Does an established franchise business qualify for EB-5?

Yes, an existing business can qualify for the EB-5 program. If not a regional center, your investor must invest $1 million unless the restaurant is within a TEA. A concern would be when the corporation was formed. The guidelines and requirements for corporations formed prior to 11/29/1990 differ from those formed post 11/20/1990. As to the second part of your question, you can have multiple sites at a time.

You should be able to qualify and do not necessarily need an RC designation as long as the transactions are properly structured. You must meet the job creation requirement and if not in TEA, the required minimum investment per restaurant per investor would be $1M.

New restaurants could qualify, I would recommend discussing the specifics and strategies with immigration counsel to determine if regional center designation would be something helpful and feasible.

You will be able to use the EB-5 program, however you will have to speak with a Regional Center in the area where you would like to open the new locations to join the Regional Center and be able to get the advantage of the EB-5 investors.

Yes. Amount of investment is depended on locations. You need to generate additional 10 jobs for each investment.

There is no reason why a franchise investment would not qualify for EB-5, assuming all other requirements are met.

There are many ways to structure an investment as you describe. I suggest you please call me during the week.

Yes in answer to your questions. OurLaw Firm is involved in many direct EB-5 projects involving well established and well known branded franchised restaurants.

You can probably have more than 1 restaurant project at the time but you would have to set it up in a way to pool investors per restaurant. You do not need a regional center designation for that.

Simply create a new business entity (LP, LLC, Inc) for each restaurant. Your investors must invest $1 million unless the restaurant is within a Targeted Employment Area. In that case, the minimum investment is $500,000.

Yes you can qualify for the EB-5 program as an existing business. If you expanded your current locations, then the question would be whether the corporate entities were formed on or after November 29, 1990. The cutoff date determines whether the business is ''new'' or not. If it is new, the normal EB-5 investment scenario works. If it is not ''new'', then the business will need to either (1) increase the net worth of the business by 40% and still create 10 jobs per investor, (2) increase the number of jobs existing in the company by 40% (ensuring at least 10 jobs per investor), or (3) significantly restructure the business commercial enterprise (which requires a delicate approach). Further, you can have multiple restaurant sites at a time.

You may be able to qualify, it is going to be contingent upon how the deals are structured. If you are planning to franchise, an RC is not required provided if you can meet the threshold job creation requirement.

The simple answer is that, "yes," it can qualify. I would only say that I would recommend an RC. Also, you can have more than one restaurant at a time.