Got $500,000? The U.S.Awaits

WSJ Friday Nov 2,2007 B1

Got $500,000? The U.S. Awaits

Government’s EB-5 Program Offers foreign Investors Green Cards for Job Creation
By Miriam Jordan

An obscure immigration program is pumping millions of dollars from foreign investors into dilapidated inner cities and employment-starved rural areas across the US. These investors aren’t focused on financial returns, however: They’re in it to get green cards.

… For a $500,000 investment in a distressed area, a foreigner and his immediate family become eligible for conditional green cards. They become permanent a few years later upon evidence that the investment has created at least 10 jobs for US. Workers.

… “The EB-5 program is one of the most complex and heavily scrutinized immigration programs” says Stephan Yale-Loehr … an expert on EB-5 visas.

… If jobs are being created in exchange for visas through a process you can verify, I don’t think we cab object to it.” Says Ira Mehlman, a spokeman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which calls for clamping down on both legal and illegal immigration.