July 30th, 2010 |
 The family had spent some considerable time investigating options for immigration to different countries with their short list comprising Australia, Canada and the United States. They had concerns regarding the climate being too cold for much of the year in Canada and felt Australia was less central for their business requirements than the USA, deciding that California was the best match for their needs. Once they had determined that California most suited them they had spoken to an Attorney regarding visa options and she had put them in touch with WhichEB5 to take them through the various regional center programs. The family was particularly concerned that once they received the visa there should be no problems at the two year stage (the removal of conditions) so were very insistent that the center should have a proven and straightforward record of job creation. They also did not want a project that could have difficulty obtaining subscribers, in case it did not reach a critical mass and then failed to go ahead. Finally exit strategy and the return of their funds was an important consideration. These specific requirements considerably narrowed down the range of options and after discussing these with them over a number of internet phone conversations, a meeting was held at our office and subsequently they visited three regional centers. Their final decision was based on these visits with the chosen center particularly impressing them, as they felt as an ongoing program it was well proven and minimized as far as possible risk factors. The family has now successfully relocated to California. We have continued to keep in touch and checked out issues that have cropped up with him for the benefit of new investors.
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Tags: attorney, california, Canada, eb5, exit strategy, Immigration, job creation, regional center, removal of conditions, USA, visa, Which EB-5
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
July 14th, 2010 |
 这位先生正在考察可为他提供美国永久居留的各种签证选择。 当他来到我们这里时，已从中国的多家移民机构获得了资料。 他对所提供的一些计划感到担心，他觉得这些计划相对不成熟，而且风险高于可接受的程度。这位先生将候选名单缩短到两家机构，并根据他的独立会计师提供的一 份报告（如下所示）选择了一个特定的计划。“就我们看到的情况，看起来 X 是一家有信誉的公司，从所附的政府机构信件来看，他们都符合规定，而且这个项目已获得批准。 AAA 的评级是能够得到的最好成绩。 它标志着债券承销商的财务实力。您可以在穆迪和标准普尔的网站上确认 AAA 评级。”“虽然没有投资是 100% 安全的，但该项目似乎是合法的联邦资助项目，具有相关的一般投资风险。 根据 X 的说明，我们看到甚至这种风险也已大大减轻。 如您所知，50 万美元是最低投资金额，看来一旦满足创造就业机会的要求，这是一条获得绿卡的捷径。” 这位先生通过 EB-5 地区中心选择了上述可靠的中心，利用我们建议的专业移民律师，成功申请了永久居留 This gentleman was looking at visa options that would provide him with permanent residence in America. When he came to us he had been provided with information from a number of immigration agencies in China. He was concerned regarding some of the programs they had sent him which he felt were relatively unproven and had a higher than acceptable number of risks. The gentleman narrowed down to a shortlist of two and following a report from his independent accountants (shown below) opted for one particular program. “From what we see, it looks like X is a reputable company and judging by the letters attached from Government Agencies, they are in compliance with regulations and have been approved for this project. A rating of AAA is the best you can get. It signifies financial strength of the backers of the bonds. You can verify the AAA rating on Moodys and Standard & Poors’ website.” “While no investment is 100% safe, this appears to be a legitimately federally sponsored project with the usual investment risks associated with them. We read where even this risk is mitigated according to what X has stated. As you know, $500,000 is the minimum amount that can be invested and it appears that it is a short cut to you getting a Green Card once the job creation requirement is met.” The Gentleman successfully applied for permanent residence via the EB-5 regional center visa selecting the proven center above and using the specialized immigration attorney we had recommended.
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Tags: china, eb-5, Immigration, visa
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
June 3rd, 2010 |
 Does the location of EB-5 Regional Center program matter? The location of the regional center and the center’s programs is sometimes thought to be irrelevant to EB-5 regional center investors. It’s easy to make that assumption because investing in a regional center means that you have the freedom to live anywhere in the United States. However, regardless of where you live, the location of a regional center and its projects does impact on your investment and visa success.
First of all, the location of the center and more specifically, the particular project that you are investing in matters because the amount of your required qualifying investment depends on that location. Your minimum investment will be either $500,000 or $1 million depending on the location of the project. The lower figure applies only to Targeted Employment Areas (TEA) and designated rural geographic regions.
It is imperative to make a distinction between the location of the regional center and the location of the project itself. It is entirely possible that projects within a given regional center will have different investment minimums depending on where the money is actually invested. You cannot assume that just because a center’s offices are located in an area that meets the $500,000 investment criteria that the project funds will be invested there. You can also not assume that just because the last project was invested in a TEA or rural area that the next project will take place in a similarly qualifying area. The investment minimum for visa approval could vary quite easily from one project to the next.
