Proliferation of EB-5 “Funds” Spells Trouble for Developers

There is one indisputably clear “job creation” impact of this whole EB-5 business:  it is sure opening one heck of a lot of new collateral businesses within and without the U.S.  Consider:While there were but a handful of immigration attorneys creating complex EB-5 Regional Center structures just a few years ago, we suddenly have hundreds of self-proclaimed experts all to happy to put together an RC. China has the only organized, government-licensed (if somewhat less than ethically pristine) immigration agency structure on earth, but there are suddenly of “immigration agents” in Russia, Brazil, you-name-it aggressively marketing their proven EB-5 results (??) to U.S. EB-5 projectsThe notion that there is this big, long-line of prospective EB-5 investors lined out the door of each…

Proliferation of EB-5 “Funds” Spells Trouble for Developers

There is one indisputably clear “job creation” impact of this whole EB-5 business:  it is sure opening one heck of a lot of new collateral businesses within and without the U.S.  Consider: While there were but a handful of immigration attorneys creating complex EB-5 Regional Center structures just a few years ago, we suddenly have hundreds of self-proclaimed experts all to happy to put together an RC. China has the only organized, government-licensed (if somewhat less than ethically pristine) immigration agency structure on earth, but there are suddenly of “immigration agents” in Russia, Brazil, you-name-it aggressively marketing their proven EB-5 results (??) to U.S. EB-5 projects The notion that there is this big, long-line of prospective EB-5 investors lined out the door of each of us…

EB-5 Marketing: Time for a Post-China Vision

Last June, I had the privilege of serving as discussion leader in Nashville at ILW’s annual EB-5 Summit, held in concurrence with the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association’s annual national convention.  During a morning break between sessions, my dear friend Sam Udani — the founder of ILW, the Web’s foremost resource on U.S. immigration law — leaned over and whispered something he’d said to me a year earlier, in New York:”Jose, never mind the expiration of EB-5; next year we are going to RUN OUT OF EB-5VISA NUMBERS!”It made sense the first time he’d said it in New York, I’d had time to think about it…and history was rapidly proving him right: we knew that FY 2012 EB-5 numbers were going fast compared to FY2011 (in the end, 7500+ EB-5 slots went in ’12, an increase of 3500…

Lake Point EB-5 in Vietnam

I know, I know…I’ve been a terrible slacker blogger person.  BAD Jose.  I have been a rolling stone/flying MACHINE since the beginning of September and Immigration Insider has been dormant.  No more Global Entry booths in sight till next year and I’m actually going to remain in the U.S. for the rest of the year — longest time in U.S. in well over a year!  The plan is to get back into the daily habit of updating Immigration Insider before I am again China-bound on 1-1-13!But that’s for Monday.  Right now I’m on day 5 of non-stop EB-5 conference calls so I’ll leave you with this cool HLG ad for Lake Point seminar in Vietnam last month and my sincere wish that you have a great weekend! Lake Point Seminar for Vietnam Migration Agents…