This story is from March 3, 2020

EB-5 visa for investors: Things to know

EB-5 visa holders -- who gets a green card -- can choose any kind of work in the United States. Around 10,000 EB-5 visas are issued every year by the US with the limit capped at 700 per country. The visa is very popular among the wealthy Indians who want to settle in the US.
EB-5 visa for investors: Things to know
(Representative image)
NEW DELHI: EB-5 visa holders -- who gets a green card (permanent residence) -- can choose any kind of work in the United States. Around 10,000 EB-5 visas are issued every year by the US with the limit capped at 700 per country. The visa is very popular among the wealthy Indians who want to settle in the US.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a federal immigration agency, decides the projects which will be eligible for investment under the EB-5 visa category, instead of states where the investment is proposed.

Here are key things to know about EB-5 visa:
  1. What is EB-5 visa
    Under the EB-5 visa, investors (and their spouses and unmarried children under 21) are eligible to apply for Green Card by making a necessary investment in the United States along with a plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified US workers. This programme is known as EB-5 for the name of the employment-based fifth preference visa that participants receive.
  2. Why EB-5 visa was created
    The EB-5 visa programme was created in 1990 to stimulate the US economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. In 1992, the Immigrant Investor Programme, also known as the Regional Center Programme, which sets aside EB-5 visas for participants who invest in commercial enterprises associated with regional centers approved by the USCIS-based on proposals for promoting economic growth.
  3. EB-5 visa fees
    From April 1, investors will have to pay an additional $50,000 for the EB-5 visa. In 2019, the EB-5 investor visa programme, for the first time since the 1990’s, increased the minimum investment amount to $900,000. With this increase, the new 5% additional tax would mean that applicants would have to pay the extra $50,000, when they move money to an escrow account in the US to fulfil their application criterion.
  4. What investors need to know
    Certain immigrant investors will keep the priority date of a previously approved EB-5 petition when they file a new petition. The standard minimum investment amount has increased to $1.8 million (from $1 million) "to account for inflation". Future adjustments will also be tied to inflation and occur in every five years.
  5. New EB-5 visa rules
    i) Providing priority date retention to certain EB-5 investors ii) Increasing the required minimum investment amounts to account for inflation iii) Reforming certain targeted employment area (TEA) designations iv) Clarifying USCIS procedures for the removal of conditions on permanent residence v) Making other technical and conforming revisions
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA