EB-5 Investor Testimonial:
Mike from Canada

Yeah. So actually, the application is for my son, for Alex DeHaan, who’s studying at Emory University in Atlanta. We’re Canadians.

As far as a personal background, I grew up in Montreal. I actually studied in the U.S. I did my MBA at the University of Rochester and later on went to the Harvard Business School. And my experience was I went through every single visa there is. I went through the H-1, F-1, TN. If it was out there, I probably had it at some point.

And I don’t know that there was the option for the EB-5. There was the option to get sponsored by a company, but I was always very entrepreneurial. and I didn’t want to be held down to a company. So eventually came back to Canada.

To circle back, my son is studying in the States. His dream is to be in the States, and I just want to make life a little bit easier for him. We came across the EB-5, which is, in our estimate, one of the speediest ways to get a Green Card, and that’s really where we came to the EB-5.

That’s correct. There were other options, but they had other risks associated with them that was really not on the table with an EB-5.

So we actually started with EB-5 companies like yourselves and getting recommendations for lawyers. So the lawyers that I got were from EB-5 investment companies.

And at the end of the day, I interviewed probably four or five lawyers, and it all came down to the number of applications that they had gone through, their success rate, and really how well we meshed. Would they be around during times of trouble? So I have a little test where I call them unexpectedly or I send an email and I evaluate how quick their response is and how accurate their response is.

At the end of the day, you take a risk no matter what, but I’m quite pleased so far with the work that’s been done with the law firm that we picked.

Yeah. So we’re using the Darren Silver firm out of LA, using one of the attorneys there. And basically started off with contracting him, getting the checklist of things that were required. Fortunately, I have a bit of experience in terms of source of funds tracking, which from my understanding is one of the bigger challenges that’s faced. So really started with the checklist, and we set a target date to get the application in. And I’ve got a pretty detailed-oriented team that helped me gather all the information and kind of went back and forth with the attorneys. I knew what they were looking for in terms of source of funds and being able to track it from the time you make it to the time it goes out. So I would say that the fact that I had some experience definitely helped, but the attorneys definitely held my hand.

And there’s no question that there is a lot of documents required. I don’t know if it’s a lot of documents required. I think it’s just they want to cover all bases, and they want to make sure that questions are answered before they’re even asked.

And I think that’s where you see … I would be a little bit concerned if you’ve chosen an attorney and they get your paperwork and they say right away, “Okay, it’s good. You don’t need to send me anything else.” So yes, it’s a little bit aggravating when they keep asking for stuff, but at the end of the day, they just want the application to go through smoothly.

So it’s a two-part answer. The first part is I actually hired them two years ago in terms of getting their help in terms of evaluating projects. My son had just started university. And then we kind of shelved it. They were still contracted, they had a retainer, but we didn’t use them.

It was only two years later that we decided “Okay, now we’re going to pull the trigger. It’s time to pick a project.” And the trigger point, it was a few months before my son was turning 21. And from the moment that we decided to pull the trigger—we had a deadline of January 15th, which was a month and a half ago—it took about 45 days to get everything done. Keep in mind that we were going through the holidays and New Year’s.

So I would say for all intents and purposes, probably took 30 days to get everything done. And I mean everything. I mean me getting all the paperwork in and them doing all the applications for it, as well as selecting the investment project and completing that part of it as well.

I don’t know that it’s completely different being a Canadian, except we probably have really good access to data. If you have private banking or if you have a good financial manager, we probably have very good access to data.

I would say the one thing to consider is to kind of put yourself in the shoes of the person evaluating the application, specifically in terms of the source of funds. They are looking exactly where that money came from. And when I say exactly, I mean exactly. I mean yes, I’ve been investing over the last 25 years. It’s very easy to say that the money came from the gains that I’ve had over the 25 years, but that just is not necessarily good enough. We had to track it back to one specific—say an extract from the company that I’m running right now—and kind of trail it through the whole banking system until it got in the hands of EB5AN and the ONE Tampa project.

So just to circle back and answer your question, I think the important thing is don’t take the source of funds lightly, and make sure that you can track the investment properly. And I’m in the middle of it, but I think that at the end of the day, that’s what’s going to get an application to run through smoothly.

