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EB-5 News Archive for the ‘EB-5 Regional Centers News’ Category
Author: Commercial Real Estate Direct.com | Vol.6 Issue 49, December 9th, 2011
The EB-5 program issued 3,706 visas this year through Sept. 12, which was 3.6 times the number it issued for all of 2007, according to the program’s overseer, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS.
This year’s tally so far is 97 percent greater than it was for all of last year, but down 12 percent from 2009, the program’s busiest year.
Investors’ funds are typically invested through regional service centers, operated by developers who often use them for their own projects. They also conduct operations through third parties who know the EB-5 process, which would include local lawyers and consultants, some of whom raise money for investments.
Some foreign investors are so interested in getting their U.S. citizenships that they have been accepting annualized rates of return of 1 percent or less on their investments and no guarantee about how much of their investment would be returned after a developed project is sold. The project terms typically stipulate that the investors will be paid off when it is sold or its developer gets fresh financing for it.
“For EB-5 investors, the rate of return is not the key issue; the key is the Green Card and the strategy for exiting the investment,” said H. Ronald Klasko, of the Philadelphia law firm Klasko, Rulon, Stock & Seltzer, an immigration law specialist that advises developers on qualifying projects for EB-5 funding.
“These people are not investing in real estate as much as they are investing in the American Dream, because $500,000 is not a high price for citizenship for their families,” added Fred Burgess, president of Exclusive Visas, a Weston, Fla., firm that also advises on registering projects for EB-5.
EB-5 investors can provide equity or debt financing and usually cash out of their deals after five years. Terms of the investment returns are set by the developers, and must be outlined in detail in prospectuses that developers or their agents provide in marketing efforts that typically take place in the investors’ home countries.
EB-5 funds can be co-invested with financing from other sources. And there’s no limit to how much of a project could be financed with EB-5 money.
American Life Inc., a Seattle developer, initially used EB-5 to fund only 50 percent of the costs of its projects in the 1990s, but since 2008 has used it to fund all of its projects. Henry Liebman, founder and chief executive, said the firm’s most recent EB-5 deals provided foreign investors 70 percent of the rental stream from the projects and 70 percent of the proceeds from their sale.
American Life has used the program to fund all or parts of 44 projects with a combined cost of about $750 million in its local market area and plans to use it to expand into markets nationwide.
EB-5 is the U.S. Investment (entrepreneur) visa based upon creating employment of U.S. workers. However, not all EB-5 programs are created equal.
There are over 150 Regional Centers (RC) that have received designation (approval) from the USCIS with variety of projects from developing hotels, assisted-living and nursing homes, mixed-use office and residential facilities, agricultural cooperatives, and commercial and developmental loans. Due to the dramatic increase of the approved RCs within the past 2-3 years from 25 to over 150, many RCs do not have the track record of success let alone any real projects that is “shovel” ready – able to begin immediately or already in progress.
Just because EB-5 program has an immigration benefit, you should not invest a large sum of money ($500,000 or $1, million) in a project that will not even give you any assurance that the project will be able to produce enough to remove the condition on your temporary green card. You do not want to be in a situation where the whole principal investment amount is lost due to the project going bankrupt as well as losing your green card because the business of the RC failed and did not create the jobs required. Therefore, you, as the potential investor, must review the details of the RC and the projects within each RC to verify the viability of the project for investment purposes as well as whether the project will meet the EB-5 green card requirements. You should treat EB-5 investment as any other investment you make – you should get your money’s worth.
Beware of the agents that are promoting RCs that do not have any real projects or any track record of approval.
Most of the emigration agents purporting to help the EB-5 investors are, in reality, sales agents for a particular or multiple RCs. Thus, they only emphasize the good points of their RCs without knowing the business details of the projects or providing the direct comparisons of how their projects are better than others.
