American Green Card – Employment Category
Investment Visa Category
The investor must invest 1.9 million dollars at risk in.a U. S. business first before the U. S employer can file an immigrant petition with the U. S Immigration seeking approval for the investor under the EB-5 category. For India and all other countries, there is no waiting period, but for China there is a waiting period of 5 years.
Most of the people think that you can transfer 1.9 million dollars from your foreign account to your U. S account and then apply for Green Card. No, under the law, the investor must invest the entire or part of the investment at risk by starting a business. The investor is not allowed to come to U. S. A. and stay here for this investment and starting the business. He needs to find a reliable person as his manager to make this happen.
The investor can also invest 50% of this 1.9 million in a regional center approved by U. S. Immigration or in a targeted employment area designation by the USCSIS. In the case of regional centers, the funds will be handed over to the regional center entity and they will invest the same in one of their projects. They need to file the petition for the investor to get the immigrant visa.
in the case if 1.9 million dollar investment, the U. S company must invest in the business at risk, start the business, hire the employees before it can file the immigrant petition for the investor. The U. S employer must file the immigrant petition with the U. S. Immigration with all supporting documents and evidence to prove the investment at risk, its eligibility, along with the legal sources of the funds by the investor. USCIS is taking about 203 years to process and approve petitions due to heavy backlog in this category.
Once the petition is approved, the approved file is forwarded to National Visa Center (NVC) for processing immigrant visa. Once the nVC completes its processing, it will schedule the interview at the U. S. Embassy or the Consulate. NVC will notify the beneficiary of such scheduling of the interview by e-mail.
The beneficiary and spouse and unmarried children under 21 years of age are eligible to apply for immigrant visa. They need to appear for finger printing and photo taking at the VAC location for which they need to create a profile at an agency web site, schedule for finger printing, elect pick up location for return of passports with visas affixed from the consulate. The beneficiary, spouse and children must appear for the interview with all original documents. Once the interview is successfully completed and security check is cleared, the consulate will print the visas and will affix the visas in the passports. They wills end the passports to the pick up location selected and the pick up location will notify the beneficiary to pick up the passports. The Green Card, they are going to receive is only valid for two years, which is known as conditional residency status (CR Status).
Prior to their departure to U. S. A., they need to remit the Green Card fee for each person. Once they are here normally they will receive the Green Card and Social Security card (if requested) within 2-3 months. The investor must invest the rest of the 1.9 million dollars if not invested already and must hire 10 U. S citizens or Green Card holder not related by blood to the investor during the two year period of CR status and should file a petition to remove the CR status and to get the permanent Green Card during the 90 day prior to the expiry of the CR status.
It may take about 5-7 years or more to obtain permanent green card due to heavy back log. There is about 10,000 visa available in this category every year. Again, visas are allotted to each country and again it is based on the country of birth of the investor. If an investor wants to take the risk of investing at risk through a U. S company by hiring a manager and has the patience to wait for 3-5 years for initial Green Card and another 3-5 years for 5 years for permanent Green Card, investment visa category is good. If no, it is not good for people who do not want to spend this much money and take the risk especially by trusting another person or investing in a regional center by trusting a U. S company.
Disclaimer: The above information of general nature and not intended for specific cases related each individual cases. For each individual cases you are asked to contact an attorney of your choice. We can be contacted through our below contact information. Thanks
Lal Varghese, Esq. Law Offices of Lal Varghese, PLLC
1111 Kinwest Parkway, Suite 120
Irving, Dallas, TX 75063 Tel: (972) 788-0777 (Main) (972) 788-1555 (Direct)
E-Mail: attylal@aol.com
WhatsApp Business Phone: +19725561109
Facebook: www.facebook.com/usattorney
Practice limited to Federal Law | Immigration and Nationality Act Practicing legal profession for more than 40 years since 1977
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