It ended up being a gift. It was what made sense. And I don’t know that we looked at other alternatives, because at the end of the day, I was planning on gifting to my kids anyways, so it just kind of worked out like that. I didn’t really evaluate too many things, and it’s just basically one legal document that documents that you’ve gifted it.

Look, if you have the opportunity to meet them face to face, I am a strong believer that that’s probably your number one way to see if someone’s going to have your back and someone’s going to answer the phone when you need them. At the end of the day, if they’ve done a certain number of EB-5s, and you look at their success rate, then I think there’s probably a lot of good lawyers out there.

Yeah. So being Canadian, I think that the advantages of the rural, it wasn’t as important to me whether it was rural or urban. I was easily able to go with either of them.

I actually started with a different EB-5 company that had multiple projects. And the truth is my faith was more in the EB-5 company than it was in the project, because I have very little control on that project, which is something I’m not used to. I’m used to getting involved in these projects and kind of influencing outcomes.

So at the end of the day, step one is picking the right EB-5 company versus the project. And I thought I had made the right pick, and I’m sure it was the right pick, but at some point, the responsiveness was not to the level that I’m used to and that I require.

And I connected with you, Sam, and I connected with Jordan and other members of your team. And I got to tell you, everyone was on the same page in terms of responsiveness, in terms of goals, in terms of just getting us the proper data and coaching us through it, and I was really, really impressed. So I shifted gears, switched to EB5AN.

Then it was a matter of picking the project. And both Jordan and Sam, you held my hand quite well. It’s a matter of evaluating probability of getting the investment back, return on investment, probability of project actually getting completed. All these projects sound great, and we’re in the middle of it, so I’d love to have a follow-up interview once my son gets the Green Card and tell you that it went according to plan.

But at the end of the day, the ONE Tampa project, I like the fact that it was 47% sold at that point that I was evaluating, and I liked that there was a high sales of units. I actually called the project. I was going to go visit it. I didn’t go visit it. But the project managers there were very responsive as well.

I just felt, after evaluating, it had the highest probability of getting built, getting done, and returning my investment within the time that’s promised. Whether that happens or not, again, we’ll have to revisit this in two, three years and see if we’re on track.

I might be a little bit too naive, but I have more faith in the people guiding me than the actual project managers, because I’ve seen the best people fail and I’ve seen the worst people succeed. Kolter definitely has a history of successful projects for sure. That’s a plus.

But I got to be honest, you, Sam, you holding my hand and Jordan also coaching me through it, that had as much if not more value than the fact that it was a Kolter project. And that’s just the way that I roll. It’s just the way that I do things.

I wish I had a good answer for that. It’s either being naive, being stupid, or just being an all-around risk-taker that’s brought me a lot of success over the years. I had a good gut instinct, and hopefully it pays off.

There’s always challenges with every project, and at some point you got to decide “Am I ready to pull the trigger or not?”

Yeah, look, if you look at the big picture, assuming it succeeds in the timeframe that you’re promised and assuming that everything goes smoothly—let’s make that assumption—it is the easiest and fastest way to get a Green Card. And if that’s the goal, then there’s no better way in my opinion—of course, with our specific situation, where I have my son who wants to be free to work for whichever company is lucky enough to have him.

So I think the whole process itself is not a complicated process. It’s a rather easy one. You just got to roll up your sleeves and go all in.

I’ll give you the answer in a second. I think there’s probably a lot of good lawyers, and there’s probably a lot of good EB-5 project teams out there. But from my experience, I am super happy so far with the legal team that I hired, and I’m extremely happy with EB5AN.

Everything I asked of them was done in a very timely manner. Every question I asked, even if it was a ridiculous question, was answered honestly and with respect, without concern, and even Sam taking the time to meet with us.

Truthfully, it wasn’t about the questions we asked. It was about are you willing to spend your time with a potential customer. And that gave us peace of mind. Knowing that there’s a lot of intelligent people behind it gives you a comfort level and basically, at the end of the day, mitigates your risk in my opinion.