USCIS Updates List of Immigrant Investor Regional Centers
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has recently published an updated list of Immigrant Investor Regional Centers.
Senate Adopts Leahy Amendment
WASHINGTON (Wednesday, July 8, 2009) – The Senate Wednesday adopted an amendment sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to make permanent the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Center pilot program. The amendment was added to the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act.
Earlier this year, Leahy secured a six-month extension of the successful EB-5 Regional Center pilot program in the Omnibus Appropriations Act. He has introduced legislation in previous Congresses to make the program permanent. Since it was first created in 1993, the pilot program has attracted millions of dollars in foreign investment in the United States, and created thousands of new domestic jobs. There are 22 Regional Centers across the country, including a successful center in Vermont, with new applications pending at the immigration agency. Unless Congress permanently extends the program, it will expire in September.
“I have fought for extensions of the program in the past, and have succeeded in keeping this valuable program alive,” said Leahy. “But this program must be made permanent if it is to achieve its potential as an economic engine in our communities. Before domestic and international entrepreneurs invest their dollars in EB-5 projects, they must have confidence that the program will exist in the future. Authorizing the program for only months or a few years at a time sends the wrong message to individuals who want to make a permanent commitment to the United States. I have always believed that this program should be a permanent part of our immigration system and I have confidence that it can play a significant role in our economic recovery.”
The Leahy second-degree amendment was added to an amendment sponsored by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to make permanent an employee verification system. Leahy and Sessions are the Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively, of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which considers immigration-related matters.
Vermont’s Regional Center was established in 1997, and rechartered in 2007. Two Vermont ski resorts are active participants in the Regional Center pilot program and have launched ambitious development projects. Vermont’s Regional Center projects have drawn business and tourism to the state, fueling local economies and creating jobs.
The Regional Center program has generated millions of dollars in capital investment in American communities and created thousands of domestic jobs since 1993. The Centers attract foreign investors seeking legal permanent residency and a chance to invest in the American economy. Investors must pledge a minimum of $500,000 to a project within a Regional Center and independently apply for an EB-5 visa. If approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), foreign investors are granted a conditional two-year green card. After two years, the investor must provide proof that they have created at least ten jobs as a result of the investment and have met additional investment requirements set by USCIS. As a result of the program’s popularity, additional applications are pending with USCIS to establish new Regional Centers in several states.
City, county hope to boost Goodyear project with foreign investment
By Jim Mackinnon, Beacon Journal business writer , ohio.com
Akron and Summit County are seeking major foreign investors for the Goodyear headquarters project.
As part of that, the city and county are taking part in a federal program that dangles high-level visas, offering the potential for permanent residency, as carrots to entice that investment.
Public officials are hoping to expand the program beyond the Goodyear project.
Summit County is believed to be the first jurisdiction in Ohio that has been designated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a ”Regional Center” that will provide incentives to international investors, the city and county said in a news release.
Under the federal program, potential immigrants need to invest at least $500,000 in a U.S. project that creates at least 10 jobs.
The new tool is aimed at promoting job growth in Akron and elsewhere in the county while initially revolving around the Goodyear project, according to the release.
The designation will be marketed internationally as ”CMB Summit LLC Regional Center” under what is called the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program.
Industrial Realty Group, also known as IRG, the California developer behind the $900 million Goodyear headquarters project, told local public officials about the federal program, according to Summit County Executive Russ Pry.
IRG is using the same approach in redeveloping the former McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif., now called McClellan Park. IRG and its other partners in the McClellan Park group are seeking $6 million in foreign investment.
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For biofuels, immigration pays
By John Green, Hutchnews.com
A little known U.S. immigration program has helped quietly infuse millions of Asian dollars into development of the ethanol industry in western Kansas over the past five years.
The industry’s recent struggles, however, coupled with the economic crisis, has dozens of those investors now facing both the potential loss of their substantial investments and the reason they invested in the first place - a chance to become permanent U.S. residents.
An attorney for the California law firm directing the investments into southwest Kansas says several proposed plants - including ones in Ulysses, Dodge City and now Hiawatha - will be built.
But the clock for investors is ticking.
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City gets EB-5 nod
By Bryan Schaaf, Staff Writer, The-Daily-Record.com
WOOSTER — Months before it anticipated, Wooster Growth Corp. members learned their application to establish an EB-5 green card office as a funding mechanism for the BioHio Research Park has been approved, clearing the way for the people involved to begin seeking foreign investment.
EB-5 is a governmental program that provides 3,000 visas each year for foreigners who make large investments in designated areas. It was established by the federal government in 1990 as an opportunity for immigrants to become permanent residents of the United States by investing $1 million in a business that creates 10 jobs.
Margo Broehl, president of Wooster Growth, said the EB-5 is the first issued to a state that did not have a seat on the Senate judiciary committee.
“We expected it would be a minimum of 18 months after we got the application submitted,” said Broehl. “We started working on it less than a year ago, and the application was submitted in February, so we’re really quite pleased.”
Broehl said now that the office, which is the first of its kind in Ohio and one of only about 40 nationally, has been established, the group will work on marketing efforts and designing applications to begin seeking investment.
“We haven’t spent a great deal of time and certainly no money to pull together marketing efforts or office operations until we knew for sure we’d get this,” Broehl said. “In the background, we’ve spent a great deal of time learning how these centers operate, so now we’ll start putting that together.”
Broehl has been named to the five-member group that will run the center until a paid professional can be hired who has experience with EB-5. She’ll be joined by Wooster Growth members Mike Sigg, Rod Crider and Chris Schmid, the latter two also giving representation from the Wayne Economic Development Council. In addition, Ray Leach, from Cleveland-based JumpStart, will lead the program.
“It’s a big deal,” Crider said. “The opportunities this presents are really exciting. It’s like everything else — now that we’ve got it, we have to take the next step and move forward.”
The center will be known as the Northeast Ohio Regional Center and includes a 16-county contiguous region — Ashland, Ashtabula, Carroll, Columbiana, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Richland, Stark, Summit, Trumbull and Wayne.
The basic government criteria for the EB-5 status are the investment must be in a business, not a passive security such as the stock market; invested funds must be the individual’s; the business must have been created after Nov. 29, 1990; or, the investment must substantially change an older business and the amount of investment may be $500,000 in a rural or high unemployment area.
Because of Wooster’s population and employment levels, it would not qualify for the $500,000 investment.
The EB-5, still regarded as a pilot program at the federal level, was scheduled to sunset last March, but has twice been given six-month extensions, the most recent extending the program through September.
Crider said because Wooster has gained approval, he believes it would be able to continue to operate its center even if the program isn’t reauthorized before its sunset date.
Broehl said she expects to have things in place by the end of summer so office management can begin letting people in the 16-county region know what they can expect and what would be required of them.
“These projects are really originated by the entrepreneurs who have projects they want to succeed, and this is a way for them to get additional capital.”
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