying the highest level of commission.
In summary, we believe the EB-5 visa can be an excellent option for those who are seeking permanent residence in the USA and there are some excellent and importantly well proven regional center programs to choose from. However, the importance of experienced and impartial advice from consultants with a track record should never be underestimated.
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Tags: consultants, E2, eb-5, F visa, H-1B, highest commission, immigrant investor, L1, permanent residence, regional center, track record, USA, visa, warning, Which EB-5
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
May 20th, 2010 |
 A clear exit strategy for the return of their $500,000 investment is for many EB-5 immigrant investors, one of the most important considerations when selecting which EB5 regional center to choose.
If you follow the information on the website WhichEB5 you will already know that after a time period, which can range from five or more years (Sometimes the time period is very ambiguous) you may be eligible to divest yourself of the investment you made in a regional center in order to get your green card. The most important words above are “you may be eligible”.
For the purpose of this discussion let us assume that you want to get your funds back. Of course, if the regional center is paying you a handsome dividend you may want to take advantage of that long past the time you could get your money back. With many of these programs that is not likely to be the case.
So what are the options? Some regional centers have a clear and definitive idea of how the limited partnership (this is the typical business structure of a regional center) will be dissolved. It is important however to make sure that the plan for dissolution is sound from a business perspective and not simply designed to look good on paper.
Some centers might state that the limited partners (insert “you” in there) CAN sell their holding to a willing buyer. This is where it may get tricky. Let’s look at one possible scenario; Imaging you are a fractional (i.e. 1/20, 1/100 or whatever the total number of partners/investors are) and you want to sell. How many other people in the same investment partnership agree with you? What if they don’t? Would you be able to sell your fractional share if none, or a limited number of others, do? Are you starting to see some of the elements of a slightly difficult situation?
As we have mentioned before, this is not a simple decision and one regional center may or may not be better, in your eyes, than another. It comes down to having all the facts carefully explained and you fully understanding all the elements that go into a successful EB-5 regional center program.
We can go through with you which centers have repaid their investors in full, which have not and which have a fixed term repayment term clearly laid out.
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Tags: eb-5, eb5, exit strategy, immigrant investor, investment, regional center, visa
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
May 17th, 2010 |
 Is the EB5 investor visa your best option? For the past five years we have been working with families from many countries looking for a visa that provides them with the opportunity for permanent residence. Multiple families we have worked with have invested $500,000 in a regional center program and opted for the EB-5 immigrant investor visa. The feedback from these families, who have settled in many different areas of the States, proved invaluable in our book Green Card via the Red Carpet.
We were recently asked by a leading immigration publication to give our views on the EB-5 program, specifically taking into account the needs of the immigrant investor whose first language may not be English. As first generation immigrants ourselves we have seen our families grow up in America and remain concerned that some of the information provided on the EB-5 programs by attorneys, consultants, and regional centers, may cause problems for families, after they have moved to America.
One of the problems is the amount of information that is now available on the EB-5 programs. Although there seems to be a mass of helpful information available on the program research we have carried out shows some of it may be a cause of concern for the unwary family particularly if they have not carried out research into the background of the adviser. For example, how many families have they actually (successfully) worked with on the EB5? How many regional centers have they successfully processed investors through? Can they put you in touch with a number of families they have worked with? Have they actually visited a significant number of proven regional centers? Have they been barred by a regulatory board and/or commission from practicing in certain areas?
Given our own experiences, we cannot emphasise enough how important these points are, and with reference to visiting the regional centers, we mean spending several days at the center looking behind the scenes to see what is actually going on. We believe the importance of visiting and investigating regional center programs is critical to provide detailed information to families considering the various regional center programs and in undertaking research for our follow up book we are carrying out further in-depth visits as well as talking to our successful clients who have invested in various regional center programs.
