In the first three months of 2012 IIUSA archived thirteen major media news articles/press releases spotlighting the EB-5 Regional Center Investment Program. According to a myriad of sources, FY2012 is shaping to be the strongest yet for the two-decade old EB-5 Visa Program.
IIUSA member Ronald Fieldstone, in his Business Insider article, “How Foreign Investors Can Get A Green Card In Exchange For $1 Million.” Stated that, “USCIS recently reported that 2,364 EB-5 visas have been issued so far in the first quarter of the 2012 fiscal year, which equates to at least 10,000 new jobs for American workers.” Fieldstone calculates that, “At this pace, the 2012 program will come close to using its 10,000 annual visa allocations for the first time since its inception in 1992.”
While applicants are entering the EB-5 program at a record pace, previously financed projects are reaping dividends in the form of green cards and local jobs.
CanAm Enterprises LLC “The exclusive promoter of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (“PIDC”) Regional Center” declared in a press release that EB-5 funding of the AgustaWestland expansion created, “over 460 jobs in the target unemployment area of Philadelphia, 160 more than the required 300 jobs for the EB-5 investors in the project. All 30 investors have already received their unconditional resident status through their investment in Agusta.”
According to the press release, CanAm has also repaid the principal $500,000 loan in full and on time to each EB-5 Immigrant Investor in the Agusta Project. You can find the complete document here. IIUSA congratulates CanAm and PIDC on completing their project.
In other project development news, Robert Vincent of the Los Angeles Times reported that construction is set to begin on the EB-5 funded downtown L.A. hotels Courtyard by Marriott and Residence Inn by Marriott.
In the piece, entitled, “”Construction to begin on Marriott Hotel complex in downtown L.A.” Vincent credits IIUSA Regional Center member American Life Inc with helping develop and finance the “$172-million” project. According to the author, the hotel complex is, “expected to create about 800 construction jobs and about 200 permanent jobs after it is completed.”
With the September 30th “sunset date” fast approaching, it is ever so more important to contact your elected officials in the House of Representatives and Senate to urge action on permanent reauthorization of the Program.
Crain’s New York Business journalist Shane Dixon Kavanaugh illustrated what such awareness can do. She writes in her article, “Green card program a boon for development funding” that “New York Sen. Charles Schumer wants to put EB-5 into a stand-alone bill and make it permanent. ‘The program generates capital and creates jobs at a time when both are in short supply, which is why we ought to permanently extend the program, Mr. Schumer said.’”
The Program is “budget neutral’ to administer, while generating tax revenue and creating local American jobs through increase of domestic regional economic development in the U.S. Allowing the Program’s “pilot” status to expire could result in the large loss of foreign capital and local jobs for the United States at a time that it can afford it least.
PDF copies of the articles used to write this post are available upon request (info@iiusa.org) and are as follows:
- 2012-03-30 “Developers break ground on Miramar office complex funded by overseas investors” Doreen Hemlock – South Florida Sun-Sentinel
- 2012-03-29 “Keep eye on EB-5 green jobs program” Statesman
- 2012-03-29 “Construction to begin on Marriott Hotel complex in downtown L.A.” Roger Vincent – Los Angeles Times
- 2012-03-28 “Austin seeks to attract ‘green’ Int’l investors” Vicky Garza – Austin Business Journal
- 2012-03-27 “What’s an EB-5 Regional Center? And More Importantly, How Can it Bring Jobs to Austin” Andy Uhler – KUT News
- 2012-03-27 “Immigrants fuel innovative plans for revival on Short Vine” Becky Johnson – Soapbox Media
- 2012-03-23 “How Foreign Investors Can Get A Green Card In Exchange For $1 Million” Ronald Fieldstone – Business Insider
- 2012-03-09 “Foreign dollars fill funding gap in Pittsburgh region” Sam Spatter – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
- 2012-02-10 “CanAm Enterprises Announces 11th and 12th EB-5 Loan Repayments from its Regional Center in Philadelphia” PRWeb
- 2012-01-08 “Oakland eyes pay-to-play visa program for ballpark, new Coliseum” Angela Woodall – Oakland Tribune
- 2012-01-08 “Green card program a boon for development funding” Shane Dixon Kavanaugh – Crain’s New York Business
- 2012-01-06 “Congresswoman Hochul Visits School Training Youth for Jobs of the Future”
- 2012-01-03 “Navy Yard funds big rehab with green cards” Shane Dixon Kavanaugh – Crain’s New York Business
