6. US Running Out of Investor Visas The United States for the first time is running out of immigrant-investor visas that offer permanent residency to foreigners who fund U.S. projects. The shortage of visas is due to the huge recent surge in visa requests from Chinese investors. The Immigrant Investor Program — known as EB-5, the governments fifth employment-based visa preference — was begun in 1990 and allots 10,000 visas each fiscal year to foreigners who invest at least $1 million in a U.S. commercial enterprise. Investors can commit just $500,000 if the enterprise is in a high-unemployment or rural area, and all projects must create at least 10 jobs for American workers. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) defines a commercial enterprise as a sole proprietorship, partnership, holding company, joint venture, corporation, or business trust. In return, investors and family members become eligible for green cards, or permanent residency, usually within two years. Until recently, demand for EB-5 visas was well below the 10,000-per-year mark, The Wall Street Journal reported. In 2003, just 65 visas were issued, and less than 800 were issued as recently as 2007. But last year, the United States issued 8,564 visas, with more than 80 percent going to Chinese investors. This fiscal year, the United States is on course to run out of visas before the end of the year, with 85 percent of the visas issued so far going to Chinese investors. As a result, the visas are now unavailable to Chinese individuals until the 2015 fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1. An unprecedented number of visa petitions, 10,375, are awaiting adjudication by the USCIS. Such a long backlog will cause problems both for investors and U.S. companies that want EB-5 money to start or finish their projects, Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration attorney, told the Journal. By law, no country is allotted more than 7 percent of the visas available in any year. But a country that doesnt reach its cap can transfer its leftover requests to another country, and that has enabled China to exceed its normal allotment. Among the projects EB-5 money has helped fund are a Marriott hotel in Los Angeles and the Barclays Center sports and entertainment complex in Brooklyn. But critics of the EB-5 program say it amounts to a visa-for-sale scheme that benefits the rich by allowing them to go to the front of the green-card line. These investors arent coming for the investment, Yi Song, a lawyer who works with Chinese clients, told the Journal. They are coming here for their children to obtain a better education and get residence as an insurance policy. A recent Fortune magazine article called EB-5 the dark, disturbing world of the visa-for-sale program.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 03:11:31 +0000
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