In their October interim report, released last week, President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness advocates EB-5:
“The administration is working to improve and leverage the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, another Council recommendation. DHS’ Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) is enhancing the program by creaging specialized review teams with business expertise, engaging re-engineering experts to streamline the process, launching a premium processing service and evaluating additional options for maximizing the program’s potential.”
The Council further recommended:
“Increasing, by a factor of at least four, the number of entrepreneurs from other countries allowed entry inot the United States, amil though expansion of the EB-5 program.”
They go on to say:
“First, we need to fully subscribe and radically expand the socalled EB-5 ‘entrepreneur’s visa’ for immigrant entrepreneurs who invest $500,000 to $1 million in a new commercial enterprise and create at least 10 full-time jobs (or preserve 10 jobs in a troubled business). If the EB-5 program reaches maximum capacity, it could result annually in the creation of approximately 4,000 new businesses $2 billion to $4 billion of foreign investment capital and create 40,000 jobs. But streamlining the application process and fully subscribing the program is just a start. Why have any cap on this kind of visa at all? Why not advertise it worldwide? Indeed, why not go further, as some have suggested, and set up a human resources offices in key countries around the world to recruit their most talented young people to come to America to realize their dreams while fueling the next generation of U.S. innovation?
Our second point is a plea: American can’t afford to let high-skilled immigration reform remain attached to the controversies that surround “comprehensive” immigration reform more broadly. As some of our members have different viewpoints on this subject, the Council recognizes the legitimate passions on all sides of this question, and understands how complex it can be for policymakers to reconcile differing vies. But given the challenges our economy now faces in a global age, we all need to rethink. how is anyone served when great immigrant talent trained at our finest institutions leaves our shores to work for the competition? If the next million jobs these men and women create could be in America, shouldn’t we peel off and pass that portion of immigration reform right now?”
It is great to see the Council sees things the way we do at IIUSA. It is time to pass S. 642 and H.R. 2972 now, separate from the comprehensive immigration debate. The EB-5 Regional Center Program is about CREATING AMERICAN JOBS AT NO COST TO THE TAXPAYER.
