How the EB5 Visa has Encouraged Investment in the U.S.

For people who want to move to the U.S. and work or start a business, there are a number of routes to go down to get the rights to do this, and not all of them are easy or available to everyone. Some people apply for jobs in the USA and are able to move here because their companies sponsor them or because they can’t fill these roles with local people, for example. This is obviously something only people with specialist skills who want to be employed can do. For those who actually want to start their own businesses in America, there has for some time now been another option: the EB5 visa.

What Is The EB5 Visa?

The EB5 visa is a program under which foreign nationals can gain a green card for two years by investing at least $500,000 in the U.S. and creating at least 10 American jobs. It is somewhat controversial, as there have been some cases of people misusing the system, but this is generally the case with any visa program. The green card offered to the investor extends to their immediate family and after their two years are close to being up they have a good chance to move further down the path to citizenship. EB5 immigration is usually facilitated by a specialist EB5 immigration attorney, such as Hirson Immigration.

How Does This Program Help The U.S. Economy?

The EB5 visa program was designed to encourage investors to consider the USA when deciding where to invest and start businesses. As a country with a strong business market but tough immigration policies, it was difficult to get wealthy investors from outside of America to decide to open businesses here that would create jobs and boost our economy, even though the consumer market here may have been appealing to them. By making it easier for would-be business owners from overseas to live and do business in the U.S., with the caveat of creating jobs and investing money, the EB5 program brings in some significant investors.

Who Uses The EB5 Program?

The EB5 program is open to a lot of foreign nationals if they meet the criteria in terms of having the ability to invest and create jobs. The main uptake of the program has been from China, with wealthy business people from China keen to establish business relationships and investments in the U.S. This is beneficial to America, given that the growing middle class in China is a good market for U.S.–made goods, and so stronger business ties with the Chinese are likely to pay dividends in the future.

Recently, the EB5 program was given the green light to continue. It is likely to be available at least until the end of 2017. While it has had some problems and has been somewhat controversial, the benefits of incentivizing overseas investment in the USA and job creation do make a very good case for the EB5 program being a helpful one.