DEAR CONGRESSMAN,
PLEASE HELP CREATE
MORE JOBS AND
STIMULATE THE
ECONOMY. FIX THE
EB-5 BACKLOG!
EB5 Investors Magazine
invited several EB-5 leaders to
weigh in on the issues, policy
considerations, and possible
solutions.
Raising the EB-5 Visa Cap
“There are countries all over the world that are trying to
By EB5 Investors Magazine Staff
encourage investors to come to their countries and make
investments to facilitate economic growth and create jobs,
It’s time to rally around one urgent cause: the EB-5 visa
not just the U.S.,” says Tom Rosenfeld, the president and
backlog.
chief executive officer of CanAm Enterprises, a New York
City-based regional center operator that promotes and ad-
Arguably the most pressing issue facing the industry, the
ministers private and government immigration-linked in-
hope is that a joint effort to address this serious matter
vestment funds. “In some of these countries, you can get
will not only help the industry continue to grow, but create
processed in as little as three or six months.”
tens of thousands of more jobs and generate billions of
additional dollars in investment capital in America.
The U.S. is in danger of losing a great opportunity
that can attract capital investment, create jobs and at-
In the cover story in this issue, EB5 Investors Magazine fea-
tract some of the “crème de la crème” from countries
tures several articles by experts discussing different reasons
throughout the world, Rosenfeld says. Many of these
why they believe Congress should address the backlog.
investor immigrants have started companies that trade
with the U.S. and will continue to facilitate a significant
The essential problem is that demand for EB-5 visas is now
amount of economic development independent of in-
exceeding the annual supply of 10,000 that are available,
vestor programs.
resulting in an estimated six-year wait for investors to be issued a conditional visa to live and work in the United States.
“The EB-5 program is now being reviewed in terms of a
Currently, an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 visa petitions are
number of issues, and yet the biggest issue is visa retro-
pending with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
gression,” Rosenfeld says. “Investors at some point are
not going to wait six, seven or eight years. Investors are
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EB5 INVESTORS MAGAZINE
At a time when similar global citizenship and residence
saying, on balance, that they have other options that
programs are proliferating around the world, experts say
are better than the U.S., even though the U.S. would
Congress needs to act quickly to address this backlog, or
be their first choice. So the fact that the visa issue is not
the U.S. stands to lose billions of dollars, significant tax
being addressed is a detriment to the country, and will
revenues, a job-creating engine and dash the dreams of
continue to result in a loss of capital through the EB-5
thousands of Chinese and other immigrant investors.
program.”
WWW.EB5INVESTORS.COM
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