Simply attending the regional center official tour, interviewing a particular regional center head, or videoing a regional center can only provide a limited perspective on the nuts and bolts of a particular program. We know from experience that the important considerations for a family considering investing $500,000 in an EB5 visa are:
Will we obtain the visa? Will we keep the visa? Will we get our $500,000 investment back? From our experience in working with many families and many centers we are aware that there are centers that have fulfilled these requirements, we are also aware that there are other centers being recommended where there have been cases of litigation, some ongoing, and families have potentially lost all their $500,000.
We feel strongly that all too often families considering the EB-5 visa are not being given all the information necessary to know what they are signing up for. Yes, it is great to know that there is a visa available that enables you and your family to live permanently in the USA and after five years become citizens if you want but from your viewpoint it is important that the visa delivers what you want therefore you need to know which programs have a successful track record and which should or may cause concern.
More information can be found on WhichEB5.com or Green Card via the Red Carpet
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Tags: America, attorney, citizens, consultants, eb-5, eb5, Green Card via the Red Carpet, immigrant investor, permanent residence, regional center, USA, visa, Which EB-5
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
May 11th, 2010 |
We have, for several months, been concerned about a number of developments regarding some of the regional centers offering EB-5 programs. We therefore decided, after finishing our book Green Card via the Red Carpet, to spend a number of weeks conducting further in-depth research into the various regional center immigrant investor programs.
As immigration advocates who have successfully worked with over 150 EB-5 applicants from many countries, our view is very clear. Would-be EB-5 investors generally wish to focus on successfully obtaining green cards, maintaining their green cards visa status, and finally obtaining the return of their $500.000 investment. Additionally some seek a sizable return on their $500,000 investment, but generally not at the risk of jeopardizing their original capital or risking the failure of removal of conditions and potential deportation.
Our weeks of follow-up research however have highlighted many important issues which we intend to cover in short blog style articles over the next month including –
- The need to be given the facts rather than a sales presentation.
- Why you need to be taking advice from EB5 consultants who work only with potential immigrants, rather than consultants who also offer services to the regional centers themselves; providing a potential conflict of interest.
- How to be aware of the limitations of certain information – for example: What, realistically, are you likely to learn from a video interview with the head of a regional center? – it’s unlikely to focus on any bad press!
- The need to be aware of the background of the people you are dealing with. We have identified some issues which should be of real concern if you are investing $500,000 of your hard earned money, particularly if those giving you advice have had previous problems with the authorities – our research has indicated some who have!
- The need to be aware that you, like others before you, can fall victim to tactics more in keeping with a car salesman that someone really interested in your families’ welfare. We are sadly aware of immigrants investing in certain programs where the sales talk sounded great but previous investors have not received their $500,000 back and others who did not have their conditions removed after twenty one months and now face deportation.
There can be enormous questions posed when many of the investors in a program do not speak English and are totally reliant on commission earning intermediaries who may be focusing on the center paying them the highest fee.
Another potential disaster is incorrect information – we have been appalled by some of the inaccuracies we have come across, including disturbingly, some from Attorneys.
Just as bad are the cases of Attorneys and Consultants who have led potential clients to believe that they are experts on the EB-5 visa and then approach us (often anonymously or using an alias) for the information to give the clients. We have been clamping down on this practice as having worked with immigrants for many years, and being immigrants ourselves to the USA; we understand all too well the reliance placed upon accurate and independent advice. You just have to make sure the information you are getting is just that, accurate and independent.
Does this mean everything you are likely to be told is flawed, or that the risks may be too great? Well, on the positive side, we have examples of a few regional centers that do not need to actively market and do not need the sales talk. They have not only successfully worked with EB-5 immigrant investors all over the world, they can also point to the fact that unlike many who rely on sales talk, they have actually returned investors $500,000 and the families are now happily established in the USA living their American dream.
We intend to cover all these issues in our forthcoming series of blogs and can talk this through with you over the phone or at our office. For more details please use the form on this blog or contact us via email from our website www.WhichEB5.com
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Tags: accurate, advice, American dream, attorney, bad press, commission, consultants, deportation, eb-5, eb5, Green Card via the Red Carpet, highest fee, immigrant investor, immigrants, incorrect information, independent, investors, regional center, removal of conditions, USA, video interview, visa, Which EB-5
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
April 9th, 2010 |
 Green Card via an EB-5 Investment Visa There is an abundance of immigrant investor qualifying program options, and the list grows virtually by the day. That makes for a lot of choices and an almost ever-changing atmosphere. For you as an individual, trying to work out which would be your best option, that can be an overwhelming situation to say the least.
