How Foreigners Can Obtain U.S. Citizenship Through Business Investments

Foreign investors interested in U.S. citizenship used to be able to apply for permanent residence with a $40,000 investment in a domestic business. In 1990, the EB 5 Visa for Immigrant Investors was created to formalize this process. Foreign nationals from anywhere in the world may apply for this visa with a $1 million dollar investment (or at least $500,000 in targeted employment) if the investment sustains at least 10 U.S. jobs. Although available to anyone, 70% of these visas are acquired by Chinese investors, and investment experts recommend that interested business owners focus on that area for investment possibilities. For more on this continue reading the following article from Blue MauMau.

Back in the mid-1970’s, Patels from Africa and Asia began to emigrate to the United States where any immigrant willing to invest $40,000 in a business could apply for permanent residence, the first step to citizenship.  There were limited opportunities for such investments.  At the time, distressed roadside motels could be acquired outright for $40,000 because of the oil embargo and the resultant nationwide shortage of gasoline.

Since 1990, the EB-5 Visa for Immigrant Investors has been available for foreign nationals to obtain a green card when they invest $1 million (or at least $500,000 in targeted employment areas) which create or preserve at least 10 jobs for U.S. workers.

As the JMBM Global Hospitality Group wrote in their Hotel Law blog (10/31/11):  “Chinese investment in hotels, restaurants and other commercial real estate is becoming an important potential capital source for development, acquisition and renovation.”

EB-5 investors can come from anywhere in the world outside the United States and can include legal immigrants in the U.S. under a temporary visa.  However, more than 70% of all EB-5 investors come from mainland China.

This program can be enormously beneficial to investors since there is no limit on the size of the EB-5 investment as long as deal-aggregation and documentation are submitted and as long as at least 10 jobs are created for every EB-5 individual investor.