Step 2 for International Students Applying for Investment Immigration: Selecting an Investment Project

1. High-unemployment area projects
2. Rural area projects
3. Infrastructure projects

1. Direct outreach to regional centers: Leveraging their residency in the U.S., investors contact regional centers directly to obtain first-hand project information.
2. Referrals from EB-5-savvy immigration attorneys: Investors secure reliable project leads through immigration lawyers who specialize in EB-5 cases.
3. Promotions by domestic immigration agencies: In many cases, it is the students’ parents who become interested in or decide to invest in a project after seeing its Chinese-language promotional materials.

• Market prospects: Evaluate whether the project has the potential to sustain operations or thrive in the long run.
• Capital structure: Analyze the ratio of the project sponsor’s equity, loans, and EB-5 capital to assess the sponsor’s financial strength.
• Financing structure: Clarify whether the investment is structured as debt or equity. Debt investment functions as a loan, while equity investment represents ownership of company shares.
  • For debt investments: Review the fixed interest rate, principal repayment schedule, and the project’s repayment capacity. Also, confirm the priority of EB-5 investors in the repayment hierarchy—i.e., whether EB-5 capital will be repaid first in the event of project liquidation.
  • For equity investments: Verify the equity shareholding ratio, the timeline and potential for profit returns, and the investment’s appreciation potential. Additionally, understand the exit strategy and profit distribution plan upon project completion, including the projected returns on appreciation or the expected recovery rate in case of losses.
• Project sponsor background: Investigate the credentials of both the EB-5 project’s actual operator and supervisor.
  • Regional center due diligence: As the indispensable supervisor of an EB-5 project, verify the regional center’s USCIS designation status, track record of past projects (including success and failure rates), conditional and permanent green card approval statistics, capital repayment history, and the professional background of the regional center’s leadership.
  • Project operator due diligence: The project operator is typically the initiator, manager, and borrower of the EB-5 funds—the party that actually utilizes the investment capital. Their project experience and credit history are critical to the project’s success. If an operator has a history of bankruptcy, investors should exercise caution, as there is a risk of recurrence.
• Job creation methodology: Examine the calculation model used to demonstrate the creation of 10 full-time jobs per EB-5 investor, ensuring that the job count meets USCIS requirements.

And the list goes on.