EB-5 Investor Testimonial:
Kaushal and Ayushi from India

Kaushal:
Sure. This is Kaushal, originally from India, Mumbai, and came here to United States for master’s degree. And over to you, Ayushi.

Ayushi:
Yeah. I’m Ayushi, originally from Mumbai as well. Both of us actually came to the U.S. to pursue our master’s in engineering. It was a great experience to actually explore the workforce here, and that’s how we got introduced to the whole visa world within the U.S. as well. We actually started off on student visas. Both of us went the route of working through the OPT and CPT programs, and then eventually transitioned on to our H-1Bs.

Kaushal:
Right.

Ayushi:
And I think we started thinking about EB-5 because I think most people know the backlog for India is extremely long. We actually have our Green Cards applied through our workplace as well. But we knew the backlog would be really long, and while we wait for it, the choices are very limited. And we are very limited by the options we have, whether it’s to start our own business or explore different kinds of opportunities. That’s what led us to EB-5 in the first place.

Kaushal:
Yeah, it makes sense. And then while you are on student visa, you are just focused on getting a job. And then once you get into job, you come across, okay, I need to get on H-1B and then the line of Green Card, either through EB-2 or EB-3 strategy.

Now, besides that, no one talks about or no one knows about what other options are open. There are options like EB-1 or EB-2 NIW or even EB-5. Personally, I even looked into EB-1 to qualify for that kind of profile by, I would say, qualifying five of those ten pointers, right, being the judge in one of the competitions or publishing a research paper and whatnot. But it’s very subjective to the government or the USCIS discretion to approve or not approve that Green Card process. And through EB-2, as Ayushi mentioned, the waiting period is for almost more than a decade and a half or so. And with the ever-changing policies, it might come to five years, it might go to 50 years. So we didn’t want to be in a position where we are not able to either move out of the country or see our family. A lot of our peers or friends face similar situations in COVID timeline where they couldn’t even see their parents in the critical conditions because of the lack of [advance] parole or just them being on H-1B visas. So that was one of our main points.

And moving on, learning about EB-5 was more of an exploratory process. One of our friends, or family relatives I would say, suggested to look into that option, but it always seemed like farfetched, something I would say difficult to execute as well as achieve. And more than that, when you don’t have a lot of information freely available, it’s very difficult to get that belief or confidence in the process itself because it’s a little bit out of the norm. So the lack of information, I would say fear of unknown, was definitely stopping us from jumping into it with full wholeheartedly or with 100% direction.

Kaushal:
Yeah, it makes sense. I guess we came in the United States in 2017—I’ll start with that. And we got our H1-B. For me it was in 2021, and for Ayushi it was 2020. So after that, when we came across to the H1-B realities, paths to citizenship were long. We seriously gave a thought maybe from the beginning of 2022. And September 2022 was, I would say, a good timeline to think about to look into this particular program seriously, learn about it, and get more information as we take steps, I would say move ahead in that direction one step at a time.

Ayushi:
And also we didn’t know how beautifully laid out the program truly is. It’s very organized. Initially, when the first time you hear about it’s like “How will I find a project? Do I need to buy a house? Do I need to buy a factory?” But there is actually a method to the madness, which definitely helps.

Also, when we learned about concurrent filing if you’re in the U.S., that even if there is a backlog, we have our EADs and APs and we can legally live in the United States, work in the United States, leave the country, come back inside without having to worry about anything, that gave us the peace of mind to actually pursue this opportunity very easily.

Kaushal:
Makes sense, makes sense.

Ayushi:
Yeah. So I think we didn’t start with attorneys at all. We actually started with projects. We started looking around our network and were associated with this industry because we hadn’t heard of many people actually taking this route. Our connections, we were first introduced to one of the projects that we first saw, and then through the process when we got introduced to different attorneys.

Kaushal:
And then to start with, I guess, understanding what EB-5 entails—creating 10 jobs—whose responsibility is that? That defines the kind of project you want to invest in. Now, moving on, when we realized that there are different types of project, we wanted to reduce our risk as much as possible. That’s why we decided one of our criteria will be to have a rural project. Now, once we started narrowing down our search in the rural project, we came across different kinds of projects, multi-fam, senior living, or I would say just mixed-use or even resort kind of projects.

