EB-5 Visa Program News Blog: FY12 Q1 EB-5 Statistics

EB-5 Visa Program News Blog: FY12 Q1 EB-5 Statistics: USCIS has released new statistics as part of the presentation for the 1/23 EB-5 Stakeholder Meeting . Form I-924 (& Pre-I-...

FY12 Q1 EB-5 Statistics

USCIS has released new statistics as part of the presentation for the 1/23 EB-5 Stakeholder Meeting.

Form I-924 (& Pre-I-924) Regional Center Initial Applications
Fiscal Year or Quarter	Receipts	Approvals	Denials
FY12 Q1	41	14	22
FY11	192	80	51
FY10	110	36	30

Form I-924 (& Pre-I-924) Regional Center Amendment Requests
Fiscal Year or Quarter	Receipts	Approvals	Denials
FY12 Q1	17	4	3
FY11	86	43	7
FY10	42	42	11

Form I-526 Petition Final Actions
Fiscal Year and/or Quarter	Form I-526 Approvals	Final Action %	Form I-526 Denials	Final Action %
FY12 Q1	1,076	83%	222	17%
FY11	1,563	81%	371	19%
FY10	1,369	89%	165	11%
FY09	1,262	86%	207	14%
FY08	640	84%	120	16%
FY07	473	76%	148	24%
FY06	336	73%	124	27%
FY05	179	53%	156	47%

Form I-829 Petition Final Actions
Fiscal Year and/or Quarter	Form I-829 Approvals	Final Action %	Form I-829 Denials	Final Action %
FY12 Q1	144	93%	11	7%
FY11	1,067	96%	46	4%
FY10	274	83%	56	17%
FY09	347	86%	56	14%
FY08	159	70%	68	30%
FY07	111	69%	49	31%
FY06	106	64%	59	36%
FY05	184	62%	112	38%

EB-5 Visa Usage
Fiscal Year	Total EB-5 Visas Issued
FY12 YTD*	2,364
FY11	3,463
FY10	1,885
FY09	4,218
FY08	1,360
FY07	806
FY06	744
FY05	158
*Estimate of FY12 Visas Issued YTD, reported by the Department of State as of 01/17/2012.

Attention: International Students EB-5 is for you!

Attention: International Students EB-5 is for you!

Second semester senior year is supposed to be both exciting and relaxing for college students. Finishing up your major, interviewing for jobs, and planning trips to Europe consume your last few months as a full-time student. But what if that trip you were planning—Europe, Asia, anywhere—was going to be permanent? At this time, international students studying in the United States are faced not only with a slow and challenging economy and job market; they are also struggling to get sponsorship for H-1 or work visas.

Consider this scenario: At age 18, you receive a student visa and decide to study in the United States. It is 2008, and while the job market is not completely awful in the U.S., you are confident that things will turn around by the time you are ready to graduate in 2012. Now, fast forward through those four years of undergrad. It is now 2012 and you are getting ready to walk across that stage. Nerves set in, because the job market has not picked up as hoped and the companies that are hiring graduates are looking to hire U.S. citizens and forego the H-1 or work visa paper process. You feel stuck. You feel helpless. You have just spent the last four years of your life networking, studying, interning, and giving everything you could to your community and now you have no choice but to leave. Wasn’t the reason you decided to study in the United States in the first place to learn as much as you could and then find a job and stay here? Your dreams are shattered.

Chicagoland Foreign Investment Group, LLC (CFIG) understands your concerns and offers you an option that will allow you obtain a U.S. Green Card within one year and restore those dreams. It is called EB-5. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) EB-5 immigrant investor program is designed to address the issues of job creation and economic development while, at the same time, providing investors with U.S. Green Cards. CFIG has been designated as a USCIS EB-5 regional center, allowing them facilitate match EB-5 qualifying projects with EB-5 investors.

The minimum investment requirement for EB-5 is $500,000 in a targeted employment area or $1,000,000 in any other area within an EB-5 regional center’s designated operating area. By investing through an EB-5 regional center, like CFIG, much of the stress investors fear is alleviated. CFIG vets projects and structures business plans to ensure EB-5 compliance. Each EB-5 investment creates 10 jobs—directly or indirectly—and helps stimulate local economies. It is this job creation that helps to stimulate the economy.

While EB-5 investors are not employed by the projects in which they invest, the EB-5 regional center’s projects are helping to stimulate the economy. A growing economy leads to increased hiring in general and increased hiring creates a more promising job market for graduating students and international students.

Advantages of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program

The U.S. immigrant investor program is the most flexible in the world. It sets no requirements based on age, business training and experience, or language skills. Additionally, Permanent Residents need not be continuously and physically present in the United States during the program and can even maintain business and professional relations in their country of origin.

The U.S. immigrant investor program also allows investors a great deal of freedom because it does not require immigrant investors to manage their investment on a daily basis, but rather, to ‘actively engage’ in a business enterprise, meaning they can be limited partners and pursue other professional or personal ventures.

Moreover, should the investor and his or her family elect to become U.S. citizens, the time spent as conditional permanent residents is credited towards the five year lawful permanent residency requirement for U.S. citizenship. As a permanent resident, the investor and his or her family are free to return to their homeland for visits or business purposes, as long as a residence is maintained in the United States.

The EB-5 Visa program also offers the following benefits:

• Direct route to permanent residency in the United States for Investor, his/her spouse, and any children under the age of 21

• Freedom for Investor and family to live, work, and retire anywhere in the United States

• Investor and his/her spouse and children may attend college or university at U.S. resident costs

• Investor and immediate family may travel to and from the United States without a visa

• Route to U.S. citizenship for Investor and immediate family after five years of permanent residency

• Ability for Investor to sponsor green cards for family members

• Investor receives all benefits of U.S. permanent residency status, including ability to develop and run his/her own business

Chicagoland Foreign Investment Group, LLC