EB5 Investors Magazine (English Edition) Volume 5, Issue 1 | Page 68

“As permanent residents, graduating students are able to compete for positions more free of immigration concerns.” ENVIRONMENT AND ACCESS TO THE AMERICAN MARKET ALSO DRIVES INDIA'S EB-5 TREND India’s GDP is expected to grow 7.2 percent in 2017, according to the IMF’s April 2017 World Economic Outlook. “This results in India minting millionaires at quite a rate,” Davies added. The money is there, and in addition to post-graduation visas, Davies points to two other factors that are driving Indian EB-5 cases: the environment and access to the U.S. market. “We have more than one client who has listed the awful and growing pollution in India as one reason for moving their family to the US,” he said. Indian businesses also want to tap into the U.S. consumer market, still the world’s largest by far. “We represent a family who have just filed nine I-526 petitions,” Davies said. “The family is a powerful Indian 67 EB5 INVESTORS M AGAZINE business family and is moving to the U.S. to expand into multiple businesses that enable them to access the U.S. market.” In previous years, many Indians start out thinking they will file a direct EB-5 case, something CanAm’s DeCicco attributes to the entrepreneurial spirit in India. Today, that’s changed. “Most clients we speak to decide not to invest in a direct EB-5,” Davies said, though his firm does file multiple such cases each year. Instead, they “invest in a (regional center) project that offers what they perceive to be the lowest risk.” He added: “Indians care about getting their green card and then getting their money back. They absolutely care very much about the ‘track history’ of a regional center and want to see a regional center with a history or repaying project, I-829 approvals and I-526 approvals.” AWARENESS OF THE EB-5 PROGRAM NEEDS TO INCREASE The market is not without its challenges, though, such as a lack of awareness of the EB-5 program. In India, EB-5 is still a relatively new concept, Kapuria said, circa China in 2008-2009. He said regional centers are countering that lack of awareness by spending more time in the country.