If they are truly informed of numerous RCs and are looking out for the investor’s interest rather than just procuring the most amount of the agent fees, then they should be able to provide you with a list of RCs that could minimize the risk of losing $500,000 or more in investment principal and making sure that you and your family will receive the permanent green card, not just the temporary conditional green card. Ask the following questions:
- Job creation is the key to making your Green Card permanent – is the job creation methodology used sound?
- Where did the regional center obtain there T.E.A. designation from?
- How secure is my money? What is my money being used for?
- What is the track record of the RC? How many I-526 and I-829 petitions and approvals?
- How is the RC proposing to return your investment after I-829 approval? – Definite exit strategy exists and is in writing in the offering memorandum.
- Did the RC repay any of the earlier investors?
- Will the RC refund all the money, if I-526 is denied? Will they refund both principal and syndication fee or just principal amount? Is this also in writing?
- Are there any institutional or non-EB-5 investors investing in the project? What is the portion of each investor?
- Have any of the regional center principals, their advisers, or anyone connected with the project ever had any negative findings or business failures I should know about?
Often times we will be asked by clients, “what is the right EB-5 Regional Center for me?” We understand that choosing the right Regional Center for you may be a bit overwhelming; especially given that there are more than 160 USCIS approved Regional Centers competing for your investment money. We always stress how important this step is, and that choosing the wrong Regional Center could have drastic consequences, such as the denial of your permanent Green Card and possibly the loss of your investment money.
The team at Exclusive Visas understands that each and every foreign investor seeking to invest in an EB-5 Regional Center has different investment requirements. Some may be looking for a Regional Center offering a high return on investment, some are interested in getting their investment back within 5 to7 years or possibly even sooner, others are interested in just being a partner in a project and not necessarily earning an immediate return on investment or in possibly getting their investment back within a specific period of time. Frankly the answer to this question is slightly different for ever prospective applicant and can simply not be generalized.
Each EB-5 Project is different, even if they’re under the same Regional Center. These EB-5 Projects will provide offering documents which contain detailed information regarding the projected rate of return, the position of the EB-5 investor, risks and security and their exit strategy, etc. It is critical to review all of these details and get an understanding of what is being offered to you as an investor and hiring an experienced consultant who has the knowledge and time to review every single detail of these documents is beneficial and time saving for you. With a staff of Attorneys, Certified Public Accountants and former Financial Planners the team at Exclusive Visas is uniquely qualified to provide you with objective professional opinions on the risks and benefits of EB-5 Regional Center opportunities that are available to you.
To learn more about how to choose what could be the right EB-5 Regional Center for you, be sure to contact the expert EB-5 consultants Joe Sloboda or Fred Burgess at Exclusive Visas via email at info@exclusivevisas.com or by phone 001+954-727-9800.
With so many Regional Centers out there competing for your investment money, it is very important to ask the right questions when interviewing a Regional Center prior to making a final decision.
We always stress to our clients to keep in mind that the EB-5 Visa is an employment based visa and typically should not be looked at for a high return on investment.
It is very important that for the foreign investor to receive USCIS approval of their petition that the project you invest into create a minimum of 10 jobs as a result of your investment within the EB-5 Regional Center. With this being said, we consider that one of the MOST important question to ask a Regional Center is how the project plans to create the required permanent jobs.
While this is of course not the only question that must be asked we feel it is critical to get a clear understanding of how the jobs will be created by the project and how realistic the expectations of the business will be as far as operations, success and in the return of your investment capital. With the success of working with more than 160 individuals from 23 different countries and more than 30 Regional Center projects the professionals at Exclusive Visas have the experience that will benefit you as a prospective EB-5 applicant in being able to get past the “sales pitch” of the Regional Center representative and make a more informed business decision on what EB-5 project will possibly be more suitable for you and your family.
Learning details about the experience of the project developer, budgets and cost of the business opportunity, capital contributions from the General Partners and possible government funding are all important questions that should be asked by you and your advisers prior to investment and need to also be independently verified.
