Why Don't More Foreign Investors Utilize the EB5 Program?

EB5 Program: Overview
As a brief description of EB5 Visa Program, foreign businessmen and investors can obtain legal residence through a capital investment of between $ 500K and $ 1M in a company anywhere in the U.S. territory. This new company must allow at least ten full-time legal U.S. workers within a minimum of two years from the entry of aliens into the country.

the U.S. Congress currently has around 10,000 active EB5 visas, including those for spouses and children. However, in reality, there are currently less than a thousand visas are issued annually for a number of factors, including the dynamically changing economy and the relative instability of the program. The program is designed to help achieve more capital investment in the U.S., but is currently underutilized.

competition from other developed countries, "green card investor programs (as in Australia and Canada) also decreased enrollment in this program. According to statistics from the year 1998 to 2007, the federal government has issued less than a thousand EB5 visas per year . During that same year, Canada issued a minimum of 3,000 visas each year for its Immigrant Investor Visa, and issued an all-time high of 10,000 immigrant investor visas in 2005. Unlike the U.S. EB5 program, the Canadian Investor Green Card Program is not required foreigners to establish a business or hire employees. Investment is already supposed to stimulate significant economic activity and job creation. AAO precedent still operates limited Immigrant Investor Program in the country. This is significantly affected foreign investors' attitude towards investing their money in the U.S. in compared with other developed countries.

USCIS has recently announced its intention to restore the excitement for this Visa Green Card program in hopes of increasing interest from foreign investors to participate in the program. After the program was originally implemented, was the great economic expansion in the U.S.. However, recently, getting EB5 Green Card Visa has become a tedious process for many. As the current economy is still struggling to get out of recession, Congress should ask Homeland Security to review their policies on foreign investors in the hope that it will open more doors for the EB5 program to help stimulate the economy.