Investor Green Card

EB-5 Immigrant Visas:

The EB-5 Visa is an excellent opportunity for many foreign investors to become permanent residents of the United States.

The EB-5 Investor Green Card allows a foreign investor to work in any capacity, or enjoy retirement. At Manesh & Mizrahi, our attorneys and staff have extensive experience in helping our clients through the lengthy EB-5 process and achieving successful results.

Option 1 – Basic EB-5 Visa Program:

An applicant must meet the following three requirements to qualify under the Basic EB-5 Visa program:

Make an investment in a new commercial enterprise.
Make an investment of at least $1 million into that enterprise.
Lead to the creation of employment for at least 10 full-time U.S. workers. The investment may consist of the contribution of various forms of capital, including cash, equipment, inventory, property, and other tangible equivalents. An investment amount of $1 million is generally the minimum.

Option 2 – EB-5 Targeted rural or high unemployment areas:

The required investment amount is reduced to as low as $500,000.00 for a business established in a “targeted employment area”.

Targeted employment areas include:

Rural areas, defined as any area other than one within a metropolitan statistical area or within the boundary of a city or town with a population of 20,000 or more;
Areas having an unemployment rate that is at least 150% of the national average.

Option 3 – EB-5 Regional Center Program:

This involves a passive investment of $500,000 made in a ‘Targeted Employment Area’ (TEA) within a Designated Regional Center.

The EB-5 policy management requirement is minimal in that the investor can be a limited partner and still qualify as long as the limited partners have a policy-making role. For those who are not interested in day-to-day management or running an active business, Regional Center programs offer a more acceptable inactive form of investment.

The investor is not required to live in the place of investment; rather, he or she can live wherever he/she wishes in the United States.

The EB-5 Regional Center program is ideal for the retiree or inactive investor due in large part to the “indirect employment” feature of this program. The Regional Center Program removes the employee requirement of the Regular program and replaces it with a less restrictive “indirect employment creation,” which allows the investor to qualify by proving a combination of 10 direct and/or indirect employees.

Conditional Permanent Residence:

Immigrant investors, their spouses and dependent children are subject to conditional permanent residence for a two-year period. The alien must file a petition to remove the conditions (using Form I-829) during a 90-day period prior to the second anniversary of the alien’s lawful admission as a permanent resident. USCIS will examine the business at the end of the two year period to determine whether or not the alien has complied with all of the requirements.