2010 is the "Year of the U.S." for investment immigration. U.S. investment immigration heated up rapidly in 2009, with the number of Chinese applicants for U.S. investment immigration increasing several times over compared to 2008. In the past, it would take several months to sell out an investment project in China; now, a project with over 200 quotas is snapped up in two to three months.
The latest data released by the U.S. Department of State shows that the number of approvals for "investment immigration" (Employment-Based Fifth Preference, or "EB-5" visa immigration), which grants green cards through investments of at least $500,000 in the U.S., increased by three times year-on-year in the last fiscal year.
Chris Rhatigan, a spokesperson for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), stated that in recent years, the number of applications and approvals for EB-5 visas (including immigrants and their dependents) has been continuously growing. The total number of EB-5 visa immigrants approved in the last federal fiscal year, from October 2008 to September 2009, rose from 1,443 in fiscal year 2008 to 4,218, with about 70% coming from Asian countries and regions such as China and South Korea.
What is causing the continuous rise in Chinese applications for U.S. investment immigration?
Wealthy Chinese apply for U.S. EB-5 visas to provide a good educational environment for the next generation and to gain more business opportunities; they view this as a "long-term investment." In recent years, studying abroad has been booming. Behind the excitement, many parents have begun to worry about how to provide comprehensive post-study planning for their children studying in the U.S. to prevent them from becoming "sea turtles" (returned students) who struggle to find jobs. Therefore, a brand-new dual-insurance approach—"immigrate first, study later"—has become very popular among parents as soon as it appeared.
Secondly, the investment amount for the U.S. EB-5 Regional Center program is only $500,000, which is relatively low. Some have calculated that rather than sending children to the U.S. for studies, it is better to choose immigration. Immigration offers more benefits, such as free primary and secondary education and easier access to prestigious U.S. universities compared to international students. Chinese people have always valued education, and the quality of U.S. education is world-leading, with about 50 of the world's top 100 universities located in the U.S. With immigrant status, one only needs an SAT score of 1,000 or above to enter a prestigious university, whereas international students require 1,500. At the same time, the Obama administration announced on October 29 the three-year extension of the EB-5 Regional Center program, allowing this U.S. advantage to continue and eliminating investors' concerns from a policy perspective.
Of course, a high success rate and fast approval speed are also among the reasons. In the first half of 2009, the U.S. immigration authorities announced a goal to accelerate the approval time for major categories of immigration applications by 20% in the 2009 fiscal year. On average, the time from filing to obtaining an immigration visa and landing in the U.S. to receive a green card is much faster for the U.S. compared to Canadian immigration. As U.S. immigration authorities have switched from paper filing to electronic filing, the approval speed is becoming faster and faster.
In addition, another core reason is that China's economy is leading the global recovery, and the wealth effect has led to the warming of U.S. investment immigration. On one hand, the financial crisis has made U.S. immigration policies more relaxed; on the other hand, the exchange rate adjustment has reduced the cost of investment immigration. With the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, investors now only need to spend over 3 million RMB to obtain U.S. immigrant status for their entire family, saving investors nearly 1 million RMB in immigration costs.