Exclusive Visas has reviewed many details and offering documents on dozens of active EB-5 Projects in the market and our experienced team of attorneys, accountants, economists, financial professionals make it part of our regular practice to regularly visit the job sites of EB-5 projects and the Regional Centers that are responsible for these opportunities. One of our recent clients said it best, when they thanked us for “doing their homework for them”.
For a free initial consultation with an expert EB-5 Consultant at Exclusive Visas, please contact Fred Burgess or Joe Sloboda via email at info@exclusivevisas.com or by phone at +001-954-727-9800.
There is a large number of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approved EB-5 Regional Centers located throughout the United States. As of today, September 1 2011, the number of USCIS approved Regional Centers has increased up to 166. Almost every state is represented by at least one center, with many states having multiple choices.
According to the USCIS reports approximately 90-95% of the individual I-526 applications filed each year are filed by Alien Investors who are investing in RC-affiliated commercial enterprises.
The projects within these centers include retail property development, health care, hospitality, scientific research, and construction amongst others. Despite the fact that there is currently over 160 approved Regional Centers, not all of them have active EB-5 projects and out of those that have active projects not all are secure.
With so many choices, potential EB-5 investors must take the necessary time to thoroughly research the EB-5 Regional Centers and projects that they are interested in to make sure they are making a sound investment and will get their EB-5 visa approval. The use of professional EB-5 consulting services can help to make this process run much smoother.
For more information, please contact Fred Burgess or Joe Sloboda at info@exclusivevisas.com or 001+1-954-727-9800.
USCIS approved EB-5 Regional Centers List
Admiralty California Regional Center LLC
Aero Space Port International Group (ASPI Group) Regional Center
Alliance Regional Center | Oasis Growth Partners LLC
Aloha Regional Center, LLC
American Franchise Regional Center LLC
American Gateway Regional Center
American Life Development Company LLC
American Life Investments, LLC
American Life Seattle RC | Gold Rainbow | Freedom Fund
American Life Ventures Everett, Washington
American Life Ventures, Tacoma, Washington
American Life, Inc. – Lakewood Regional Center
American Logistics [International] Regional Center
American Redevelopment RC / American Redevelopment Solutions LLC
America’s Center for Foreign Investment, LLC (ACFI) (formerly Alabama Regional Center )
Anacostia Regional Center
Atlanta EB5 Regional Center LLC
Atlantic Regional Center for Foreign Investment, LLC (ARCFi)
Bay Area Regional Center LLC
BirchLEAF Miami 31, LLC Regional Center
Buffalo Regional Center
California Consortium for Agricultural Export (CCAE)
California Energy Investment Center
California Global Alliance Regional Center c/o Lewis C. Nelson & Sons, Inc.
California Golden Fund
California Green Regional Center
California Investment Immigration Fund, LLC (CIIS)
California Pacific Group Regional Center
California Wineries & Vineyards, LLC Regional Center (CWVRC)
Capital Area Regional CenterTM (CARCTM) c/o Global Capital Markets Advisors
Carolina Center for Foreign Investment RC
Central Arizona Regional Center
Century America Regional Center
Charlotte Harbor Regional Center
Chicagoland Foreign Investment Group (CFIG) Regional Center
City of Dallas RC (CDRC)
Clark County Regional Center
Cleveland International Fund, Ltd
CMB Export LLC
CMB Summit LLC RC
Colorado Intercontinental Regional Center, LLC Stephen S. Smith c/o Evergreen Land Co.
Colorado Regional Center, LLC
CP Regional Center Inc
Crown Point Regional Center
DC Regional Center
Detroit Immigrant Investor Regional Center
Dos Lagos Regional Center LLC
EB-5 Jobs for Hawaii, LLC
EB-5 Jobs for Massachusetts, Inc.
