EB-5 Investor Interviews: A Key Resource for EB-5 Success

Applying for U.S. Green Cards through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is one of the fastest, most direct ways for you and your family to live and work in the United States as permanent residents. You can also get a return on your invested funds.

However, both of these outcomes—your immigration and financial success—depend on making informed decisions throughout the EB-5 process. Unless you work with the right EB-5 professionals and invest in the right EB-5 project, you may not qualify for U.S. Green Cards or get your invested funds back.

First, you’ll have to consider your immigration goals and decide whether the EB-5 program is an option for you and your family. Then, you’ll hire an EB-5 immigration attorney. Finally, you’ll choose an EB-5 project and regional center sponsor to invest with.

There are numerous immigration attorneys, regional centers, and EB-5 projects on the market today. Choosing between them can seem overwhelming—especially with your immigration goals and $800,000 investment on the line.

EB5AN’s goal is to educate EB-5 investors and help them succeed. To achieve this, we have created an interview series featuring successful EB-5 investors.

These interviews give you practical, specific advice on how to complete each step of the EB-5 process and maximize your chances of success in getting both a return on your funds and U.S. Green Cards.

Firsthand advice from successful investors—who may have similar immigration backgrounds to yours—can become one of the most valuable resources for your EB-5 journey.

As of May 2024, EB5AN’s investor interview series features 18 installments with EB-5 investors from around the world. To our knowledge, EB5AN has published more investor interviews than any other EB-5 firm.

In this post, we explain why EB-5 investor interviews are a valuable resource. Then, we provide an overview of our EB-5 interview series, showing how it can empower you to succeed as an EB-5 investor.

View All EB5AN Investor Interviews

EB-5 Investor Interviews: A Unique Resource

If you are interested in EB-5 immigration, you can use a variety of resources to educate yourself on the EB-5 program and prepare to make your investment. These resources include talking to experienced immigration attorneys and regional centers. You can also learn about the EB-5 program through the USCIS website and other online sources.

For example, EB5AN has published numerous educational articles and a video library on various aspects of EB-5 immigration.

All of these resources are valuable, and they can provide you with useful information for your EB-5 investment. Still, interviews with real-life EB-5 investors are an especially effective way to plan for your EB-5 investment. Many of the insights these interviews provide are not available from other sources.

EB5AN’s investor interviews feature specific advice that makes each step of the EB-5 process as simple as possible. Hearing investors explain how they went about the process in their own words can help you quickly get a good understanding of the EB-5 program and what to expect. Additionally, our investor interviews often highlight common challenges that EB-5 investors face.

Many articles and similar resources often focus on only one aspect of the EB-5 process—such as doing research on EB-5 projects, filing Form I-526E, etc. In contrast, our investor interviews provide a concise, practical overview of all of the most important steps in the EB-5 investment process.

In only a few minutes, an EB-5 investor interview can provide you with a starting point to plan your EB-5 investment and begin your immigration journey.

Overview of EB5AN’s Investor Interview Series

EB5AN’s investor interviews offer unbiased information about the EB-5 process. We encourage our investors to freely discuss their opinions on the EB-5 process and the strategies that work best for them.

Each investor interview page provides the following:

• A brief highlight video.
• A full interview video.
• A transcript of the full interview that is divided into sections for easy navigation.

These features enable you to quickly extract the most useful information from each interview.

In addition, each investor interview focuses on four key areas that will help you make a successful EB-5 investment:

1. Why Make an EB-5 Investment?
2. How to Choose an EB-5 Immigration Attorney.
3. How to Choose an EB-5 Project.
4. How to Choose an EB-5 Regional Center.

Now, let’s explore these four key steps in the EB-5 process and how our investor interviews can guide you to success in each one.

1. Why Make an EB-5 Investment?

At the start of each interview, the investors give us a brief overview of their background and why they decided to make an EB-5 investment.

Many of the investors wanted to expand their careers or education, or give their children the unique opportunities available in the United States.

In addition, many of them held non-immigrant U.S. visas before pursuing the EB-5 program, such as the H-1B and E-2 categories. These visas have to be renewed frequently and often depend on conditions like employer sponsorship.

Most investors felt that these visas created uncertainty for themselves and their families, and were looking for a permanent way to live and work in the United States.

Our series has featured investors from six different nationalities: India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Chile, and Canada. These investors come from a variety of professional backgrounds, including investment banking, financial services, entrepreneurship, and more.

You may find that an investor’s circumstances are similar to yours, and their insights on the best way to immigrate may help you and your family make an informed decision.

2. How to Choose an EB-5 Immigration Attorney

Working with a trustworthy EB-5 immigration attorney is essential to your success as an EB-5 investor.

