EB-5 visa
The EB-5 program "affords foreign nationals and their spouses and unmarried children under age 21 the ability to obtain a U.S. visa based solely upon a minimum investment in a for-profit enterprise that creates or retains a specified number of jobs".
According to the study, these findings suggest that "investor visas are used by elites in less developed countries to hedge against the risks associated with authoritarian rule.
Such elites perceive investor visas as a foothold in a stable and democratic country that can provide an insurance policy or exit option.
The rules say that states can no longer designate regional centers; this duty now belongs to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which manages USCIS.
[29][1]: 529 Investments within a regional center provide foreign nationals the added benefit of allowing them to count jobs created both directly and indirectly for purposes of meeting 10-job creation requirement.
[6]: 11 INS District Director Warren A. Lewis said, "Visa fraud whether done on the streets by selling fraudulent cards or through an elaborate financial scheme is against the law and will be investigated and prosecuted."
[32][1]: 527 When the GAO tabled their report in 2005 they concluded that immigrant investors were not utilizing the program because of the 900 EB-5 suspended files—some of which dated to 1995—as well as the "onerous application process" and "lengthy adjudication periods".
Regional centers may charge an administration fee for managing the investor's investment and a "percentage of what they raise from the developers" which amounts to millions on large projects.
[36] The program reached capacity for the first time in August 2014 when the State Department stopped issuing EB-5 visas until the beginning of the next fiscal year, October 2014.
The bill would give DHS more authority over the program, establish and fund a system of audits and site visits, require more disclosures and oversights, and improve transparency and accountability.
The Group of 35 was a "wonky" urban policy consortium founded by Sen. Schumer calling for New York City to get more involved in commercial development.
Leahy was particularly concerned with Vermont's Jay Peak Ski Resort fraud where developers were accused of taking hundreds of millions of investors' dollars.
The bill calls for regular audits by the Department of Homeland Security and new disclosure regulations to protect investors and insure compliance with EB-5 directives.
Second are security provisions that preclude participants from taking advantage of the program; e.g., regional centers must act more transparently and comply with regulation from DHS.
They called for the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the involvement of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in exploiting the program.
financial experts have observed that the encouragement of foreign investment intrinsic to the program is precisely what the US needs to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, providing funding, for example, for the $1 trillion (US) infrastructure proposal being devised by the Trump administration.
The US Department of Transportation would utilize the funding for traditional bridges and roads but would also preserve resources for rural broadband development and 5G wireless networks.
's new largest hotel—was officially opened on June 10, 2014, by Mayor Vince Gray, who announced Air China's maiden first direct flights between D.C. and Beijing.
[8] A top priority of Mayor Gray's administration was to nurture a "stronger business relationship with China, the primary source of EB-5 funding in D.C. and nationally".
The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization regulation was published by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the Federal Register on July 24, 2019, went into effect on November 21, 2019.
[6] Investments within a regional center provide foreign nationals the added benefit of allowing them to count jobs created both directly and indirectly for purposes of meeting the 10-job creation requirement.
[12] RCs are USCIS-approved third-party entities, usually for-profit, private intermediaries, that "connect foreign investors with developers in need of funding, and take a commission".
[6]: 10 The Brookings-Rockefeller report included the program's "missteps" that "illustrate the vulnerability of a system dependent on the relationships between USCIS, regional centers, and investors".
[69] On August 24, 2015, the SEC filed civil fraud charges against Lobsang Dargey for his misuse of the EB-5 Visa program[70] by misappropriating about $136 million from Chinese investors through his Path America entity.
"[2] In that year Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a longtime critic of EB-5, described the program as one that had "long been riddled with corruption and national security vulnerabilities.
For this to happen, it's kind of a black eye.In June 2015 Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced the "American Job Creation and Investment Promotion Reform Act" to "extend and significantly improve the job-creating immigrant investor visa program" and to "address fraud and national security concerns".
[63][2] In September 2016, House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI) introduced legislation to "reform and reauthorize the EB-5 Regional Center program".
"[15] Grassley and Feinstein say that "there is no reliable or verifiable way to measure how many jobs are created" and that "many of the wealthiest parts of the country have been incorrectly labeled as "high unemployment.
"[2] In April 2017 the EB-5 visa "cash-for-residency scheme" was under investigation by the FBI with a specific focus on the California Investment Immigration Fund because of its "alleg[ed] connection[s] to "abuses of the "controversial" program.
[80] The study found "that Chinese wealthy private business owners are mainly participants in EB-5 for acquiring a U.S. green card on behalf of their young adult children.