EB-5 New York State, LLC
EB-5, MRC LLC
Ecorntech Regional Center
El Monte Regional Center
Farm for America Regional Center
FDIUS Regional Center
Federal New York Metropolitan Regional Center
Florida EB5 Investments LLC Regional Center
Florida EB-5 Regional Center, LLC
Florida Equity & Growth Fund Regional Center, LLC
Florida Overseas Investment Center RC
Florida Regional Center, LLC
Georgia Center for Foreign Investment and Development
Georgia Regional Center, LLC
Global Century (Houston)
Global Premier America Regional Center LLC
Gold Coast Florida Regional Center
Golden Pacific Ventures Regional Center
Grand Canyon Regional Center, LLC
Green Card Fund, LLC
Green Detroit Regional Center, LLC
Green Energy Regional Center, LLC (GERC)
Guam Strategic Development LLC RC
Gulf Coast Funds Management Regional Center (GCFM)
Gulf Coast Funds Management, LLC
Gulf Coast Regional Investment Center LLC
Hawaii Regional Center
Hawaiian Islands Regional Center LLC
Hollywood Beach Regional Center LLC
Hollywood International Regional Center
Idaho State Regional Center LLC
Imperial Regional Center
Inland Empire Renewable Energy Regional Center, LLC
International Michigan Investments Regional Center
Invest Idaho Regional Center
Invest LA Regional Center, LLC
Invest U.S. Regional Center
Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED)
Kansas Bio-Fuel RC, LLC
Lake Buena Vista RC
Lansing Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) Regional Center
Las Vegas Regional Center
LaSalle County Business Development Center (LCBDC)
Liberty West Regional Center
Los Angeles County Regional Center
Los Angeles Regional Center
Louisiana Mississippi Regional Center
Luca Energy Fund Regional Center
M&D Regional Center, LLC
MAMTEK Regional Center
Manhattan Regional Center, LLC
Maryland Center for Foreign Investment, LLC
Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC)
Middle Georgia Regional Center
Midwest Center for Foreign Investment, LLC
Midwest EB-5 Regional Center
Mirzam Investor Green Card Regional Center
Mississippi Development Center, LLC
Mountain States Center for Foreign Investment (MSCFI)
Nevada California Regional Center
Nevada Regional Economic Development Center (NREDC)
New Jersey Regional Center, LLC
New Orleans’ Mayor’s Office RC
New York City Regional Center, LLC
New York Immigration Fund, LLC
New York Proton Regional Center, LLC
Next Bay Properties, LLC
North Carolina Center for Foreign Investments, LLC
North Country EB-5 Regional Center LLC
North Texas EB-5 Regional Center LLC
Northeast Ohio Regional Center
Northern California Regional Center, LLC
Northern Rockies Regional Center
Ohio Development Regional Center
Oregon Regional Center
Palm Beach RC
Palm Coast Florida Regional Center
Path America Sonoco, LLC
Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development Regional Center
Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) Regional Center
Pittsburg Regional Investement Center LLC
Portland Regional Center
Regional Center Management Los Angeles
Regional Center of South Florida, LLC
Regional Center Properties, LLC
Rocky Mountain High Regional Center
San Francisco Bay Area Regional Center
Silicon Valley California Regional Center
Silicon Valley Venture Investment Regional Center
South Atlantic Regional Center (SARC)
South Dakota International Business Institute (SDIBI)
South East Los Angeles RC (SELARC)
South Florida Investment Regional Center (SFIRC)
South West Biofuel RC, LLC (SWBRC)
Southeast Regional Center LLC
Star of Texas Regional Center
Sunbelt EB-5 Regional Center, LLC
Synergy California Green Hospitality Regional Center, LLC
Tennessee Regional Center, LLC
Texas Lone Star Enterprises, LLC
The Lake Point EcoVentures Regional Center
Tucker Development Corporation Regional Center
Twin Development LLC Regional Center
UND Center for Innovation Foundation Regional Center
US Commercial Regional Center
US Employment Development Lending Center
US HITEC Regional Center
USA Now Regional Center LLC
Utah High Country Regional Center
Utah Regional Investment Fund, LLC
Velocity Regional Center
Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development
Washington Regional Center
Wave House California Regional Center, LLC
Western Washington Regional Center LLC
Whatcom Opportunities RC
YK America Regional Center LLC