Mr. Lin from China: Why Did You Choose EB5AN Snake River Rural EB-5 Project

Yeah, of course. Hi, I am Mr. Lin. I am from China. I was a law student in [the] U.S., and now I’m working. So far I’ve been in the U.S. for three, four years.

So two main reasons. One is that I have a job here, and I can see a clear career path for me in the United States. So naturally, I want to stay and remain indefinitely. Second is I see the potential that I can bring my parents to the U.S. when they retire. Of course, after I obtain permanent residency and become a citizen, I can apply [is for] Green Cards for them.

So I did the traditional F-1 student, OPT, H-1B path, but H-1B wasn’t successful, and I still wanted to stay. So that led me to the EB-5 program.

So I kind of talked to immigration attorneys from three, four different firms, different teams, and ended up with Mr. Yang from Reid & Wise.

There are several things that I considered. Well, first of all is there’s whether this attorney has experience in helping EB-5 investors. Second, you want an attorney that’s capable and independent. So what I did is that I personally reached out to different attorneys, and I did the choosing.

So far, the experience with Attorney Yang’s team and him has been great. They are very responsive. They’ve been helping out with my source of funds documents and answering all types of different questions.

Yeah, of course. I mean, this is a big investment, and you want an attorney that’s looking out for your interest and your interest alone. So finding an independent attorney means that there is someone looking out for you. They are not secretly helping out with other parties or thinking about other parties’ interest. I think that’s the key. That applies to any situation when you are hiring an attorney.

I would say, of course, shop around. You would need to talk to at least a couple or several attorneys before you make a final decision. You don’t want to just talk to one and say, “Okay, that’s it.” You want to talk to several, see what they offer, ask them how many cases they have dealt with, what is their experience.

Of course, you can ask for some suggestions from maybe former investors or the regional centers. They may provide you with some suggestions, and you can go from there. And of course, there’s nothing that stops you from doing your own research or maybe just a Google search to find out what are the EB-5 attorneys out there.

So there are several regional centers out there doing EB-5 programs. And I think EB5AN is one of the largest ones, one of the ones that has better track history of the former programs, has more success.

And also, I contacted several regional centers and their projects. I asked them for their investor memos, and I looked at them. The ones from EB5AN tend to be projects that, well, I personally like most. Hospitality, property developments—those are the projects that I think are safer in terms of financial risks. And I also look at the terms in the memo. They seem more reasonable compared to the others that I’ve looked at.

The investor memo is the one key document in making an EB-5 investment. It’s an equivalent of a prospectus if you are buying shares from a company that goes to IPO. So this is the one [of the] most important documents that contains all of the key information associated with this project. I would say the structure of the funds, the risk factors, when and how you’re going to be repaid from the loan, so these are the key factors in the memo, and you have to read it as an investor, as it provides all of the most important information in there.

Having read several different memos and talked to people, I think that the memos and the projects from EEB5AN, they tend to have reasonable terms. I’ve seen some sort of unreasonable terms in other contracts from other memos, which I’m not going to disclose. But from my perspective and considering all the different factors, I think that the investor memos from EB5AN tend to be more balanced, more reasonable, and friendlier to the investor.

Yeah, I would say EB5AN definitely did a great job in terms of transparency for all this data. How many jobs are created, how many funds have been invested into this project you can simply find on EB5AN’s website. Compared to other regional centers, they will probably provide you with the same information if you ask, but it’s not like you can simply go to EB5AN’s website and look at the very up-to-date data there.

So as I mentioned, the type of investment is one of the key factors. Hospitality, real estate, the thing about these types program is that the business model is straightforward. We all know how the hotel is run. We all know how real estate, how houses are sold, how the housing market is. So very straightforward. I don’t like to get into industries that I have very little knowledge of. Infrastructure, some other industry, I don’t know how those work.

Another big factor why I chose this specific project is Snake River has almost all of the jobs created before I even invested. To me, that’s a big plus. I prioritize Green Cards, and as an EB-5 investor, we all know that the USCIS looks at the jobs created when they are deciding whether to issue you a Green Card.

So according to the latest statistics that’s published from USCIS, there is already a huge backlog, I think, at least for urban projects. So if you invest in an urban project as a Chinese or Indian investor, you are looking at potentially five to 10 years of backlog. So that’s a huge factor. And at least for now, rural projects, even though they might be facing some backlog, but not as serious as urban projects. You might be looking at maybe three years of backlog for rural projects, but I think that’s manageable.

As we all probably know, there is 10,000 headcounts every year, and the USCIS sets aside 2,000 headcounts for rural projects and 1,000 headcounts for urban projects. So there’s that. Apparently, there’s a huge difference when you’re looking at 2,000 instead of 1,000. And when you’re making that decision, and especially if you are a Chinese or Indian investor, that is a huge factor, because that would determine how long before you will eventually get your Green Card.

I was doing my Google search. I just put in “EB-5 investment projects” in Google, and one of the regional centers that comes up was EB5AN. Of course, I also looked at different other regional centers. But yeah, I was looking at several—maybe five, six—different projects at the same time. But yeah, a Google search was what originally brought me to EB5AN.

I chose the Snake River project because first, as I said, I looked at how many jobs have been created. By the time I invested in this, I think almost all of the jobs had been created. So as long as your funds are okay, you are very likely getting a Green Card. That’s a huge factor for me.

Another thing is EB5AN provides you with the possibility of a partial investment. You can invest partially and then submit all the filings to USCIS, and you are granted a period of time and you can get the rest of the funds ready and invest in it.

I was looking at another project. I think it’s a car parts factory. They also have created all the jobs, but they would not accept partial funding. That makes a huge difference for me. That’s why I eventually chose Snake River.

The experience is definitely positive. The team are very responsive, especially Patrick. He has been answering my different type of questions very quickly and timely. The rest of the team are also very responsive. I ask for all different types of documents, which the team very timely provide me with. And everyone’s polite and friendly. I would say interacting with the EB5AN team, it’s a pleasure.

I would say the near future is one key, because we are looking at backlog that’s already there. If you are looking at making an investment, you better act fast, because once the backlog appears on USCIS’s board, we don’t know how long that’s going to take. So if you are thinking of making an investment, you must act quick.

But again, second, I would say this is no small money to anyone. For anyone who’s thinking about making an investment, be very careful. Do a lot of research. Do your own due diligence. Hire a lawyer or hire someone who’s experienced in this to provide you with counseling.

Third, I would say there are a lot of programs out there on the markets. You need to look at several and compare them. Do a thorough comparison between these programs and make your own decisions.

Yeah, absolutely. Attorney Yang from Reid & Wise, he is definitely capable, with a lot of experience. Working with him has been smooth. The team is very responsive. They have been taking care of my documents, my filings. For anyone out there, I would totally recommend my immigration attorney.