Questions and Answers > EB-5 Investments

How can a married couple apply for the EB-5 program?

I am Brazilian and married. My husband is Korean. We do not want to just visit the United States. We want to live there and work in the family's U.S. company. If we apply for the EB-5 visa, will we have to go through different immigration processes because we have different nationalities? Does it make a difference which of us is the main applicant?

Answers

• Xiaosheng Huang

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 26, 2016

  If you family applies for the EB-5 program, the members do not need to go through different procedures. It is better that you or your husband is the main applicant, not your children.

• Julia Roussinova

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 22, 2016

  Immigrant visa number availability is the same for Brazilian and Korean nationals. Depending on which spouse is the person who earns the majority of the income, it may be best that he or she is the principal investor for purposes of showing legal source of funds, and his or her spouse and all unmarried children under age 21 will be included in the principal investor's I-526 petition and then be able to immigrate to the United States as conditional permanent residents when the I-526 petition is approved.

• Michael A Harris, Esq

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 21, 2016

  You will apply together, or rather the principal investor will file a petition first. Upon approval of the petition, you should both be able to apply together at a U.S. consulate. Also, neither of your countries of nationality, or the countries for which you are chargeable to, have visa backlogs. There may be other considerations to look into depending on which country you reside in and what the waiting times might be at a particular consulate.

• Ed Beshara

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 19, 2016

  Either of you could be the foreign national investor, and the spouse and minor children will automatically obtain conditional permanent residency.

• Robert Lee

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 19, 2016

  It does not matter if you are of different nationalities. As long as you are legally married you may file under one petition.

• Ying Lu

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 18, 2016

  No, you do not need to file separate immigration petitions. The investor, spouse and unmarried children under 21 years old can immigrate through one investment by filing one I-526 petition. It does not matter if you or your husband will be the principal applicant.

• Salvatore Picataggio

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 18, 2016

  Your nationalities will not matter. You will need to show a marriage certificate to allow for one spouse to be a derivative beneficiary of the other. Who is the main applicant depends on how you can best show the source and transfer of funds.

• Jinhee Wilde

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 18, 2016

  Since the visa number availability is the same for Brazilian- and Korean-born, either of you could be the main investor. Whoever earns the majority of the funds you will use to invest may be the main investor for the ease of tracking the legal source of funds. Whenever you do the EB-5 case, your spouse and all children under 21 immigrate with the investor.

• Dale Schwartz

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 18, 2016

  One EB-5 case will work for the family. It does not matter what countries you are each from.

• Lynne Feldman

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 18, 2016

  Either person may be the main applicant and as long as you are married the spouse will also get the same permanent residence benefits.

• John J Downey

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 18, 2016

  You will eventually have to process through the U.S Department of State in the country of the investor. I would do some research on the two consulates in Korea and Brazil to see the timelines for processing EB-5 visas. Korea has experience with EB-5 while Brazil is fairly new to the process. I would lean toward Brazil as Korea is sometimes a bit more stringent.

• Bernard P Wolfsdorf

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 18, 2016

  Nationality is not an issue. First you need to locate a good immigration lawyer and a good project.

• Yevgeny Samokhleb

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 18, 2016

  In your case it should not make a difference who the primary applicant is. After the EB-5 petition is approved, you will be able to choose which of your nationality countries to process through, or you may process through the country of your residence.

• Ian E Scott

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 18, 2016

  The nationalities do not make a difference in your case. One of you can apply for the EB-5 green card and the spouse will also get a green card.