How to Evaluate EB-5 Visa Investments Offered by Regional Centers

The United States has been rightly called the “land of dreams” for immigrants and EB-5 is increasingly the best bet for your aspirations. The recent proposed changes in the H-1B regulations by the Trump regime have tilted the scale in the favor of EB-5 and have made EB-5 a crowd favorite as compared to other alternative immigration programs available. 

The number of visas issued between the FY2005-2015 has witnessed an astronomical growth (from 349 to 9,764) and in 2014 for the first time, the EB-5 category hit its annual cap. The same trend continued in the filing of the EB-5 petitions, from 11,744 in 2014 the number rose to 17,691 applications in 2015. EB5 has been present for a long time but it has gained momentum in recent years with other avenues of immigrations getting extremely difficult to access.

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/controversial-eb-5-immigrant-investor-program-faces-possibility-overhaul

It is important to understand the various structures behind investing via the EB5 scheme. The investor can actually start or buy a standalone business or invest via an USCIS approved third-party managed investment fund called “Regional Center”.  An organization designated by USCIS as EB-5 Regional center sponsors capital investment projects to lessen the burden on immigrants to meet the job creating requirements of the EB-5 visa program. They act as service agent organizations which set up an investment fund for the benefit of EB5 investors. There are around 880 regional centers approved by USCIS, however only a small portion have active projects and a track record of success.

https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/permanent-workers/employment-based-immigration-fifth-preference-eb-5/immigrant-investor-regional-centers

It is important for an investor to understand that the funds invested have to be “at risk” to qualify for EB-5. This means that no debt, guaranteed return or capital protection structure is allowed for the initial period. It is critical for an investor to analyze the various regional centers and their pros and cons. After all, it is your hard earned money at stake and you should make sure that it is in safe hands earning the best return possible in the safest way possible.

The investments in regional centers often operate as investment funds where those regional centers act as General Partners and Investors as limited partners. There are certain practices being followed in the industry which are not conducive to the health of your money!

- A particular Regional Center is touting a franchise structure with a leading American coffeehouse chain. Brand names have a powerful pull over the human mind and as such even hard-nosed investors sometimes fail to conduct the due diligence required before agreeing to such investments.

- The projects of some players involve cross-pollination of such investments that involves a large number of investors who are in a pool of investments across a region. Further, due to such cross-pollination of investments, the investors do not have any direct ownership or partnership in such investments.

- In many cases of our competitor´s portfolios, there are over 20% defaults with respect to loan recovery.

- The income earned from such real estate investments is used to pay the loan amount and further, there is no defined exit strategy for ensuring the timely returns of capital to the investor.

- They are experiencing a 6% real estate default rate, which is extremely high as compared to other players in the industry.

US Freedom Capital has unparalleled leadership in structuring a prudent opportunity for investors to get a green card in the US by offering EB5 compliant job-creating Texas real estate investments. The team of US Freedom Capital is formed from previously the highest-ranking immigration officials at USCIS. The team is proficient in managing commercial real estate investments with experience of over $4billion USD in deals.

The US real estate offerings by US Freedom Capital are structured with the dual objectives focussing on earning stable financial returns and on immigration through the gold standard of the EB-5 visa program. It operates two regional centers approved by USCIS to manage EB-5 capital. US Freedom Capital has a 100% approval rate and its focus remains on the healthcare real estate, the most secure investment option for yielding safe and stable returns, denominated in US dollars for the investors.

How USFC ensures that your funds are secure with us?

- The investments made through regional centers of US Freedom Capital have no linkage with the existing volatile equity market of US and therefore is not affected by changes on Wall Street.

- Top priority is you, the investor. The fund manager is only paid after investor returns.

- The real estate investments are evaluated for cash flows, not for appreciation.

- US Freedom Capital investments have a defined exit strategy (via REITs) as they come with a pre-signed off-take contract where the amount of repayment is held in banks to ensure timely payments to the investor.

- On top of it, in case there is default in the recovery of investment money, then the equity holding in such real estate investments is converted into a loan. The loan has a higher level claim against the current cashflow and needs to be paid within 4 years.

Under such real estate projects, the emphasis is laid on acquisition and development of US healthcare real estate such as urgent care centers, rehabilitation centers, skilled nursing facilities, and assisted living facilities.

CONCLUSION

In nutshell, US Freedom Capital is a vehicle for EB-5 visa program which offers lucrative opportunities to investors with conservative healthcare real estate investments. It provides ample opportunities with varied risk and reward options for the investors with the specific choice of investments. USFC is dedicated to its investors to providing a stable investment within an ecosystem of business integrity and fairness.