Immigration & Ownership under EB5 - Essay Example

Many of those families are facing the threat of deportation, while many troubled companies that were promised a boost from immigrant investors have closed their doors, leaving hundreds of workers unemployed"( Roche and Cohn, Cashing In: Immigration Official Insiders Siphon Millions Selling Green Cards To Wealthy Foreigners, Baltimore Sun).2 The impetus for the visa program came from a similar strategy in Canada that attracted millions of dollars from wealthy Hong Kong residents who looked elsewhere to settle when Britain announced that Hong Kong would merge with mainland China (We take a look at the Canadian Business Immigration Visa later in the paper).

This made the American think-tank devise a strategy to lure the wealthy from around the globe to invest in the national coffer, which was suffering through an economic downturn. (Roche and Cohn, America for Sale, Cashing In: Immigration Official Insiders Siphon Millions Selling Green Cards to Wealthy Foreigners, Baltimore Sun)3. America was also looking to lure the wealthy from Hong Kong who dreaded the idea of living under communist rule in 1997. The response was lukewarm considering that this plan was patterned after highly successful programs in other countries, especially Canada and Australia.

Canada's program, which began in 1986, had brought in more than $3 billion a year and created more than 40,000 jobs, which Canadian officials said was a real success.Australia, anticipating an exodus from Hong Kong brought forward their program a lot earlier. The program, begun in 1982, brought in $1.3 billion in new investment with about 10,000 settlers coming mostly from Asia, according to the Australian Embassy.There was animosity and revolt against this move to bring in settlers for a paltry sum of $1 million. Said Sen. Dale.

Bumpers (D-Ark.), "allowing somebody into this country simply because he or she happens to have $1 million, either inherited, made in the drug cartel, regardless of where the money comes from" is nothing short of "selling of our souls"."One million dollars is not chump change," said St. Louis immigration lawyer George Newman. "People with that kind of money didn't get it because they are idiots," he said, and they are not going to jump into the program without a clear idea of what will happen, sums up the mood in the immigration section of INS (Al Kamen, An Investment In American Citizenship, Sep.

29, 1991, The Washington Post)4. The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa (Pre-This is the story of Kenneth Carlsson, a man who brought with him all the wealth that he could amass to start an American dream. He, like a million before him, sought to make the United States his home. Kenneth banked on the investor visa program that was on offer for foreigners who desired to come here and invest U.S $500,000 - $1,000,000. This was seen as an avenue for the rich to walk into this country, invest in a business that would offer employment to a minimum of 10 and would