Kaushal:
Right. And I guess that’s one of the major key: understanding what EB-5 program is all about. That’s where you will get the answer. The 10,000 visas that’s been allotted for EB-5 on a yearly basis, 20% of those are reserved for rural category. In order for us to reduce the risk and increase our chances for permanent residency, we wanted to make sure that we can tap into that 20%. And that’s why the major reason behind choosing a rural program was getting that reserved category benefit. Hope that answers your question.

Kaushal:
Makes sense, yeah. I guess the $800K amount is definitely a lot when it comes to your investing into any construction-related project. From an engineering background, I have a civil, I am kind of close to that … industry going not so well. So that amount of … You wanted to have a clear-cut exit strategy.

Now, there are different kind of projects, and the exit strategy are dependent on the kind of project you are going to choose, whether if it’s based on the amount of houses or amount of flats or condos sold. For me personally, that’s a function of external factors, micro factors, versus if the project is more of based on “Hey, you know what? There is a refinance program by government. Maybe there is a loan category.” So I’ll come to equity versus loan aspect, where it is a debt structure that gives us more confidence with that kind of money repayment.

Ayushi:
Yeah. And I’ll say a couple of things. So we did see a project rural which was on the tourism recreation side. So there was a project we even visited which was mixed use. So you would have a hotel, you would have condos, you would have a shopping mall. We found that a little more risky for us because we didn’t know where it was going to lead us to. But then we also saw more like senior care facilities, etc., which was also an interesting industry to be part of.

But I think what gave us confidence with Twin Lakes, which is what we ended up investing in, was even though the financial success of the project is based on the number of homes sold, it is a section of people that are not relying on getting a loan. But because it’s a 55-plus community, most of the transactions are completely cash and people are able to buy it on the spot. Also, we wanted to see—the location is extremely important, because who’s going to be interested based on where this particular project is based. And Twin Lakes’s proximity to Atlanta as a city—it’s about I think an hour and a half away from the airport—made it super lucrative as well.

Kaushal:
And focusing on which kind of projects you want to go for, the criteria we had besides rural strategy was something that would give us confidence of creating 10 jobs, because that is one of the major concerns for USCIS or for the government to give you that Green Card, because that the project is helping U.S. economy. We had seen projects from zero to 10 jobs completed, and it was a clear-cut obvious choice that you would choose a project where there have been these requirement jobs already been created. So that is something that give us more confidence with Twin Lakes—again, understanding the nitty-gritties of how does that matter.

Because our question was, if we are putting money right now, does that mean the 10 jobs have to be created afterwards, or does that even count the previous 10 jobs created? We needed to get some clarity on that. And that’s where the immigration folks as well as regional center folks, Sam and Mike, have been very helpful to give all the information very transparently and educate ourselves. That helps us to take the decision smoothly as well as with a lot of peace.

Ayushi:
I think all the projects that we saw, 10 jobs created already for our slot had we gone with it. So in any of those projects, we would have been taking that risk of putting our money in before those jobs got created for us. So that’s why Twin Lakes was extremely lucrative for us, because for our fund, our slot, the 10 jobs were already created at that point of investment.

Kaushal:
I’ve been making sure that we check our email, we make our form delivery section. We want to make sure that we get all the communication from their end—although your immigration officer is helping you, but you want to be on top of those things.

Second thing is, once we received the receipt that they have received the application, we want to make sure that we upload that particular receipt number in our USCIS, my USCIS account, so that it’s digitally automatically tracked.

Next thing is we can be panicking. We can be anxious about when is this going to happen. Every day you keep checking the website. That can be, I would say, exhausting. But as I was telling, some things which are not in our hands, we have to play that game.

But when the USCIS sends you any documentation, make sure that you follow through. There is a lag between document being sent to you versus document being sent to immigration. So this happened with us. There are certain steps. One is biometric. So that step, the biometric … for some investors … So that’s number one. Biometric appointment happens, your employment and advanced parole. So it can go from anywhere between 60 days, 20 days. We were fortunate enough to get it in 20, and advanced parole came in around I would say 90 days, three months of waiting period.

Ayushi:
Yeah, I can start. I think it definitely lifts a lot of weight off your shoulders because you are not limited to one employer. There is a sense of freedom that also kicks in, because now it feels like the world is your oyster because you have so many opportunities open. So it’s definitely very, very, very exciting. Having filed EB-5 while being in the U.S. definitely has its advantages, because with the EAD and the AP, there is no limitations per se. The only thing you’re waiting for is your conditional being cut pretty much. And now we have the freedom to choose from different opportunities for our lives, as well in terms of exploring different opportunities, exploring different investments or even academic opportunities that we might want to pursue without having to worry about what we would do with our H-1’s or have to go back on a student visa or extreme step for that matter.