These are the basic reasons to consider the location of a project, but there are reasons that go deeper.
A regional center can be greatly influenced by their location and the location of their investments. There are tangible and intangible influences of the region where your center operates that may come into play. Factors like business climate, property markets, work force, local and state support of the project, and the presence or absence of worthwhile investment recipients can all make or break a project that sounds excellent on paper. Add to this the more fluid factors like public perception of the center, its projects, and even immigration and the EB-5 program itself, and suddenly something that looks good as a business plan can be much more tenuous as a dual-purpose investment and immigration vehicle.
Another very important consideration is the proposed exit strategy for the project. The location of a center can have a tremendous impact when it comes time to try to exit your investment at a profit. This is one of the areas that centers often gloss over.
Often the only way to know how a regional center’s location may impact upon its investments and investors is to take a lot of time getting to know the region, its potential, and its personality “quirks”. Actually physically visiting these regions is the preferable way to get to know the pros and cons of the particular area, and to know what other factors need to be looked into further. Taking that time can bring critical issues to light that would not come up through paper research. This is one area where proven, impartial advisors can prove their particular worth, because it is often unrealistic for a single investor to undertake this kind of travel and physically present due diligence on his or her own.
On the other hand, it is the job of the advisor to amass this kind of knowledge, and to know the centers, their regions, and the potential impact of that location on all of that center’s projects. So, while it may seem like a regional center’s location shouldn’t need to matter to you because you can live anywhere, you can see that in fact that location is still a big consideration. It may not come into play as you choose where to live, but it will certainly come into play as you decide the best, safest, most appropriate place to invest your money so that obtaining your visa and being cleared of conditional status and obtaining your Green Card is not a struggle.
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Tags: eb-5, exit strategy, green card, Immigration, regional center, TEA, united states, visa
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
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 26th, 2010 |
 Chinese Nationals and the EB-5 Visa - What you need to know As you research regional centers it’s not uncommon for you to find regional centers and projects that have a very specific targeted audience—a definite culture or nationals of a specific country or countries who are being catered to as potential immigrant investors. The targeting can be so obvious that it may leave you speculating if the center is interested in investors outside that culture or country at all. . For example in 2009 many of the investors for a number of regional center programs came from China.
The question is whether or not this is an issue and whether or not you need to be concerned – either as a member of that targeted population or as an outsider with an interest in such a project. The answer to the question is that yes, it is definitely something you will want to discuss with your Which EB5 consultant.
It is not that this practice is particularly problematic or illegal, just that there are certain important implications for projects that do cater to investors from particular countries. You see, when you have a specific target audience in mind you put a lot of work and emphasis on serving the needs and wants of the people who make up that target audience; those are people who usually, as a group, have similar goals and motivations. Those goals and motivations may or may not be in line with yours even if you are a member of that targeted group.
The potential implications are wide-ranging, and whether or not they are a positive or a negative or even a neutral factor for you needs to be determined. You would be surprised at the insight your immigration consultant can provide to you in this matter.
You should also know that some of the regional centers and their representatives are sometimes not very willing to divulge the possible implications behind their targeting practices; they know that they can have very serious implications. Rarely will you find a regional center that can take an objective look at the possible implications of such a practice and lay it out in meaningful terms for you; for that you need a truly impartial adviser who has multiple other options to present to you as well.
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Tags: china, consultants, eb5, Immigration, regional center
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
March 4th, 2010 |
 When investing at least $500,000 in an EB5 visa it is absolutely critical that you receive the latest information and have immigration advice from an experienced EB5 lawyer.
We remain concerned that a number of investors are consulting us after they have already invested in a particular center and have only then discovered issues which are of concern to them.
We recently had a number of requests for advice following articles in newspapers about ongoing investigations by the FBI and Immigration authorities into a company that it is reported has potentially defrauded millions of dollars from a number of its clients.
It has also been reported that a number of the families requesting information had emigrated to the USA using this company and were concerned that their visas had possibly been obtained using incorrect information – the results of this could be very serious particularly for E2 and L1 visa holders coming up for renewal time.
We were particularly concerned that some of the blog sites reporting this case of fraud, including a couple from Attorneys, appear to have obtained the information from newspaper articles only and their information carried items that was factually incorrect.
It is absolutely critical that you are kept informed of the latest information when considering your EB-5 visa options. If you would like to be updated on the latest information or would like details of our free consultation and briefing sessions please contact us at Which EB5 visa.
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Tags: attorney, E2, eb-5 visa options, eb5, eb5 lawyer, Immigration, investor visa, L1, USA
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
February 25th, 2010 |
 Immigration with children requires detailed thought and planning Among the issues that we come across when we are troubleshooting are advising parents on how immigration will impact their children in terms of the initial move and then looking at the years ahead – how will their lifestyle work out in the USA as against their lifestyle in their current country of residence?
