USA Visa center seeks foreign investors

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Immigratie visa USA te koop voor $500.000

Apart programma ;)

Groet / Cees

PS. De EU is bereikbaar voor pakweg 15000 euro via de Maltese ambassade in
Zuid-Afrika. Een stuk goedkoper!

Friday, August 7, 2009  |  Modified: Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Visa center seeks foreign investors
Business First of Buffalo - by Kelsey Swanekamp
Jim Courtney
Immigration attorney Bill Reich hopes to see an influx of immigrants and
investment under the "EB-5" initiative.

Buffalo might soon see an influx of funds from foreign investors into the
United States. The city now has a regional center to channel funds from
foreign investors wishing to immigrate in exchange for investing $500,000
or more in projects that create U.S. jobs.

Known as the EB-5 visa category, short for “fifth employment-based
preference,” the program offers green cards to potential immigrants who
will invest the required funds and create 10 or more jobs for Americans.

The Buffalo center, which operates from 300 Delaware Ave., was started by
four shareholders who received federal approval in February.

The regional centers began 15 years ago as a pilot program, one that
Congress has since reauthorized for short-term periods. Through them,
investors can pool their funds and take a hands-off approach on project
development.

Cornell University Law School professor Stephen Yale-Loehr testified
before the U.S. Congress on July 22 about the benefits, setbacks and
possible improvements of the current immigrant investor program.

He hopes to convince lawmakers to make the program permanent, because
until that happens, he says, foreign investors will be hesitant to
participate.
The new center

A second regional center in Syracuse serves Upstate New York, and a third
center is located in New York City. Throughout the United States, there
are about 60 approved centers – including those in Washington, D.C., San
Francisco and Colorado – with another 40 applications pending approval.

To become a certified regional center, an enterprise, corporation or
regional government body must submit an application to the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services detailing the proposed economic
impact of the center. The process takes about six months.

The Buffalo Regional Center is modeled after an EB-5 center in Seattle,
said shareholder Bill Reich, a Buffalo immigration attorney.

His partners in the venture are Moises Sudit, a professor of engineering
at the University at Buffalo; Western New York developer Elliot Lasky,
president of North Forest Development Corp.; and Henry Liebman, a lawyer
connected with the Seattle regional center.

Reich, a lawyer with the firm Serotte Reich Wilson LLP, declined to reveal
how much money each has invested in the center’s startup. He said the team
hopes to identify a workable project within four months, after which they
will recruit EB-5 investors.

The center will focus on renovating existing structures for commercial and
residential use, he said. “This will rejuvenate the city,” he said. “It
will be part of the renaissance.”

Who wants in

Yale-Loehr of Cornell said that most interest in the program comes from
countries such as India, China and Korea, where citizens face visa
backlogs that make it difficult to come to the United States.

While the EB-5 visas don’t reduce the number of other visas available to
non-investor immigrants, they are exclusive to the wealthy, said Sophie
Feal, the supervising immigration attorney with the Volunter Lawyers
Project of Buffalo.

“In a capitalist society, investor money is what we value. People with
money are valued,” she said. “Hopefully, Congress will also value the
working class who are willing to give their labor.”

In his testimony last month, Yale-Loehr discussed the economic impact of
existing EB-5 programs. One such project is a $26 million, 156-room hotel
across from the Children’s Hospital in Aurora, Colo., an area described in
his testimony as being devoid of hotels. The hotel, when completed, will
provide 200 jobs.

However, Yale-Loehr testified, of the 10,000 green cards available for
EB-5 immigrants, less than one-tenth are used – only 806 in 2007.

This underutilization could be due to difficulty in qualifying for the
EB-5 green cards and a hesitancy on the part of foreign investors because
of frequent changes in immigration policy.
One investor’s experience

Eric Canal-Forgues, a French attorney, immigrated to the United States
using an investor visa in November 2008.

“The system is attractive but marred with some uncertainties,” he said.

For Canal-Forgues, it took one year to complete the necessary applications
and another to schedule an interview with the American Consulate in Paris.

Next July, he must begin another process to prove that his investment did
create 10 jobs, he said. Through an EB-5 center in Philadelphia, he is
involved in the construction of Comcast Corp. headquarters there.

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