An immigration attorney will be in charge of compiling the source of funds for your Form I-526E, which is the initial petition for an EB-5 Green Card.

If USCIS finds any problems with your source-of-funds evidence, your I-526E petition may be delayed or even denied altogether.

In addition, tracing the source of EB-5 funds from each country often requires using similar documents.

This is why many investors choose immigration attorneys who already have ample experience working with EB-5 investors from their home countries.

Our investor interviews also show that the majority of investors decide to hire attorneys who value communication and can respond to their questions quickly.

Finally, these interviews emphasize the importance of choosing an immigration attorney with a record of many I-526E approvals, and no denials.

3. How to Choose an EB-5 Project

Investing in a U.S. real estate project can be complex, with several factors coming into play. This section of our investor interviews can significantly simplify the project selection process, helping you to identify low-risk projects more quickly.

Before considering more specific project details, many investors first consider whether they want to invest in a rural or urban EB-5 project. Rural EB-5 projects are the most reliable option for Chinese and Indian investors to avoid EB-5 visa backlogs.

Additionally, rural projects entitle you to priority processing. This is how rural investors have been receiving I-526E approvals within 12 months.

After deciding on the project type they want, EB-5 investors then examine the various projects on the market. EB-5 projects are available throughout a wide range of real estate sectors.

Many of our investors have found that EB-5 projects in operations-based industries such as manufacturing, energy, and data infrastructure are riskier. These projects depend on future prices, which may be significantly lower than expected.

In contrast, traditional real estate sectors such as single-family homes and condominiums have been more popular among our investors. These projects can start selling units more quickly without relying on future demand projections.

4. How to Choose an EB-5 Regional Center

Similar to choosing an immigration attorney, most investors look for regional centers that are communicative and value transparency. In our interview series, several investors have pointed out that some regional centers did not easily provide access to their projects’ financial statements and other documentation.

In many cases, our investors decided to work with EB5AN because of our high level of responsiveness and transparency.

Our investors can speak directly with EB5AN’s managing partners, quickly get answers to their questions about our projects, and easily access any information they request.

Highlights of EB5AN’s Investor Interview Series

With 18 published interviews and more underway, EB5AN’s interview series offers a wide range of EB-5 investment strategies.

Below are three highlights of our interview series.

Real Estate Investment Principles From a Successful Investment Banker

Siddharth Agarwal, an EB-5 investor from India, is also a successful investment banker who has worked for some of the largest global financial services firms.

His interview features a highly detailed guide to investing in real estate, considering the United States’ current economic landscape and trends in the real estate market.

Siddharth explains how to evaluate a project’s asset class, returns, capital structure, developer record, construction progress, and more.

In addition to his interview, Siddharth also hosted a full-length webinar with EB5AN on EB-5 project selection, drawing on his extensive experience in evaluating real estate offerings as an investment banker.

These highly detailed explanations of real estate investment principles can be invaluable in helping you choose a low-risk EB-5 project.

Siddharth has already received approval for Form I-526E from USCIS.

View Siddharth’s Full Interview

View Siddharth’s Full-Length Webinar: EB-5 Diligence and Real Estate Investment Fundamentals

View Siddharth’s Full-Length Webinar:
EB-5 Diligence and Real Estate Investment Fundamentals

An Attorney Explains His Approach to the EB-5 Process

James, an attorney from Canada, held a full-length interview with EB5AN, where he explains how he chose an immigration attorney and regional center to work with.

James discusses the specifics of EB5AN’s Twin Lakes project and why he determined it was the safest option in the EB-5 market.

Throughout the interview, James emphasizes the importance of educating yourself on EB-5 immigration and working only with trustworthy EB-5 professionals with a proven track record.

View James’s Full Interview

EB-5 Investment Strategy From a Financial Services Professional

With more than 30 years of experience in financial services, Ken is in a unique position to share a successful approach for EB-5 investors.

Ken gifted the funds to six EB-5 investors from the Philippines, and he shares a step-by-step approach to the project selection process.

His interview highlights the importance of considering a project’s location, demographic, and, most importantly, the developer’s track record.

Ken has already received approval for Form I-526E from USCIS.

View Ken’s Full Interview

EB5AN’s Commitment to Educating EB-5 Investors

While few regional centers have a library of free online resources for EB-5 investors, EB5AN spares no effort in educating its EB-5 investors.

We believe that the more an EB-5 investor learns about the program and particular EB-5 projects, the more likely they will be able to get U.S. Green Cards and a return on their funds.

EB5AN’s investor interview series is one of the most effective ways to educate EB-5 investors and equip them for success.

We invite you to schedule a free one-on-one consultation to learn more about the EB-5 program and have your questions answered by an EB-5 industry leader.