The immigrant visa of EB-5 to the USA.

Among applicants for an immigrant visa EB-5, Russians are far from the first place. Moreover, the reasons for this are absolutely “transparent”. On the one hand, immigration lawyers (IA) and lawyers of regional centers (RCs) (authorized to implement projects related to the fulfillment of the conditions of the EB-5 visa) have very modest ideas about the features of working with Russian investors. On the other hand, Russian investors with justified they are suspicious of proposals to invest 500,000 or 1,000,000 US dollars in a project that can not only be “failed” from a commercial point of view, but also which cannot guarantee a visa.

So what is the way out of this situation? To adapt the existing operating rules of the RC from the point of view of perceiving Russian reality and offer investors a simple scheme for choosing a “reliable RC”, and, therefore, investment projects supervised by the center.

Let explain the foregoing with available examples. The cornerstone of the EB-5 visa decision is proof of the fact that the invested funds were received by the applicant legally. Most RCs are guided by the rule that a potential investor provides documents on wages & dividends for the past five years in a form established by the RC.

A very sophisticated immigration lawyer may not agree to start working with an investor whose income over a five year period is not comparable with the amount of investment. The reason is again trivial - neither the immigration lawyer, nor the regional center are going to take risks and receive a refusal for this applicant, since the number of refusals is public information that determines the reputation of both the lawyer and the center. Although in terms of common sense and Russian realities, official income in recent years certainly is not an indicator of solvency ...

From an investor’s perspective, most of the construction projects are: hotels, commercial centers, nursing homes, many bear a social burden, but the main thing is that, as a rule, the project cost is ten times higher than the investment volume of an individual applicant; several dozen visa applicants take part in financing EB-5, as well as construction companies, both at the expense of its own and attracted resources.

Suppose the cost of the project is $ 50,000,000, of which one third is investments from applicants & holders of the EB-5 visa, the remaining two-thirds are money from builders, including borrowed funds. Who in this situation can guarantee the success of the project?

In fairness, the US authorities pay special attention to this issue: RCs receive accreditation, their activities are permanently controlled, RCs lose accreditation ...

But the government did not and cannot guarantee that the investment will be commercially successful. Therefore, it is wise to involve an “arbitrator” who will act as an independent expert.

Our company has experience in working with the RC regarding the preparation of the “correct documents” of the applicant, as well as the objective analysis of projects in the interests of the investor.

How is the result achieved? We work closely with many RCs, and for a long time, analyze their work, monitor the “passing” of the dossier of investors from different countries ...