The cloud that surrounds the future of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program – also known as the EB-5 visa – is creating concerns among investors as the program is expected to end this month, unless it is reauthorized.
EB-5 visas have played a pivotal role in investors putting significant amounts of money into development projects throughout the United States. To date, it has generated more than $40 billion in capital investments. Jobs for U.S. workers that were created and saved exceeds 800,000. In this current time of economic recovery, the program is paramount to help various industries and improvements to infrastructure.
The countless benefits of the investor visa
According to the Mark G. Anderson Consultant Group, few industries have benefited from the EB-5 program more than the real estate industry. Over the past five years alone, multiple commercial real estate projects across the U.S. received funding for projects that included office complexes, hotels, warehouses, and other structures. These developments also help to foster the local economies that they are a part of.
- Philadelphia remodeled a former navy base into a nearly 7 million square foot business campus that houses 130 companies and provides more than 10,000 jobs.
- Based in Brooklyn, City Point saw $200 million finance a 1.2 million square foot, 18-story mixed-use development, creating 2,000 jobs for U.S. workers.
- Seattle’s Home Plate Center, Safeco Field’s “new neighbor,” is a Class A retail and commercial office development that benefitted from $155 million in EB-5 funding.
With a June 30th deadline looming, renewal remains in the pending category, despite a bill being introduced in the Senate to reauthorize the program along with a companion bill in the House of Representatives.
Advocates are pushing for a more long-term solution to calm the fears of investor concerns that the program will sunset after a couple of years. Both investors and EB-5 Regional Centers are seeking much-needed stability to move forward with the EB-5 program, provided that it does move forward.