Steffanie J Lewis
Immigration AttorneyThe new commercial enterprise may pay rent to real property owned wholly or in part by the investor on the condition that the investor did not use the property as investment capital in the new enterprise. The law requires that the EB-5 investment must be at risk. If the real property were used as capital in the new enterprise, paying rent may be deemed a guarantees of a return of the investment, which does not satisfy the requirement that the invested funds be at risk. Otherwise, the new commercial enterprise can operate in the real property and pay the rent. If the property is owned by an entity unrelated to the investor, the new commercial enterprise can pay rent as it would to any landlord, provided that rent does not guarantee success of the investment and, thus, remove the EB-5 investment risk. Likewise, if use of the real property without payment of rent were to guarantee success of the new enterprise, the risk requirement would not be satisfied.