The EB-5 immigrant investor visa has been an excellent method of obtaining permanent residency in the USA for an increasing number of families. However, inevitably there are a few who have experienced problems thus raising the questions how safe is the EB5 visa and what difficulties have arisen with the program?

To put the issue into context, the number of problems that have arisen with other visas such as the E2, L1, H1B that do not lead to permanent residency, are far greater than the EB-5.

Many of the problems that have arisen with the $500,000 EB-5 visa can be traced back to applicants choosing an inappropriate regional center program and having failed to take experienced and independent advice prior to making a decision.

Among the small number of problems that have been occurred are:-

•An applicant paid $500,000 to a middleman who allegedly did not hand the funds over to the regional center they had chosen. Research indicates the middleman concerned had a history of bankruptcies, had received previous cease and desist orders relating to providing unqualified legal advice on visas, and had no track record of successful EB-5 clients.

•A number of Asian applicants invested in a regional center which acted in a quasi supervising role for different programs. There are allegations concerning the investors not having their ownership interests recorded and subsequently facing the loss of their investment. If adequate due diligence had been carried out this should have identified at the time of application.

•Allegations of a center being advertised in China as offering EB-5 qualifying investments which apparently was not approved by USCIS to offer the program.
hose investing could face deportation and possible loss of some or all of their investment.

•An established regional center which has repaid less than the $500,000 capital investment.

•A regional center program which reinvested in another program following the collapse of the initial program, but failed to satisfy USCIS on the transfer of investment funds leading to failure at the I-829 stage.

•A regional center offering a property investment program where the market price comparables for the properties offered are far below the investments amount required.

All the examples above could have been avoided if investors had pursued in-depth investigation prior to choosing an EB-5 project.

There are proven programs which have satisfactorily achieved the key requirements - a 100% success record at both the I-526 and I-829 stages and the return of the investors' capital from earlier programs potentially illustrating how successful the program can be.