EB-5 – USA Green Card or Employment-Based Fifth Preference: Under EB-5 – USA Green Card, investors (and their spouses and unmarried children under 21) are eligible to apply for lawful permanent residence (become a Green Card holder).
EB-5, or Employment-Based Fifth Preference, is a visa program in the United States that provides foreign investors and their immediate families (and their spouses and unmarried children under 21) with the opportunity to apply for U.S. lawful permanent residence (become a Green Card holder) by making a qualifying investment in a new commercial enterprise that creates or preserves jobs for U.S. workers. The EB-5 visa program was created by the U.S. Congress in 1990 to attract foreign investment and stimulate job creation in the United States.
To be eligible for the EB-5 visa, the investor must invest either in a new commercial enterprise or a targeted employment area (TEA). A TEA is either a rural area with a low population or a high-unemployment area. The investment made depends on where the investor made the investment.
The investment must also create or preserve a minimum of 10 full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers within two years of the investor’s admission to the United States as a conditional permanent resident.
The EB-5 visa application process involves several steps, including submitting an immigrant petition (Form I-526) to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), obtaining conditional permanent residency if the petition is approved, and then applying for the removal of conditions to obtain unconditional permanent residency (Form I-829) after the job creation requirements have been met.
In addition, Congress created the Immigrant Investor Program, also known as the Regional Center Program, which sets aside EB-5 visas for participants who invest in commercial enterprises associated with regional centers approved by USCIS based on proposals for promoting economic growth.
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