How can company employees apply for EB-5 visa?

Under the EB-5 visa, individuals must invest from their own personal funds. A company investing on behalf of an individual does not qualify for the investment. USCIS allows funds of spouses to be combined for EB-5 purposes, but not a company providing funds on behalf of the individual.

The EB-5 immigrant investor visa category is designed for individuals to invest their own personal funds, a company investing on behalf of individuals would not qualify the investment.

A company may not apply for an EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa, only an individual investor may petition for this status using his/her funds.

The investment must be with personal funds. The EB-5 classification would extend to spouses and their unmarried children under 21.

Basically, EB-5 is for investors, their spouse and unmarried children under 21 years old. Hence, the EB-5 investment must be made from the investor''s personal bank account, not a business account. In your case, each director of your company who wants to immigrate to the U.S. should invest at least $ 500,000 to a regional center from their personal bank account and properly document their source of funds.

Unfortunately, the EB-5 program has been designed solely for the benefit of individual applicants and cannot be used as a vehicle for a company''s professionals. Certainly, this does not preclude a member of your company from investing in an EB-5 project, however, if his/her application is approved, the only people that could benefit would be immediate family (spouse and any children under the age of 21). None of the co-workers/board members would be able to benefit. The relevant investment amount is either $500,000, if the project will be conducted in an area designated as having high unemployment or if not, then it will be a $1 million investment.

No, a company cannot file a petition for an immigrant visa.

No, a foreign company cannot qualify under the EB-5 regional center affiliated Pilot program. Only individuals can apply. However, your company may consider establishing a subsidiary company in the U.S. and transfer your executives or managers or employees with specialized knowledge to work for the U.S. subsidiary company under L-1 visas. However, L-1 visa cannot be granted if the transferring employee to the US is the 100% owner of the foreign company and 100% owner of the U.S. company. For the qualifying L-1A managers and executives can be granted with a total of maximum of six years of stay in the U.S.( two extensions). Thereafter the alien has to return to his or her country, unless I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker and adjustment of status have been applied before the visa expires. Depending on the nature of your business, it may require you at least $250,000-$500,000 for a start up U.S. company to cover for leases, operating expenses and employee wages, and inventory. For an L-1( A) transferee, he or she must manage the company functions or manage the professionals, managers or supervisors of the U.S. company. This might be an option if the transferring employees have worked full time for your company in India at least one year out of the last three years.

Corporations cannot invest through the EB-5 program, it has to be individuals. The company may gift the amount to the directors etc. The amount does not change, it will be a minimum of $1million unless being invested in a TEA or rural area.

Each person applying for the EB-5 must submit the required minimum investment to qualify ($1M or $500K depending on location of the business for the investment). The investments by those individuals will have to meet the requirements of the business plan specified for each petition. You should be talking with am Immigration Attorney to get more specifics about what is possible in your situation.

In order to qualify for EB-5, the investment must be made by an individual, not by a company. The company could loan the funds to the employee, as long as a formal loan contract, along with all the proper terms (length of the loan, interest rate, repayment, collateral) are included. Also, if the employee is a shareholder of the company, it might be possible to structure a shareholder''s loan and use the ownership interest and right to future profits in the company as collateral for the loan. In any event, you should consult with an experienced EB-5 immigration attorney to advise you on the options to accomplish your goals.