 |
|
 |
How to Fund an
EB-5 Visa
|
 |
|
An article from a leading EB-5
Attorney |
Sources of Funds for Investment in
EB-5 Regional Center Programs
When people are considering to invest $500,000 into a regional
center program in order to pursue permanent residence in the
U.S., they often do not realize from how many different sources
they can derive the funds. I will outline a few less typical
sources of investment funds that can still qualify.
The most typical scenarios are that the investor has freed up
the capital from the sale of his house or business. What if the
intending investor wants to move forward with emigrating, but he
is having difficulty in selling his house or business? The
investor can take a loan on the house, and those loan funds can
still qualify as the investor’s own capital so long as the
investor is the principal borrower on the loan, is personally
liable for repayment of the loan, his assets secure the loan,
and the assets securing the loan are not the assets of the EB-5
business. I have a client who is the sole owner of a company
that owns real estate. He obtained a loan in his own name and
with personal liability, secured with assets belonging to his
company, but ultimately to him because he is the sole owner of
the company. The assets also did not belong to the EB-5
business, namely the regional center program, and so they
satisfy the last requirement. That case was approved. The
investor can later pay off the loan, for instance when he sells
the property, and it has no negative impact on how his
investment qualifies him for permanent residence.
Some people may be thinking, I would like to invest, but I have
my money tied up in a retirement fund, and cannot take it out,
or cannot take it out without paying lots of taxes. If the
retirement plan is one which allows for self-directed
investment, it may be possible to direct the investment into
purchasing a share in the project entity within the regional
center program. British investors have made their EB-5
investment through this vehicle and have had their case
approved.
Investors can also receive their investment funds as gifts or
inheritance from family members. Under the gift scenario, it is
necessary to provide a letter from the family member confirming
that the money was given to the investor as a gift, and to
document how the family member earned the money. We need to
document the gift giving family member’s income and specific
source of the funds in the same was as if the family member were
the investor himself. The same applies to the case of the
investor receiving the investment funds as an inheritance. Then
evidence confirming that the funds were inherited, such as a
copy of the will or other probate documents, documentation of
the investor’s relationship to the testator/benefactor, along
with a statement and some evidence about how the invested money
was originally earned by the testator/benefactor. In the case of
the inheritance, Immigration will be a bit more lenient in the
case of an inheritance that was received a long time before
because it is often difficult or impossible to gather
documentary evidence after a lot of time has passed.
There are undoubtedly more possible sources of investment funds
that are not discussed here, and so the investor and his
attorney need to strategize how to document the legality of how
those funds were earned. Nonetheless, hopefully, this
information has given you some ideas of some less common methods
for sourcing the investment funds for the investment into an
EB-5 regional center program. |
|
|
|
|
EveryVisa.com is a
service of Ireeco LLC
Head Office: 1700 SW 12 Avenue, Suite C
Boca Raton, FL 33486
Telephone:
USA: 561 674 0681
UK: 020 3004 9720
Ireland: 01 657 1718
Canada: 289 470 1464
www.EveryVisa.com |
|
|
 |
|
 |