The areas that we have covered based on our experience in advising thousands of families on the move include: Why you wish to move and more critically, schooling and lifestyle benefits from the childs perspective.
The practicalities of the move include timing for each step in the process, the implications of areas to live and importantly schooling and the differences likely to be encountered with the US system.
A key aspect is the choice of a visa, as this may have a critical impact on child welfare as we have seen many times. In worst cases scenarios there are the implications of children facing deportation due to issues with specific visas which had not been taken fully into account.
You really do need to consider the whole picture before such a major lifestyle move. See chapter nine in Green Card via the Red Carpet, available at Amazon, which offers in-depth information on using the EB-5 investor visa program to gain rapid permanent residence status in the U.S.A.
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Tags: children, eb5, green card, Immigration, USA, visa
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
February 20th, 2010 |
 How to Retire in the U.S.A. National newspapers and magazines have been publicizing the ways that the EB-5 visa program can provide the opportunity for many people’s lifelong dream to retire in the U.S.
Under this immigration program foreign nationals can make an investment of $500,000 in an approved American Regional Center program to obtain an immigrant visa and be eligible for a U.S. green Card.
Andrew Bartlett, Joint Managing partner of the leading specialist EB5 relocation advocacy company, Which EB5, advised Brian and Jane Thompson, a couple from Essex, England, on the EB-5 visa program. The Daily Mail reported that they targeted Florida as their ideal retirement spot, noting its low real estate costs.
We have kept in contact with the Thompsons and will update you on their lifestyle in Sarasota.
The State Department reports that the number of approved EB-5 visas has nearly tripled between fiscal years 2008 and 2009.
Andrew Bartlett and Stephen Parnell are authors of Green Card via the Red Carpet
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Tags: andrew bartlett, eb-5, Immigration, regional center, retirement, visa, Which EB-5
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
February 18th, 2010 |
 Beware of what you read about the EB5 investment visa As regular readers of this blog will know we constantly warn about instances of misleading information we discover that involve the EB-5 investor visa.
Unfortunately this week we have discovered an increasing amount of incorrect and misleading information that could spell problem for those looking for accurate information as part of their investigation into the track record of regional centers offering investor green cards.
The question posed by an unsuspecting enquirer on an immigration blog is straightforward enough:-
“I am in the process of selecting a regional center where my main objective would be to make sure that the job creation requirements will be met after two years to get the conditions removed (I-829 petition) from my green card and to have some assurance that the capital will be recoverable after five or even a few more years. ROI would be less relevant. So far I have been looking at the following regional centers […..] which look promising: Any comments would be appreciated.”
And here the problems start; with a series of supposedly helpful but potentially misleading and dangerous suggestions offered by various responders, a number not using their real names but answering under aliases.
One responder mentions a different regional center that the questioner has not suggested – one of the programs at this center is currently the subject of litigation.
There is no in depth analysis regarding the very important question asked regarding the far reaching implications of job creation.
The questioner makes the comment it is helpful to get advice from people with real experience; unfortunately the type of experience from those that have answered is less than clear!
Andrew Bartlett and Stephen Parnell are authors of Green Card via the Red Carpet available at Amazon
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Tags: amazon, dangerous information, eb-5, experiance, green card, Green Card via the Red Carpet, I-829, Immigration, investor visa, regional center, visa
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
January 12th, 2010 |
 How long is the EB5 immigration process? From start to finish, how long will it be before you receive your green card? Unfortunately, there is no definite answer to this question but we can give you some general estimates.
For the first phase—the regional center investment phase—the timeline should not be overly long. Usually this can be accomplished in a matter of two to eight weeks after your decision has been made as to which EB-5 center to invest in; however, every center’s timing and timeline will differ.
The real timing begins with your specialist EB5 immigration attorney submitting your I-526 to the USCIS. The general waiting time for USCIS review of I-526 petitions was previously six to eight months, but since USCIS increased its staff of examiners, it is now down to as little as one to six months.
Once that is approved and your attorney files the application for adjustment of status or for application consular processing of an immigrant visa you will have another waiting time of about six to twelve months for adjustment of status, or two to six months for consular processing. These time-lines vary enormously so please contact us for updated timetables at any time.
The grand total timeline after you submit your original I-526 application is between six and fifteen months. This is the estimated amount of time it will take for you to receive your conditional green card and take up residence in the United States – if you would like advice on what you need to take into account to obtain the quickest time please contact Which EB-5 via email at info@WhichEB5.com or through our website at www.WhichEB5.com
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Tags: consular processing, eb-5, green card, I-526, Immigration, immigration attorney, regional center, united states, uscis, visa, Which EB-5
Posted in Immigration | No Comments » |
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