{"id":23658,"date":"2020-09-23T12:13:58","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T16:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=23658"},"modified":"2020-09-23T12:14:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T16:14:00","slug":"investor-visa-program-losing-steam-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/09\/23\/investor-visa-program-losing-steam-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Cash-for-Visas Program Suffers More Hits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

America\u2019s cash-for-visas program known as EB-5<\/a> isn\u2019t faring well these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though exempt from President Donald Trump\u2019s COVID-related restrictions<\/a>, EB-5 regional centers that collect immigrant investment money for job-creating ventures and green cards continue a steady decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total number of centers, operated by U.S.-resident middlemen, has fallen from 880 in 2018 to 685 today<\/a>. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which oversees the program, has terminated 519 centers<\/a> for non-performance or other reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those other reasons include legal problems. Currently, 143 EB-5 centers are mired in litigation<\/a>, with most cases brought against them by investors who claim they have been cheated. USCIS is a co-defendant in some of the lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 25 years, the EB-5\nprogram has granted U.S. green cards to foreign nationals who invested in\nUSCIS-approved regional centers that fund real-estate projects and various supposed\njob-creating ventures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of EB-5\u2019s diminished\nnumbers may owe to the government finally increasing foreigners\u2019 minimum\ninvestment requirement from $500,000 to $900,000 last November. The ongoing\neconomic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic hasn\u2019t helped. But EB-5\u2019s\ndifficulties began before any of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as likely, the steady drumbeat of criticism and bad publicity<\/a> has scared off investors. The latest EB-5 corruption case<\/a> won\u2019t rekindle interest or inspire confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, an EB-5 operator\npleaded guilty to defrauding investors through a biotech venture at Jay Peak\nResort in Vermont. From 2012 to 2016, AnC Vermont raised $85 million, plus $8\nmillion in \u201cadministrative fees,” from 169 foreign investors. Yet the\npromised jobs, a condition for USCIS approval, never materialized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admitting to wire fraud\nconspiracy and using investor funds for personal use, including a $6 million\npayment to the IRS, Ariel Quiros received a 98-month prison sentence. One of\nQuiros\u2019 partners, Jong Keon Choi, under investigation for financial crimes in Korea,\nremains at large. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USCIS has not said whether it will revoke or withhold the green cards of investors caught up in Quiros\u2019 scheme, but the agency has done so in other cases \u2013 one of which involved another Quiros operation at Jay Peak<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the EB-5 cash-for-visas\nspiel appears too good to be true, it may well be. So it seems where Mr. Quiros\nis involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s cash-for-visas program known as EB-5 isn\u2019t faring well these days. Though exempt from President Donald Trump\u2019s COVID-related restrictions, EB-5 regional centers that collect immigrant investment money for job-creating ventures and green cards continue a steady decline. The total number of centers, operated by U.S.-resident middlemen, has fallen from 880 in 2018 to 685 today.<\/p>\n

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