by EB5 Investors Magazine Staff
1. Do you have a license for immigration services? If so, which city/region are you licensed to operate in?
Renhe International Group was founded in August 1993. It was the first immigration service in Shenzhen with dual qualifications for immigration and overseas study. Our overseas study license was first issued by the State Ministry of Education, and the immigration license was issued by the Guangdong Province Public Security Bureau.
2. What countries do you help immigrants migrate to? What are the first and second most popular immigration programs you offer?
We offer migration projects that are globally reliable and stable. For example: Macao investment immigration, Canada investment immigration, Australian investment immigration and others. Currently, clients are most interested in the United States, Europe and Canada immigration programs.
3. What is the reason you entered into this business?
Before working in the migration industry, our family managed an offshore investment company, where we gained a great understanding of foreign policy, investment markets, market trends and cultural considerations. In the 1990’s, Shenzhen’s economy was rapidly developing, and the immigration industry was just starting. We saw the immigration industry as a good business opportunity, and, combined with our established foreign resources and high-end relationships, we established Shenzhen Renhe Overseas Investment Service Co., Ltd.
4. What are the major concerns typically expressed by your clients? What are their concerns with EB-5?
Clients looking to emigrate are usually most concerned with: (1) the actual process of immigration and successfully completing the entire process, (2) investment security, and (3) how long the process will take.
EB-5 customers are mainly concerned with three points: (1) job creation: whether the project can guarantee that it will create sufficient jobs so that investors qualify for their permanent green cards; (2) project risks: how high is the risk associated with a project being able to return an investor’s capital investment, and how long will it be before the investment is repaid; (3) timeline: clients are concerned about their children being too old to qualify for immigration benefits under the parents. It is very difficult to plan an entire family’s relocation to another country when there are so many variables to account for while planning.
5. Overall, what are the biggest obstacles you see for the EB-5 program (up to three)?
The biggest problem in investment immigration in the United States is that the waiting time is too long, which decreases the cost-performance rate. Scheduling problems make clients spend more time waiting for a green card, so investment repayment time is extended accordingly, which has greatly weakened the original advantages of EB-5. If there is no new immigration policy to alleviate this scheduling problem, the number of EB-5 investors will certainly reduce, and clients will choose the other immigration programs. This problem is the most critical one and the only issue that needs to be resolved immediately.
6. What do you feel is the biggest obstacle for the growth of the EB-5 market in China (i.e. competition, government regulation, etc.)?
I think there are currently two obstacles for U.S. investment immigration. The first obstacle is the timeline: scheduling problems lead to extended green card waiting time as well as extended investment repayment time, which has greatly weakened the original advantages of EB-5. The second obstacle is there are now many projects and migration agents on the market who provide varying levels of quality. This situation leads to customers easily becoming confused. Choosing a licensed immigration agency will better protect the customer’s immigration and investment.
7. What type of projects are you currently looking to partner with? Hotel, apartments, or energy projects?
We take our evaluation of all projects very seriously. In our underwriting of projects, we perform comprehensive and holistic evaluations: our entire project team considers the project’s feasibility, risk factors, sales and marketing, etc., in order to ensure the security of client funds, green card obtainment and investment repayment. We will also look at the regional centers and the developer’s track records and backgrounds. So we don’t simply look for a hotel project or an apartment project or an energy project.
8. Do you offer both regional center and direct investment projects?
Our products include both regional center projects and direct investment projects. But most customers are still willing to choose regional center projects.
9. Please list the top three things you look for in a project in terms of underwriting and explain each one.
(1) Investing is similar to running any business; we must consider the feasibility of a project to succeed. In other words, we consider the investment risks of the project to evaluate how and when an investor is repaid and whether the offering documents provide any protections to mitigate risk factors.
(2) Whether the employment of the project created is in line with USCIS requirements, and whether it can create the jobs within the designated timeframe to ensure that our customers successfully obtain their permanent green cards;
(3) The project managers’ track record and experience should demonstrate integrity in business since this also has a significant impact on an investment project’s ability to succeed.
10. Do you have a separate underwriting department that looks at your deals? How long does this process typically take?
Our company has a professional team of U.S. project underwriters. Each project we consider will go through multiple levels of due diligence in order for us to fully understand all of a project’s risk factors. Usually, this underwriting process will take two to three months.
11. Do you have capacity to accept more projects right now?
Every six months we conduct a project screening. We then select projects that meet market and policy requirements in addition to meeting our company’s underwriting requirements.
12. Do you feel it’s more important to have a reputable project or a reputable regional center? Or are both important?
Reputable projects and reputable regional centers are equally important. Our company focuses more on the project itself. When we comprehensively evaluate and assess a project, we not only consider the project’s feasibility, risk factors, selling points, marketability, etc., in order to ensure the safety of client funds, but we also strive to ensure that clients’ green cards and opportunity to be repaid is maximized. We also look at the regional centers and the developer’s past experience and background.
13. How do you handle relocation services? Do you outsource, or do you have an affiliated company working with you?
We have four relocation services offices in the U.S.: Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., which can service our customers to deal with the housing and other relocation services.
EB5Investors.com Staff
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