Although our attorneys handle hundreds of EB-5 cases per year, we are always mindful that each case represents a person or a family who is making a significant at-risk investment into the U.S. business. We deeply value the commitment that each EB-5 investor is making, and will assign attorneys to personally work with each investor to understand their background and profile, assess their immigration options, and empower them with knowledge so that they can make a more informed decision that can profoundly impact the lives of their families.
EB-5 investment can be divided into two broad categories: (1) investment into a USCIS-designated regional center project and (2) investment into a standalone project unaffiliated with a regional center. We are experienced with advising our clients in both.
Regional Center
There are hundreds of privately-operated regional centers within the U.S. territories that are approved by the USCIS to attract investment to help qualified businesses with the geographical scope of the regional center. Many investors prefer investing into regional center-affiliated businesses because they typically require less client involvement in day-to-day management of the business and job-creation requirement can be fulfilled with indirect and induced jobs in addition to direct jobs. Given our experience in this industry, we have worked with many of these regional centers and are familiar with immigration track record, historical and current project offerings, and management team’s characteristics and experiences.
For regional center investments, our typical services include:
- Assessing client’s financial profile and immigration objectives
- Formulating strategies to document lawful source of funds
- Working with the client to prepare source of funds materials
- Providing client with proprietary information and resources on regional centers
- Reviewing the EB-5 investment project documents to determine immigration risk
- Drafting of client-specific petitions and memorandums
- Filing of client’s immigration petitions and applications
- Serving as client’s trusted immigration legal counsel through the entire EB-5 process
Stand-Alone/Direct Investment
For those investors who prefer to be more in active control of the management and decision-making of the investment targeted business, many choose to invest in their own business or a joint-venture. Compare to the regional center investments, a stand-alone investment often affords investors greater transparency over the business’ day-to-day operations. Through the years, we have accumulated significant knowledge about the practical challenges related to many types of business. Our clients have successfully obtained their green cards through setting up businesses in the following areas: restaurants, supermarkets, coffee shops, healthcare services, commercial cleaning services, logistics and warehouses, apparel retail stores, spas, value-added services, nutritional product stores, education and childcare providers, just to name a few.
For stand-alone investments, our typical services include:
- Assessing client’s financial profile and immigration objectives
- Formulating strategies to document lawful source of funds
- Working with the client to prepare source of funds materials
- Working with the client on the brainstorming and drafting of a viable business plan
- Setting up businesses and drafting of formational documents
- Guiding the client to start the business and take meaningful and concrete steps on advancing the business plan
- Drafting of client-specific petitions and memorandums
- Filing of client’s immigration petitions and applications
- Serving as client’s trusted immigration legal counsel through the entire EB-5 process