Questions & Answers

Do EB-5 investors have to sustain their investments after they receive their green card?

Do EB-5 visa holders have to keep their investments in the project they choose if they want to remain in the United States on their EB-5 visa?

Answers

• Jinhee Wilde

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on December 3, 2012

  Your initial green card is temporary and on condition that the investment continues and produced 10 full-time, permanent jobs for at least 2 years after you get your temporary green card. If you have maintained the investment and the project in which you had invested is still viable and has produced the requisite number of jobs, then the I-829 application to remove the condition filed after 2 years will be approved and your green card becomes permanent.

• Rana Jazayerli

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on November 29, 2012

  Immigration law requires that the investment be sustained up through the point that the I-829 is approved. What this means is: When an EB-5 investor initially receives his/her green card, the US residency is conditional and will expire in two years. At the end of that two years, the investor must file an I-829 petition to remove the conditions and obtain permanent residency. This I-829 requires a showing that the total investment amount has been sustained in the job creating entity and that that business created a minimum of 10 jobs for US workers. After the I-829 is approved, to the best of my knowledge, there are no longer any requirements from an immigration perspective that the investment must remain sustained.

• Charles Raether

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on November 29, 2012

  Once an investor has received approval of his/her removal of conditions (I-829), the investor may take his money out of the investment. To do so prior to that would negatively affect the investor''s ability to secure permanent residency.

• Robert P Gaffney

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on November 29, 2012

  In order to be eligible for removal of conditions an EB-5 investor''s capital must remain invested in the EB-5 enterprise and ''at risk'' until at least the date of filing of the Form I-829, Petition to Remove Conditions. It is not clear whether or not a Form I-829 petition will be approved if the capital is returned to the investor after the filing of the I-829 but before the approval of the petition to remove conditions. I would advise investors not to seek return of capital until after I-829 approval.

• Marjan Kasra

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on November 29, 2012

  An investor in a U.S. Regional Project is expected to invest in the project for a minimum of 5-years; as part of your research, your Attorney Representative would have to find out the project''s "exit strategy" which would be the process through which you may withdraw your money out of the project. As your investment would have to be "at risk" to qualify, the value of your investment may increase or decrease by the time you withdraw your funds. This is a complex process, but one which I would be happy to further discuss with you.

• David Hirson

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on October 31, 2012

  No, not after condition removed.

• Boyd Campbell

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on August 14, 2012

  After the investor files his or her I-829 petition, there is no requirement that the investor maintain the investment of capital in the EB-5 enterprise.

• Brandon Meyer

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on August 14, 2012

  The investment must be sustained only through the period of conditional residence.

• Daniel A Zeft

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on August 14, 2012

  Under the EB-5 program, a foreign national investor cannot be given a guarantee that he or she will receive their principal back or a return on their investment. However, many EB-5 projects are structured to allow the foreign national investors to receive their principal back after they receive their green cards if the project is successful.

• Kate Kalmykov

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on August 10, 2012

  EB-5 investments must be sustained until the time of approval of the removal of the conditions of residency, known as the I-829 application. Once the permanent green card is issued investors may exit the investment per the procedures outlined in the investment''s offering documents.

• Reza Rahbaran

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on August 10, 2012

  Until the investors I-829 is approved and they have their permanent green card, they must maintain their investment.