The Immigrant Investor (EB-5) Visa: A Program that Is, and Deserves to Be, Failing

Written by Center for Immigration Studies

The EB-5 investor visa, which allows a foreigner to invest in the United States in exchange for Legal Permanent Residence, has seen its requirements watered down by the Department of Homeland Security and Congress in an attempt to increase use of the program. The standards have been so debased that a Wall Street real-estate project in lower Manhattan is successfully claiming to be in a 'depressed area' in order to garner investments through the program, as reported recently by the New York Times.

A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies finds the program inherently flawed, and calls for its elimination or, failing that, for significant reforms. The report, 'The Immigrant Investor (EB-5) Visa: A Program that Is, and Deserves to Be, Failing', discusses the program's design, operation, and results. Author David North is a CIS fellow who has studied the interaction of immigration and the U.S. economy for more than 30 years.

This examination of the EB-5 program shows that, despite massive promotional efforts: 

• There are comparatively few takers, and only a fraction of them complete the process and get green cards;
• No one, citizens or aliens, middlemen or workers, or the economy generally, seems to be getting much out of the program;
• Many of the investments turn out to be bad ones, some scandalous; and
• Other immigrant-receiving nations run much more rational programs than we do, while securing more significant investments, proportionately, from aliens.