I’m Sam Silverman, a co-founder and managing partner of EB5AN. Since 2013, EB5AN has led the EB-5 industry in creating institutional-quality EB-5 projects for investors from around the world. Having worked with thousands of EB-5 investors and their families, I have seen distinct trends emerge in the various regional markets worldwide.
EB-5 investors from different regions have unique immigration needs. That is certainly true of the Asian EB-5 market in 2024.
Historically, Asia has been EB-5’s largest market worldwide, accounting for the most EB-5 petition filings since the program was founded in the early 1990s. I recently returned from a two-month tour of Asia, where I visited the focal points of the EB-5 industry across the continent.
During my trip, I met with hundreds of EB-5 investors and promoters, as well as several new members of EB5AN’s Asia team. My tour took me to China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore—all of which collectively have a considerable demand for EB-5 immigration.
The volume of EB-5 petition filings from Asia is surging, especially in China, thanks to the significantly faster processing times under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA). Post RIA, the China market has trended toward rural targeted employment area (TEA) projects, while other Asian countries still gravitate toward urban TEA projects.
In this post, I’m pleased to provide a positive update on the state of the Asian EB-5 market and examine these trends more closely. I’ll also outline EB5AN’s plans to meet the unique needs of our EB-5 investors from Asia.
Trends in the Chinese EB-5 Market
Overall Trends in the Asian EB-5 Market
Understanding the Asian EB-5 Market’s Dynamics
Further Reading
Trends in the Chinese EB-5 Market
Historically, China has accounted for most of the demand for EB-5 immigration. Due in part to the extent of this demand, in 2015, China entered a backlog of EB-5 petitions, forcing investors to experience significant delays—often lasting multiple years—before receiving their U.S. Green Cards.
As a result, demand from the Chinese market dropped significantly in the years following 2015 and had remained fairly moderate until recently.
Then, in 2022, the RIA introduced new policies that are beneficial for investors from backlogged countries like China: set-aside visa categories and, for investors in rural projects, priority processing.
Set-aside visas allow investors from backlogged countries to avoid processing delays. Investors can qualify for set-aside visas by investing in either urban or rural projects. However, rural projects are the largest set-aside visa category, with 20% of the yearly supply of EB-5 visas being dedicated to rural projects, making this category more attractive for Chinese investors.
In addition, investors in rural projects qualify for priority processing of their USCIS petitions.
While the RIA was signed into law in March 2022, reliable processing data for I-526E filings in rural projects became available only recently. The current standard in the EB-5 industry is for investors in rural projects to receive approval for their initial U.S. Green Cards in approximately 12 months or less.
In fact, multiple Chinese investors in EB5AN’s rural projects have received their physical U.S. Green Cards in as fast as 10 months. And their I-526E petitions have been approved in as little as 7 months.
While the Chinese EB-5 market has not yet recovered to pre-backlog levels, recent processing statistics show significant, sustained growth in FY2024 thanks to the faster processing made possible by the RIA.
In September 2024, following a FOIA request, USCIS released country-specific filing data showing total filings from April 1, 2022, to mid-2024.
During this period, Chinese investors filed a total of 2,600 I-526/I-526E petitions, accounting for 57.7% of total filings worldwide.
From October 2023 through April 2024 alone, Chinese investors filed a total of 1,089 I-526/I-526E petitions. This makes China the largest EB-5 market so far in FY2024.
Chinese EB-5 Investors Lean Toward Rural Projects
The USCIS data show that increasingly Chinese investors are choosing rural EB-5 projects over High Unemployment TEA Urban projects—an increasingly changing trend.
From April 1, 2022, to mid-2024, Chinese investors in rural projects filed 1,193 I-526/I-526E petitions.
More specifically, from October 2023 through April 2024, Chinese investors in rural projects filed a total of 578 I-526/I-526E petitions. For comparison, investors from India, one of the largest EB-5 markets globally, filed only 148 rural petitions during this period.
China is far and away leading worldwide demand for rural projects under the RIA.
