Besides the required $500,000 or $1 million investment in an EB-5 business or project, what are some other costs to be taken into consideration by investors?
Besides attorney fees, regional center investments often have an administration fee that can be as high as $50,000. If you are creating your own project (non-regional center or "direct" EB-5), then you have to set up an entire business, which results in additional costs as well.
Most projects have an admin fee, then you have legal fees and government filing fees.
Most projects charge administrative fees, attorney fees and filing fees.
In addition to the minimum investment required of $500,000 located in a targeted employment area (TEA) through Nov. 20 of this year, the investor would have other costs depending upon whether or not it's a direct EB-5 investment or an investment through an established regional center project. Regional centers typically charge an administrative fee of approximately $50,000. For a direct EB-5 project, you would have the costs related to setting up the business, the costs of acquiring and establishing a new enterprise, which would include additional legal fees as well, for setting up the corporation and acquiring real estate, etc. In both cases, you would also have legal fees for representation in acquiring lawful permanent residency under the EB-5 preference.
Administrative or syndication costs, which are generally between $25,000 and $65,000, depending on the regional center. There is also the USCIS filing fee of $3,675 and attorney/legal fees.
Legal fees are usually $15,000 to $20,000 and the filing fee is $3,675.
Additional costs generally include immigration attorney fees, regional center subscription fees and fees for translation of any documents required for I-526 petition that are in a language other than English.
The EB-5 Modernization Regulation has been published in the Federal Register as a final rule on July 24, 2019, which will be effective on Nov. 21, 2019. Among other things, the major changes include the required minimum investment amount to increase to $1.8 million or $900,000 in a targeted employment area being subject to redefined TEA rules. There is a chance that the EB-5 program may be reauthorized prior to Sept. 30, 2019, with new reforms making these new EB-5 regulations from USCIS moot through a new re-authorization statute. Following is the example of other additional costs to be taken into consideration by investors: administrative fees (the regional centers generally charge additional administrative fees, such as syndication fees, which range between $40,000 to $60,000); immigration attorney legal fees, because the investors will have to pay the separate immigration attorney legal fees to prepare and file their EB-5 petitions, which range between $15,000 to $25,000 or more, depending on the circumstances; translation fees (because USCIS requires that all foreign documents submitted are accompanied by an English translation); USCIS filing fees; and other costs, such as service fees to conduct due diligence on the project(s).
When becoming a partner in a project or business that is managed by others (meaning that it is pooling investments together under an securities offering), you may be required to pay administrative fees. Those fees typically average around $50,000, but they can be reduced or eliminated by some projects. You may even be able to negotiate a lower administrative fee. Aside from that, you will have fees owed to your immigration lawyer, as well as a government filing fee of $3,675.
First, the $500,000 or $1 million is only before Nov. 21, 2019. After that, the minimum amount of investment is $900,000 and $1.8 million for a direct investment. Second, the cost depends on whether you are investing in a regional center or you have direct investment. Regional centers normally have subscription fee ranges between $35,000 and $50,000. In a direct investment project, it really depends on the business, business plan, corporate structure and other factors. There is no one-fits-all-fee structure!
Those costs include the administrative costs, filing fees and attorney fees. These are usually major additional costs. Advisably, consult your EB-5 attorney for a precise list of costs.
Besides the investment amount, there are fees you generally need to pay, such as administrative fees charged by the regional center, attorney fees and the government filing fees.
If the investment is being made through a regional center, there will be the regional center fee as well as legal fees for your attorney to consider.
