Answers to Common EB-5 Visa Investor Questions

Posted by Rupy Cheema on May 22, 2023

Here are the questions we most frequently hear from investors:

The upcoming EB-5 modernization rules: increased investment amounts, stricter TEA designation, Priority Date retention for some investors

Posted by Rupy Cheema on September 27, 2019

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”), on July 24, 2019, published the “EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization.” The new regulation rules will take effect for all I-526 investors and I-924 petitioners as of November 21, 2019.

Increased investment amounts

The most significant change to the EB-5 Program will be the raising of the minimum investment requirement from $500,000 to $900,000 (for Targeted Employment Area investments, aka, TEA’s) and the increase of $1 million to $1.8 million for non-TEA investments.

The majority of the EB-5 investments in the market today would not qualify for the $900,000 investment amount since they would not qualify under the new TEA rules. Therefore, many petitioners  who would under today’s rules invest in a $500,000 TEA project would have to invest $1.8 million in the same project, with non-TEA designation, as of November 21, 2019. (See the TEA section below for more on this.)

How big a Job Cushion do you need? Well, it depends…

Posted by Rupy Cheema on February 07, 2019

The EB-5 program requires that each EB-5 Investor create ten (10) jobs. Job cushion refers to the percentage of jobs exceeding the requirement. Having a Job cushion is important so that the job creation estimates are above the minimum required by all investors in a project.

So, what is a sufficient job cushion? Is there a magic number that is acceptable and anything lower than that is rejected? Generally speaking, a higher job cushion provides some assurance that job creation estimates will be met — but EB5 investors need to look deeper than just the job cushion numbers.

Job Cushions from 155 EB-5 offerings

Based on our review of 155 EB-5 offerings, job cushion has ranged from 0% to 900%. Seventy five percent (75%) of the projects have a job cushion of 25% or more and thirty percent (30%) of the projects have a job cushion of 100% or more. The median job cushion is 51%.

Inferring that EB-5 due diligence firms are not independent and their findings can be procured is a red-herring, designed to maintain the status quo.

Posted by Rupy Cheema on August 30, 2016

CMB recently published a blog titled EB-5 Due Diligence - Third Party Websites: Considering one of the many independent EB-5 due diligence services? in which they dismiss the notion that investors are served by retaining a due diligence firm before selecting an EB-5 investment.