The Immigrant Investor Program also known as the EB-5 program permits foreigners who make investments in businesses in the United States to obtain US Green Cards. Such immigrant investors can get Green Cards in exchange for investing in America and for creating jobs in the country.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the US Securities and Exchange Communities (SEC) have jointly issued an alert in order to warn immigrant investors about fraudulent EB-5 schemes.
Scammers target foreign nationals who look forward to become lawful residents of the United States by investing in business ventures in the country, through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. This alert has been issued in order to caution immigrant investors.
Some promoters solicit investors even before the USCIS designates their businesses as EB-5 regional centers. Such promoters misuse the funds of the investors. Investors who become victims of scams will not receive their conditional Green Cards, through the regional centers and they will also lose their money.
USCIS requires the ones who seek to receive EB-5 Green Cards to be cautious and to protect their investments. Investors, prior to making investments must confirm that the regional centers have been designated by the USCIS. They can find the list of regional centers designated by the USCIS on the USCIS website. They must also request information about the investment they make, in writing.
Apart from that, they will have to look for warning signs of scams. They must not make investments if the promoters make promises of Green Cards. That is because USCIS will not grant conditional Green Cards to all the foreigners who make investments and immigrant visas and conditional Green Cards through the EB-5 program will be issued only to the investors who are eligible to immigrate to the United States.
Investors must remember that they will lose their money if they invest in fraudulent EB-5 schemes. They also cannot become lawful residents of the United States. USCIS and the SEC have jointly issued this alert in order to create awareness among EB-5 developers and the immigrant investors.