What are the residency and management requirements for EB-5?

You are not required to participate in the day-to-day management of the EB-5 project. Policy formation and voting on corporate matters may be sufficient (but we would review the actual roles and agreements first). I am more concerned with your physical presence in the United States. You will be expected to actually be a permanent resident, and a regular month-in/month-out schedule may be considered an abandonment of your permanent residency.

There are two issues in your question: (1) Whether as a conditional resident, you can go out of the United States every 30 days. The answer is affirmative. As long as you maintain the U.S. as your permanent residency and have no intention to abandon, you may continue the current work schedule. But be prepared to explain to the immigration agent upon returning to the United States. An experienced immigration attorney can suggest ways to make this routine workable. (2) Whether an EB-5 investor can hire a manager to run daily operation. The answer is also affirmative. An EB-5 investor should "direct and manage" the investment, which does not prohibit the hiring of managerial personnel for assistance, so long as the investor is still involved in managing the business, such as strategy formulation etc.

The requirement to maintain a green card is that you must have the intent to permanently reside in the United States. Intent can be demonstrated by certain types of evidence including U.S. property ownership, family ties, a job in the United States, and the amount of time you spend abroad and what you are doing abroad. Also, any absence from the United States of more than six months on any given trip might raise the presumption that you have abandoned your intent to permanently reside in the United States. Such a presumption might be rebutted by providing other strong evidence of permanent resident intent. If you have a permanent job in your home country, then maybe a green card is not right for you. If your job is temporary and you are winding up your affairs in your home country in preparation to move to the United States, then you could consider obtaining a reentry permit after you get your green card. The reentry permit would allow you to remain outside the United States during the validity of the reentry permit and still be allowed to reenter the United States as a lawful permanent resident. An EB-5 investor must be involved in the management of the new commercial enterprise, but you could hire someone to help you manage the business during your temporary absences abroad.

When the regulations were promulgated in 1990 they required the investor to have "an active participation" in the investment. When we quizzed them about it they answered that it would be the same participation as a limited partner would have under the Uniform Partnership Act, As to one month here and one month not here, you run the danger of not having the requisite intention to become a "permanent" resident.

It is required to establish and permanently reside in the United States when you become a conditional or permanent resident. This can be demonstrated by moving yourself and your family within six months of receiving your immigrant visa and then leasing or purchasing a home to live, enrolling your children into school, opening a bank account, etc. As long as actions such as these are taken to establish your permanent residency, you traveling back and forth to your home country for business purposes does not jeopardize your conditional or permanent residency. As to the management requirement, EB-5 rules require that the investor be involved in the EB-5 business in "day-to-day" or operational management on direct investment, or in a policy setting/formulating position, such as a limited partner, in a partnership run by a regional center. Now, if you wish to apply for U.S. citizenship after five years, you must be physically present in the United States for more than 50 percent of the time you have been a permanent resident. Your EB-5 immigration lawyer should explain all of this and guide you at each step so that you do not jeopardize your residency or future immigration benefits inadvertently.