During the Great Recession the EB-5 visa program funded businesses that couldn’t get funding from any other source, and it still provides much needed capital.
Because Congress is now considering renewing the EB-5 visa program, I would like to provide some additional information about the program. We have one of several EB-5 visa regional centers in Florida, and we have had eight businesses approved throughout the state, none of which is a luxury tower. These have included an assisted-living facility expansion with three investors, several ice-cream shops with one investor each and a lumber mill with 100 investors. These businesses have brought in tens of millions of dollars and created thousands of jobs.
During the Great Recession the EB-5 visa program funded businesses that couldn’t get funding from any other source, and it still provides much needed capital. The program provides “patient,” low-cost capital that allows businesses the time to develop and flourish. Many of these jobs will simply cease to exist if Congress fails to renew this successful program.
The EB-5 program is doomed to fail by design because it is against the principles of economics. Projects that couldn’t be financed otherwise are unlikely to be attractive to any rational investor, even with green cards attached. Instead of wasting time on this doomed-to-fail program, Congress should really spend time on other more critical immigration issues, such as the broken H-1B program.