Should I take a tour of EB5 Regional Centers?

If you have done any research into regional centers you have probably seen that a number are offering to provide a tour of their facilities or projects.  These may be group tours with several other prospective EB-5 clients, or they may be done individually at your convenience.  Sometimes these tours are very short and cover all the essentials in one shot, and sometimes they take place over days and include a combination of facilities tours and recreation (which is often the case with some of the resort-type developments or projects).  A lot of potential Clients wonder whether or not to take the center up on their offer to tour the facility, and whether there is any real benefit in them doing so.

Whether you do or not is a personal decision, but even if you do attend the company-sponsored event, a tour will still not provide enough factual basis for deciding in which EB-5 regional center you should trust with your money. Let’s qualify that.

First of all you have to understand that the tour is provided by the regional center. Just as on their website or brochure, they may highlight the best about their project, and be selective with where you are taken, what information you are given, and what you are shown. That does not make it false, but it could potentially be missing important points.

Additionally there are a number of concerns and factors that limit the value of regional center tours for potential immigrants and their families.  First, many say that they do not know what to look for or what questions to ask while they are on the tour; this significantly limits the information-gathering value of the trip.  Second, many immigrants say that generally they do not have the time to visit more than one or two of the available centers (and at this point there are around 80).  In order to make an informed decision you really need to have all the information on a number of regional centers.

Regional center visits certainly do have their value but they are not the mechanism that you should rely on to choose the right one for you.  A visit to a regional center is probably best done later in the process after you have narrowed down your search to just your top contenders;  this gives you a more manageable list and hopefully some experience working with an advisor on regional centers choice, one who can help you to know what to ask and what to look for, and give you the tools to maximize your visit. The most experienced regional center advisers have made these visits and tours themselves and gone much deeper in their regional center research than you will be presented anyway thus they can provide you with added value to any regional center visit you may undertake.