The Employment-Based Immigration Fifth preference EB-5 is an immigrant investor program. Through this program entrepreneurs along with their spouse and unmarried children under the age 21 to migrate to the USA as a permanent resident and it also allows an interested investor to become a lawful permanent resident of the USA. The applicants for this program may be eligible for this program if they make the required investment in a commercial enterprise in the USA and plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified USA workers.
All the interested applicants under EB-5 investor program must invest in a new commercial, which is a commercial enterprise that either Established after Nov. 29, 1990, or established on or before Nov. 29, 1990, that is:
A new commercial enterprise is formed as a result of purchasing
- Purchased and the existing business is restructured or reorganized in such a way that a new commercial enterprise results, or
- Expanded through the investment so that at least a 40-per cent increase in the net worth or number of employees occurs.
Commercial enterprise:
The Commercial enterprise is a business that involves buying and selling activities on a large scale, for the purposes of making a profit for the ongoing conduct of lawful business including, but not limited to:
- A sole proprietorship
- Partnership (whether limited or general)
- Holding company
- Joint venture
- Corporation
- Business trust, or
- Other entity, which may be publicly or privately owned.
Job Creation Requirements
The applicants for this program must invest the required amount of capital in a new commercial enterprise. That new commercial enterprise must create full-time positions for at least 10 qualifying employees.
- The new commercial enterprise (or its wholly owned subsidiaries) must itself be the employer of the qualifying employees if the new commercial enterprise is not located within a regional centre.
- The new commercial enterprise can create full-time positions either direct or indirect if the new commercial enterprise is located within a regional center
- Direct jobs are those jobs which establish an employer-employee relationship between the new commercial enterprise and the persons it employs.
- Indirect jobs are those jobs which are held outside of the new commercial enterprise but that are created as a result of the new commercial enterprise.
- The EB-5 investor may rely on job maintenance in the case of a troubled business
- The investor must show that the number of existing employees will be maintained at no less than the pre-investment level for a period of at least 2 years.
Capital investment requirements
Required minimum investments are:
- The minimum qualifying investment in the United States is $1 million.
- The minimum qualifying investment either within a high-unemployment area or rural area in the United States is $500,000.