As mentioned above, set-aside visas and priority processing are responsible for China’s pronounced shift toward rural projects. Due to these factors, Chinese investors finally have an immigration pathway that can potentially grant them U.S. Green Cards in a matter of months, avoiding their country’s backlog entirely.
Additionally, global filing data indicates that investors in urban projects may soon be unable to obtain set-aside visas. The urban set-aside visa category is likely to enter a prolonged backlog in the coming months, which simply reinforces Chinese investors’ preference for the rural category. Multiple immigration attorneys and IIUSA have worked hard to secure new data from USCIS which allows us to more accurately estimate overall visa demand and future backlog predictions.
As I explained in a recent interview with The Wire China, the benefits of these new categories, especially rural, present a once-in-a-generation opportunity. For the past five years, there was minimal demand from Chinese investors. Now, this demand is bouncing back.
Overall Trends in the Asian EB-5 Market
Beyond China, faster processing times under the RIA have revitalized the Asian EB-5 market as a whole, with a growing volume of petition filings since 2022, particularly in FY2024.
Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Malaysia still have a higher demand for urban EB-5 projects. EB-5 investors from countries without a visa backlog tend to focus less on faster processing, often preferring to invest in urban real estate developments.
Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam filed a total of 577 I-526/I-526E petitions from April 1, 2022, to mid-2024, accounting for 13.8% of filings worldwide.
From October 2023 through April 2024, Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam filed a total of 150 urban I-526/I-526Es—and only 29 rural petitions.
Additionally, EB-5 applicants throughout Asia—as well as EB-5 promoters—are generally researching their investment options more thoroughly to avoid suspicious or financially risky projects.
This trend is likely the result of a slew of high-profile EB-5 projects that failed to repay their investors. These projects mostly raised EB-5 funds during the EB-5 program’s peak years from 2014 to 2017, which saw an exceptional volume of Chinese petition filings.
To mitigate suck risks, both investors and migration agents are doing more research into EB-5 projects’ regional center sponsors, development teams, capital structure, safeguards for investors, financial viability, and other key features that determine a project’s risk profile. Before committing to a project, more agents and investors are asking for key information such as a project’s financial statements.
At EB5AN, we are pleased to see investors make informed decisions before committing their funds. We have always believed that EB-5 investors deserve to have the same rights as any other investors—including the right to information that will help them determine the best path to reach their financial and immigration goals.
This belief is why we have long stood out among regional center operators for providing investors with key documents such as financial statements, even when doing so was extremely rare in the EB-5 industry.
EB5AN makes sure our investors are aware of the risks involved before committing their funds. We minimize our investors’ risk by sponsoring only institutional-quality projects that we would be comfortable investing in ourselves.
Furthermore, to help investors make informed decisions, we have provided a number of free informational resources, including a comprehensive investment framework to assess a project’s risk profile and a series of interviews with successful investors.
Understanding the Asian EB-5 Market’s Dynamics
EB5AN’s priority is to stay in touch with our investors’ needs. We do not only examine processing data and similar trends; we also believe that it’s important to meet EB-5 investors and EB-5 professionals around the world to understand their needs and how we can provide the best experience for our investors.
To meet the unique needs of the Asian EB-5 market, EB5AN is adopting a portfolio approach instead of focusing on one project category. We are currently offering both rural and urban EB-5 projects—without compromising our high standards of quality.
Not only are our projects located in both rural and urban areas—they also offer varying asset classes, investment durations, and rates of return so that we can meet as many investors’ needs as possible.
We look forward to releasing several new projects throughout the remainder of 2024, providing EB-5 investors with more options to begin the EB-5 process while fulfilling their unique immigration goals.
To learn more about the best way to get U.S. Green Cards for yourself and your family, I invite you to schedule a free consultation. We look forward to helping investors from Asia and around the world get U.S. Green Cards quickly through their EB-5 project of choice.
Further Reading
EB5AN Managing Partner Interviewed in The Wire China
