Support migrant centric journalism today and donate
• Media Center » Video Immigration News
An article written in the ArgusLeader, a Sioux Falls online publication, highlighted how communities in rural areas of the United States are benefitting from foreign investment derived from the nation's investor immigration scheme.
As a local example, the author pointed out a dairy farm in South Dakota that received a large part of its financing from four South Korean businessmen. Each of these individuals put up $500,000 for the right to gain permanent residency under the US EB-5 immigration program.
Joop Bollen, head of the South Dakota International Business Institute, said that since 2005, the EB-5 program has contributed $30 million towards a $90 million expansion of the South Dakota dairy industry.
However, more states are expected to start taking advantage of the scheme.
Every year, a quota of 10,000 EB-5 visas are allowed to be handed out for foreign investors. Half of these are reserved for those who apply under a trial program involving what United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) approve as "regional centers".
These regional centers focus on specific areas of the United States and promote economic growth by increasing export sales, improving regional productivity, creating new jobs, and increasing domestic capital investment.
"Competition today is fierce as approximately 20 regional centers are active and many more are applying," Bollen said.
Peter Harriman, author of the article, pointed out the controversy over immigration in the US, and that the EB-5 visa should be a target for criticism as it "allows rich foreigners to buy their way into the country."
But he says that the EB-5 visa may be so obscure that it fails to attract any notice. In fact, the scheme has historically failed to attract many investors since its inception in 1990. By 2005, only 6,000 visas had been issued under the scheme, possible as a result of the $500,000 investment requirement and the many bureucratic requirements.
The US isn't the only country that tries to attract investment through immigration. The United Kingdom will be launching a revamped version of its current investor scheme in early 2008 as part of its new points based immigration system. Australia has a wide-range of various business and investor immigration routes and offers State and Territory sponsorship programs similar to what the US is doing with their regional centers.
