Bigger EB-5 RC = Better EB-5 RC? You Decide.

The EB-5 frenzy is really starting to get out of hand: a just-approved EB-5 Regional Center's first press release predicts that it will create 18,000 jobs in the next five years in one portion of one state. Let's see, that means that if it is in a TEA, that's, what…1800 EB-5 investors each plunking down $500,000.  That's potentially $900 million dollars worth of EB-5 funding.

 Holy COW.

Meanwhile, the three projects I work with — existing, operational and recognized ventures owned and managed by proven veterans with clear histories of success — speak of 8-10 investors, 90-280 jobs.

The catastrophic failures of the first decade of the EB-5 Regional Centers involved optimistic predictions; historically speaking, those predictions paled in comparison to the intergalactic projections being irresponsibly thrown around in the midst of an economy where not even the U.S. government can make a dent on job creation.  Meanwhile, the Victorville fiasco continues, with a second USCIS Notice to Terminate making it look pretty grim for those investors.  See Michael Gibson's excellent piece on this HERE.

Guys, please make sure you speak with an objective, educated advisor before investing in any EB-5 Regional Center.  New Regional Centers are getting approved daily; for the most part, it is simply making a clear divide between the handful of excellent programs and the rest of them.  As Yogi Berra would have said if he'd been an immigration lawyer, "It's like 1990's EB-5 deja vous all over again…"

Tags: EB-5 Investor Visas