The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 brought many changes to the EB-5 program. For the latest information, please click here.
If you work with any international customers–and 28 percent of REALTORS® do, according to research by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®–you’ve likely learned about the many hurdles to obtaining permanent residency in the United States.
Because of this, many foreign nationals have held back from buying here. But for clients with the financial wherewithal, there’s a viable option—the Regional Center EB-5 Program, informally known as the investment visa or the investment green card.
Here’s what you need to know about the investment your clients will be required to make in a so-called “regional center.”
The minimum investment to qualify is $500,000.
The money must be invested in one of the 130 or so approved regional centers; additional centers are going through the approval stage, so that number will rise. Investment requirements can go up to $1 million, depending on the center.
Jobs must be created as a result.
It’s the developer’s responsibility to prove to the federal government that the project will create a minimum of 10 jobs, either directly or indirectly, in the community.
Risk is inherent.
Investors must go into the program with the same expectation they’d have of any other investment: that it could lose money. In any case, expect the funds to be tied up for several years due to regulatory requirements.
There are no geographic restrictions.
Investors can live anywhere in the country as long as the investment is in an approved regional center.
The green card comes later.
Once all regulations are complied with, the investors should get a green card within a year or so. Two years later, an investor must file an application to prove that the investment has been sustained over that time and the jobs have been created.
