We discussed the requirements to the investment-based immigration program EB-5 in the previous article. There are two main requirements:
l Investment of $1 million or $500,000 if in a rural area or the one with a high unemployment rate, and
l Creation of 10 new full-time jobs for the U.S. residents
After the initial investment of money the investor and his immediate family members (a spouse and children under 21 years old) receive temporary 2-year green cards. Their statuses as US permanent residents are conditioned on the satisfaction of the second requirement of the program – creation of 10 new jobs for the US citizens and residents. These two years of the US residency are given exactly for this purpose.
When submitting an application to remove conditions from the investor’s green card the evidence must be submitted showing how many people were employed during the period in question, the nature of their jobs, the pay rate, the hours worked (whether it is a full or part time positions) and other relevant information. Remember that investor’s spouse and other close relatives will not be counted towards “10 new employment positions”. Besides, the evidence must be submitted that investor’s funds are still in the business that was listed on the initial application and were not withdrawn or re-directed in a new unrelated enterprise. Basically, it must be shown that it is a stable well-functioning company and therefore investor’s money has served a legitimate business purpose.
An application to remove conditions from the investor’s and his family member’s green cards must be submitted 90 days before the expiration date of the conditional green cards. This application must be accompanied by a filing fee and all extensive documentation as discussed above. Even though putting together all business-related documents may be very time and labor consuming, an experienced immigration attorney can make this process as smooth and expedited as possible.
