A lengthening line for U.S. investor visas suggests that affluent Chinese nationals see them as a good deal. It\u2019s no bargain for America.<\/p>\n
The growing backlog of approved EB-5 petitions<\/a> now translates into a 10-year wait for Chinese investors seeking to enter the U.S. through the controversial visa program.<\/p>\n More than 10,000 approved petitioners await EB-5 visas, with most of the applicants from China. Foreigners get on the path to permanent residency by investing $500,000 to $1 million in purported job-creating ventures here.<\/p>\n A market-driven response would simply up the ante. The proposed RAISE Act<\/a> does that by introducing a cash-based point system; the more an applicant ponies up, the more points he or she earns. For example, an EB-5 seeker would secure six points toward a required 30 by committing $1.35 million. A $1.8 million investment would net 12 points.<\/p>\n But bigger buy-ins don\u2019t address EB-5\u2019s deeper shortcomings. Since its inception, the program has been riddled with fraud, abuse and national-security concerns<\/a>. Hiking the financial requirements merely attracts more affluent players.<\/p>\n FAIR: The failure of the EB-5 program<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The EB-5 accountability system, such as it is, is opaque. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which administers the program, does not provide essential information about EB-5 applicants, operators and their investments. Private \u201cregional centers,\u201d which collect and control billions of dollars through the federal program, are shadowy entities that run with little or no public oversight.<\/p>\n EB-5 investment funds are poorly vetted, and there are no prohibitions against foreign governments owning or operating regional centers. Background checks are not required.<\/p>\n \u201cThis raises serious questions about whether foreign governments are selling U.S. green cards to their citizens,\u201d Sen. Charles Grassley<\/a>, R-Iowa, said.<\/p>\n Meantime, EB-5 promoters game the system. Log-jammed Chinese applicants are now advised to jump the queue by obtaining E-2 nonimmigrant investor visas through Grenada \u2013 landing themselves and their families in the U.S. within months. They can reside here while their EB-5 priority dates become current.<\/p>\n EB-5\u2019s problem isn\u2019t a decade-long line of Chinese nationals. The problem is its premise: that foreigners can buy their way into America via speculative, specious and shadowy job-creating schemes. EB-5 employment claims are not based on direct, verifiable jobs, but instead on vague estimates and economic modeling that include \u201cindirect\u201d jobs.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, a Chinese couple was accused of bilking EB-5 funds<\/a>. Some $13 million was allegedly transferred back to a marketing firm in China and $7 million was stashed in the wife\u2019s personal bank account. None of the funds were used for U.S. job-creating ventures.<\/p>\n Expedited entries, steeper buy-ins and Grenadian workarounds are just lipstick on a pig. As long as EB-5 and its regional centers operate under weak or nonexistent oversight by USCIS, the fraud will continue.