Kaushal:
Right. I guess the opportunities are now open much more than that would have been on H-1B or your EB-3 Green Card track. So that is something crucial for our own personal development as well as the travel aspect of it. Travel is not defined by your visa appointment is a big plus-plus for us.

Ayushi:
And I think one more thing is, in the current economy, things are happening across all the industries pretty much, and having the EAD and the AP still gives us a lot of freedom knowing that we wouldn’t have to necessarily depart the country … as well. So we have the satisfaction to say we can kind of deal with it and we would have more options.

Ayushi:
I can start. So we went and spoke to more than six or seven regional centers in total. The biggest difference we saw was, number one, was transparency. With EB5AN, all of the documentation was black and white. Every number or every metric that we needed was provided … I think the response rate is very high and very quick. The turnaround times are very low, so we can get our questions answered very quickly.

The second thing was that EB5AN has adopted more of an educational approach. The EB-5 process in general is not very widely known, at least in the community that we come from. And so going through that educational process, maybe even taking some of the pointers that we learned through EB5AN and going and asking different regional centers was very helpful for us to gather our information and do our due diligence in the process as well.

Kaushal:
Yeah, absolutely. I guess we have been very grateful that we came across EB5AN through our own research. So the standard, the benchmark that you guys have put in the industry is definitely incredible, I would say applause-worthy, because that gives us a lot of confidence dealing with people, number one.

And second thing is if you have that trust, then you are not worrying about what’s going to happen with your money either. Now EB5AN, the founders Sam and Mike, they have a great educational background, number one. They have a great professional experience—that counts a lot.

And third thing is the metrics or the important information key pieces that EB5AN focuses on was not seen in other regional centers. That was one of the key differentiator among EB5AN and other regional centers.

So I can go and go and keep going with all the great things that you guys have been doing and you are planning to do. But I guess EB5AN, the six or eight months of conversation or the exposure that we got was more than enough for us to take a pause and just go ahead with EB-5.

Ayushi:
Also, the ongoing information. So even as you’re doing your due diligence, if you are subscribed to the EB5AN emails, you get updated on what are the trends, what’s changing. Even the hike in fee that happened very recently, the first we heard of it was through an email that your team had sent out. So even knowing what’s going on in the industry, even if you are talking to other regional centers, it helps you ask the right questions so you can get all the information that you need to make it informed.

Kaushal:
Absolutely … when your application has gone or you have received an EAD or AP, I didn’t see EB5AN missing out of the picture. They are still in the picture. They are still there to help you, give you information. And as Ayushi mentioned, through the newsletter, we are up to date with all the new policies and regulations and that information, or even the conditional or unconditional Green Card processing from the beginning so that there are no surprises that we are facing here down the road also.

Ayushi:
So I can talk about one where we did talk with the principal at that particular regional center. We are both very data-driven people. Relationships are extremely important, trust, but in our opinion, with regional centers, we did get the information, but the information was told in a … so it made it [harder] … to even get to the answers that we need. With EB5AN, it was a very simple conversation. Every question was answered with as much data for us, which helped us gather the information. We actually have a lot of documentation that we put together as well… that we needed to move to the next step, whatever it may have been at that point.

Kaushal:
And then, the model in any business is something that I like to figure out. For salespeople or even for the firm gatekeepers, their incentive is to get action done… But when we have access to principals or the founding team of any regional center, the conversation is at a different level. You guys are focusing on adding value to the investor by educating them and not just focus on this … and move on to the next. So the difference between transactional conversations versus more of transformational conversations, EB5AN did a great job. Mike and you did a great job in terms of building those relationships, not in terms of short term—those relationships from the long-term perspective.

Ayushi:
I would say if you are evaluating a project, do go visit it. I would actually highly recommend it.

Kaushal:
If you are able to, yes, you should definitely invest that money and time before putting your bigger chunk of money in the project.

Ayushi:
We did have some experiences where we wanted to go see for ourselves truly what the progress on a project was instead of just going by what somebody from a regional center was telling us, because incentives could differ in many situations. We actually took multiple trips, including multiple trips through the Twin Lakes project, throughout our journey of evaluating EB-5, because, on the ground, you actually get to see what’s happening. You can have conversations just generically with people in that area, maybe visit a gas station or whatever. That’s what we did to ask information about what was going on. Most of the projects that we visited were greenfield stage, which would, in our opinion, be more risky as compared to something that was either under construction or you could see progress. The beauty of Twin Lakes is, because it’s not a building per se being constructed and it’s houses, it’s more incremental. And … at Twin Lakes, we visited; I think almost every … under construction was now built and even inhabited in many cases, which gave us satisfaction that the project was heading towards completion.

