My family wants to invest in an EB-5 project, but how do we verify its validity? How do we verify regional centers? I know projects are always a risk, but I want to make sure any project we chose is legitimate to increase my chances of getting our green cards approved.
You should hire an EB-5 immigration attorney. He or she will help you engage the services of other professionals, such as investment adviser. Review track records of regional center projects in which you plan to invest, including approvals of I-526 and I-829 petitions, job creation, and the return of EB-5 funds. Have your attorney review offering documentation.
You work with an immigration attorney and investment advisor who can review the immigration aspects and financial aspects, respectively.
You need to do due diligence by checking out the program you are looking at. Best to invest with a regional center that has a long track record of being 100% successful and which has paid back all of its investors who have been in the investment for five years or more. Have an experienced EB-5 immigration lawyer assist you.
You verify through due diligence: research and investigation to confirm all facts concerning that particular regional center.
The best way to verify the validity of an EB-5 project at a regional center would be to ask a pertinent question regarding their length of time they have been in business and on the particular project, evidenced of prior approvals of either exemplar or prior approvals of EB-5 petitions. Another way is to go online and read as much as you can about the particular project and regional center. Most petitioners will also work through an experienced immigration attorney who hopefully is board-certified in immigration nationality law, if that's permitted, and with substantial experience in representing EB-5 investors. They too can share their experience, knowledge and reputation of the regional center and their project.
Before you decide on a EB-5 project to invest in, you need to thoroughly vet the project and regional center (record of filings and approvals, financials, performance, management credentials, etc.).
You should retain a securities professional to perform due diligence. You should not invest unless you have independent due diligence on the project.
You can hire a security advisor, look at the regional center's immigration track record of approvals for I-526s and I-829s, and have an immigration attorney review the project documents once you believe you have selected the one you want.
Short of traveling there and meeting with the people behind the project and RC (and verifying the existence of both), you should also request important standard due-diligence documents such as an I-924 designation letter (and cross-check that the RC is still in good standing with USCIS) as well as checking that the project has the financing/entitlements/permits to proceed with construction.
That's a great question. You should conduct due-diligence research in both an immigration and investment perspective. You, as an investor, must take a risk but if you do the research, you will find out the track records from the regional centers. Plus, make sure to compare and contrast with the projects currently available.
The best approach is to do a due diligence on both the regional centers and their projects to find what their requirements are and look at their records. This should give guidance even though the past positive results of a regional center do not necessarily mean subsequent projects will be successful. However, by obtaining information from various sources you should be able to make a reasonable decision. Advisably, you should appoint an EB-5 attorney for the due-diligence research so as to obtain professional and independent opinion.
You should conduct a series a due-diligence tests. We can certainly help.
You need a qualified professional to assist you, an EB-5 immigration attorney or financial advisor who is not affiliated with the RC.
You need to pay a separate and independent business analyst to be responsible for an objective analysis and, for a fee, the analyst will also assume responsibility for errors and omissions.
You need to do due diligence, preferably with an experienced due-diligence specialist.
