EB-5 Investors Green Card

• A sole proprietorship
• Partnership (whether limited or general)
• Holding company
• Joint venture
• Corporation
• Business trust or other entity, which may be publicly or privately owned

This definition includes a commercial enterprise consisting of a holding company and its wholly owned subsidiaries, provided that each such subsidiary is engaged in a for-profit activity formed for the ongoing conduct of a lawful business.

Note: This definition does not include noncommercial activity such as owning and operating a personal residence.

New commercial enterprise means:

• any enterprise established after Nov. 29, 1990.
• enterprise established on or before Nov. 29, 1990 but
  • it is restructured or reorganized in such a way that a new commercial enterprise results, or
  • expanded through the investment so that at least a 40-percent increase in the net worth or number of employees occurs.

Job Creation Requirements

Create or preserve at least 10 full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers within two years (or under certain circumstances, within a reasonable time after the two-year period) of the immigrant investor’s admission to the United States as a Conditional Permanent Resident.

A qualified employee is a U.S. citizen, permanent resident or other immigrant authorized to work in the United States. The individual may be a conditional resident, an asylee, a refugee, or a person residing in the United States under suspension of deportation. This definition does not include the immigrant investor; his or her spouse, sons, or daughters; or any foreign national in any nonimmigrant status (such as an H-1B visa holder) or who is not authorized to work in the United States.

Capital Investment Requirements

Capital means cash, equipment, inventory, other tangible property, cash equivalents and debt, provided that the alien entrepreneur is personally and primarily liable and that the assets of the new commercial enterprise upon which the petition is based are not used to secure any of the indebtedness. All capital shall be valued at fair-market value in United States dollars.

Required minimum investments are:

–       General: The minimum qualifying investment in the United States is $1.05 million as a direct investment.

–       Targeted Employment Area (High Unemployment or Rural Area): the minimum qualifying investment either within a high-unemployment area or rural area in the United States is $800,000.

(Regional Center (Pilot Program) funding projects in TEA’s can accept a minimum of $800,000 from each EB-5 investor).

A targeted employment area (TEA) is an area that, at the time of investment, is:

• A rural area; or
• An area that has experienced high unemployment (defined as at least 150% of the national average unemployment rate).

A rural area is any area outside a metropolitan statistical area (as designated by the Office of Management and Budget) or outside the boundary of any city or town having a population of 20,000 or more according to the decennial census.

A high-unemployment area may be any of the following areas, if that area is where the new commercial enterprise is principally doing business and the area has experienced an average unemployment rate of at least 150% of the national average unemployment rate:

• An MSA;
• A specific county in an MSA;
• A county in which a city or town with a population of 20,000 or more is located; or
• A city or town with a population of 20,000 or more outside of an MSA.

A high-unemployment area may also consist of the census tract or contiguous census tracts in which the new commercial enterprise is principally doing business, which may include any or all directly adjacent census tracts, if the weighted average unemployment for the specified area based on the labor force employment measure for each tract is 150% of the national unemployment average.