“How do you choose best EB-5 Visa Service provider? And when applying for an EB-5 visa, do I necessarily need to start a business in USA or can I obtain my visa by investing in any financial asset?”

The type of investment project is perhaps the most important decision an applicant must make, as the enterprise choice will no doubt affect whether or not the application is approved and the degree to which financial success is achieved.

There are a wide range of investment options that have the potential to meet USCIS conditions for approval. When calculating the most suitable type of business to fund, potential investors must ask themselves:

“Do I want a larger return on my investment or am I investing primarily to meet the basic requirements for obtaining a green card?”

Acceptable EB-5 enterprises exist across a wide variety of fields and industries from medical facilities, manufacturing, agriculture and real estate development, to hotels, restaurants, casinos and stadiums.

An EB-5 investor can take one of two routes:

  1. Direct Investment – invest in someone else’s company or open and operate your own company/franchise in the U.S.
  2. Regional Center – public or private approved organizations that are involved with economic growth and tend to be most useful for investors who do not intend to invest directly and take a day-to-day role in the business.

For potential investors, putting large sums of money at risk in a foreign economy and having citizenship determined by the long-term business success as well as the ability to create at least 10 U.S. jobs is a high-stakes decision that requires due diligence.

It is best to seek advice from an EB-5 network of attorney/broker-dealers that can provide immigration legal advice combined with investment advice based on comprehensive insight into Regional Centers, developers, and projects to ensure proper assessment of options and particular issues that applicants may face to create a strategy for meeting USCIS requirements.

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