The US reintroduced investment green cards, but under new rules

The House of Representatives on March 9 passed a giant omnibus bill that includes provisions to revive the EB-5 investor visa program, albeit coupled with significant reforms that should counter fraudulent schemes, including from Chinese citizens. FOXBusiness.

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Program EB-5 investor visas allowed foreign investors to obtain residence permits, which raised concerns because it was tantamount to a "dollars for residence permit" scheme. This also raised concerns among national security officials that the program could be used by the Chinese Communists. Most of the investors who took advantage of the program came from China or other parts of Asia.

The program usually required an investment of $1 million, but it could be as little as $500 in high-poverty areas and create 000 jobs. In return, the investor will be issued a green card. And not only to him, but also to his family. This, in turn, puts them on the path to citizenship.

Previous attempts to reform in the Obama and Trump administrations have failed. But the nearly 3000-page new set includes provisions first introduced into legislation by Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Patrick Leahy of Virginia to reform the program.

This law was blocked last year, and the EB-5 program ran out of funding and has not been operational since. But in the event of a bipartisan successful immigration reform, the visa program will be revived with a number of significant changes.

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The code includes a number of measures to reform the "regional center" part of the program, which allows several investors to pool capital to finance major investments in the country. While this was intended to stimulate economic growth in poor or rural areas, the money was poured into luxury projects in places like New York and San Francisco.

The reforms include a range of anti-fraud measures, as well as audits, background checks and site visits for EB-5 projects, as well as stricter definitions of terms such as "capital" to prevent abuse. It also increases the level of funding required for high poverty areas to $800. Of the 000 EB-10s provided each year, 000 will be for rural or high poverty areas.

The regulations also include expanded powers for DHS to verify foreign capital to ensure it is legally received and require foreign agents and third-party program promoters to register with DHS.

The wording now included in the code also establishes an EB-5 "honesty fund" into which centers and investors will make contributions that will be used by DHS for additional due diligence. The code also includes a number of rules that were overturned during the Trump administration by a federal judge.

While investor groups cheered the move, immigration hawks were less convinced. R.J. Howman, head of government relations at the Federation of American Immigration Reform, said the program is "riddled with fraud and national security vulnerabilities" and "often used by wealthy urban developers who siphon investment money from rural and economically disadvantaged areas to finance luxury projects in some of the country's most affluent areas."

“Although the reforms had a good purpose, the program was dead and should have remained so,” he said.

Howman also expressed concern about the use of the program by Russian oligarchs:

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“Besides, if the world successfully stifles businesses in Russia, as we see it already doing, all these rich oligarchs will have even more motivation to put their money into safer havens,” he said. “EB-5 not only satisfies these aspirations, but also gives them a green card so they can flee a collapsing country.”

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