Kaushal:
And it’s not just about the project pictures on your deck or on the presentation. It’s about what’s happening in the surroundings … like the projects on the West Coast. And the project looked great, but the surroundings, the location of that project, may not be the best in … our investment. Now, that might differ from person to person, but for us, it was important to understand the micro … impact of this particular project or any particular project. There might be a situation where, because of the regulations and rules in that particular location, the project could get affected.

So you might want to, if you are in the United States, I would highly encourage. Now, people who are not in United States or who are trusting the broker or trusting the salesperson or even trusting the principal, they can opt for maybe Google Earth or just calling the nearby restaurants or locations to get that information. The bottom line I want to make sure to tell people to educate them is you should not just trust the regional center and the salespeople. You should do your own due diligence. And information from those points, from those efforts, can help you to ask I would say more appropriate questions, more in-depth questions to salespeople or regional centers.

Kaushal:
Makes sense. I would say it’s a very personal choice. Some people want to have that relational salesperson in between because we saw how a broker system will … The major difference was the … have vested interest in your long-term success. They have a short-term interest because the entire structure is put it that way. Now, is it wrong? Is it right? I don’t want to comment on that. But personally, that defines a lot of information processing from their end. That defines what kind of information they want to give, they want to keep back there. And that’s what’s kind of differentiating between no broker system and broker system.

I would say the experience perspective, the brokers can go from one project to another project, but you’re going to get stuck with that particular project. So be careful about what kind of … so if you are able to talk to the actual regional center reps, I would highly recommend to do that.

Ayushi:
Yeah. And I think one of the pieces of it is we were willing to invest the time to understand the entire EB-5 process end to end. With different people, the constraints could be very different, where the broker could be helpful in terms of educating yourself or gathering certain pieces of information. For us, because we studied the whole system and the process really well, we didn’t feel the need to have an additional middleman to help us out. And we were fortunate that we reached out to EB5AN directly in the first place the first time we did as well, so it was a no-brainer for us to just approach it directly instead of going through another person.

Kaushal:
We could see through their screens because we know more information in some cases than these brokers. Our questions were smarter than the information that they were trying to give us, so that is definitely helpful.

What advice would you give to those interested in EB-5 process? I guess doing your own due diligence—not about the project or not just about the regional center, about the EB-5 and process itself—will help you to clarify a lot of doubts, questions, and your dependence on the information given by someone else. So I feel ask people who you know about their opinions, but ask strangers the facts, the factual questions, so that way you can educate yourselves more effectively.

Ayushi:
I think talk … ask a lot of questions, ask everything under the sun. You are the investor, and the regional center or the project or the attorney, they’re all there to help you, and they should provide the information that you need to make your decision. So no question’s a bad question—definitely ask it.

Second point that Kaushal also made is understand the EB-5 process for yourself so you are very clear on what each step would mean and everything. You can make the process very predictable for yourself.

Kaushal:
Yeah, makes sense. And understand the timeline of the entire process. As you said, H-1B, you just have six years, and if you start at the fifth year of the H-1B, the EB-5 process can take a little bit more than a year. So focus on best-case scenario and worst-case scenario and plan it accordingly. The bottom line is do consider this option, because coming from our background, we would not even considering this option until we actually sat down and asked ourselves the question “Why not?” Because this investment is not money gone. It’s more of an … Treat it as an investment, zero-interest-rate investment—put it that way—for five years. And then the benefits that you can reap off this particular investment project is going to help you in the long term. So do consider this option and educate yourself, talk to multiple regional centers, and then that way it’s very easy to define what works with you, what doesn’t work with you.

And for us, it was a straightforward choice to go ahead with EB5AN. But before that, even if we don’t do that, we wouldn’t have been so confident about going with EB-5. So a quick anecdote: the first project that we saw for EB-5 projects or EB-5 investment program was Twin Lakes Georgia. But we took a step back and decided “Hey, you know what? We are going to do a little bit of shopping. We are going to see what’s there. We are going to get more experiences, learn through it.” And then the choice was very easy to go ahead with EB5AN.