Additionally there are an increasing number of approved and active regional centers, with others pending approval status, and more in the works. It is important that any resources you use in choosing a center are up-to-date, and to also back up that information, by consulting with professionals in the EB5.
These are among a number of areas of concern which have significant coverage in the book Green Card via the Red Carpet available at Amazon.
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Tags: Green Card via the Red Carpet, immigrant investor, regional center, visa
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
March 23rd, 2010 |
 In order to qualify under the EB-5 investment visa, you must invest with a regional center program that has had its application for designation as a regional center approved by USCIS. Moreover, the regional center must maintain compliance with the regulations and guidelines of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Pilot Program, or USCIS can strip the program of its regional center designation, and then those investors who have not yet removed the condition from permanent residence could potentially cease to qualify for conditional permanent residence.
In short, without the regional center designation, there is no permanent residence for the client and no regional center program for the entity that originally obtained the designation.
We understand from the recent meeting with the USCIS that more structured reporting by the regional centers can be expected soon. This may or may not lead to regional centers losing their designation. Feel free to contact us to discuss this important issue before you decide on a choice of regional center for your investment visa.
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Tags: eb-5, immigrant investor, investment visa, regional center, uscis
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
February 16th, 2010 |
 What Exactly is my EB-5 Visa application going to cost? An investment in a Regional Center pilot program is a minimum of $500,000 and as you probably know you need to budget additionally for attorney costs and administration fees. But what are the potential costs you can expect from using the EB-5 immigrant investor pilot program and why do regional center administration charges vary so much from center to center?
Why do some centers charge deposits up front before providing you with a copy of their documents?
Attorney fees can also vary significantly and some applicants have found themselves billed for unexpected additional costs.
Then there is the $500,000 question: HAS ANYONE HAD THEIR MONEY BACK AND IF SO HOW MUCH? The programs have exit strategies, fine, but in the current economic climate the question of the likely return of investment is on many peoples’ minds.
Some of the original investors in certain programs have gone through the process and had their investment back but there are points that you should be aware of before investing in the EB-5.
Andrew Bartlett and Stephen Parnell are authors of Green Card via the Red Carpet available on Amazon
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Tags: eb-5, eb5, immigrant investor, regional center, visa
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
January 25th, 2010 |
 Confused with all the conflicting EB-5 visa information? With more than 75 regional centers approved by USCIS to offer programs qualifying for the EB-5 visa we are increasingly investing time researching the hidden details behind the headlines.
The need to look beneath the surface has become increasingly apparent as regional centers often devote significant expenditure on sales and marketing, sometimes using specialist consultants to advise them on how to attract immigrants from specific countries.
We remain concerned that those looking at some of the EB-5 programs may fail to realize that the primary focus of the regional center may be on attracting sources of funding, (particularly given the difficulties in raising finance in the current tighter financial markets), rather than concentrating on the needs of the EB-5 immigrant investor.
We are also concerned where there may be possible conflicts of interest when some regional centers are advised by specialist consultancies. This is of particular concern when the very same consultancies are also advising the potential immigrants.
Sometimes issues that may be important to the immigrant investor are very hard for the potential EB-5 investor to track down – here is one such nugget relating to a proposed scheme:
“The Investment firm that is going after the EB5 investors, to the best of my knowledge, has NEVER SUCCESSFULLY FUNDED one of these projects. There are a few EB5’s that have been implemented in [location] but the firm that is heading up this hasn’t done it.”
Don’t be mislead. Find out exactly what you need to know BEFORE you chose a regional center for your $500,000.
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Tags: eb-5, immigrant investor, immigrants, information, regional center, visa
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
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