The EB-5 visa program, which is enormously popular with developers but criticized by some lawmakers as an unfair express route to U.S. citizenship for the wealthy, just got a five-day reprieve.
Renewal of the program – which awards a U.S. green card to foreigners who invest $500,000 into the U.S. economy – was part of a short-term spending bill approved by the House of Representatives Friday. The bill, approved by the Senate on Thursday, will keep the government running through Dec. 16 while lawmakers negotiate the $1.15 trillion budget, of which EB-5 is a small component.
The EB-5 program, which offers 10,000 U.S. visas annually and has been dominated by Chinese investors in recent years, was initially up for renewal in September, when lawmakers passed a stopgap measure to keep the government operating through Dec. 11.
In recent months, lawmakers have been considering various changes to the program, such as raising the minimum investment amount. Currently, investors are required to invest $1 million or a discounted amount of $500,000 in “targeted employment areas,” or zones designated as having high unemployment. Other changes could place restrictions on TEA designation.
The EB-5 legislation currently contains 40 pages of changes, according to Ron Klasko, a managing partner at Klasko Immigration Law Partners.
For New York developers, proposed changes to TEAs are particularly worrisome since many of them have taken advantage of the discounted investment amount by creating special districts linking their projects to low-income neighborhoods.
“From the point of view of New York developers, almost all of them have, in the past, qualified for the $500,000 reduced investment amount of the TEAs,” Klasko said. “Many of them will not qualify for that under this new law, meaning investors would have to invest $1 million. That’s an issue.”
The legislation would also allot a certain number of visas to different investment categories, such as 2,000 visas for projects in rural areas and 2,000 visas for people who invest $1 million.
“There have been long waiting lists for investors in China when they were competing for 10,000 visas,” Klasko said. “Now many of them for the New York projects will be competing for 4,000 visas.”
There’s little chance the bill will not pass, he said, since it’s part of the government’s omnibus bill. Meanwhile, developers and investors are sitting tight. “Until we have the final law,” said Klasko, “There won’t be a lot of activity.”
China’s Central Bank is moving forward with capital markets reforms that could make it easier for Chinese citizens to invest in South Florida real estate.
The country’s monetary policymakers announced on Friday they may soon allow residents of a Shanghai free-trade zone to buy overseas assets directly – a trial run for the rest of China and part of a broader effort to loosen capital controls.
The move would also open up Yuan-denominated bonds to foreign companies. Chinese citizens currently face tight limits on the amount of money they can invest abroad. Those looking to convert funds from Yuan into Dollars to buy, say, an apartment in Brickell, often have to do so through companies or by smuggling cash to Hong Kong.
The announcement comes despite an uptick in capital outflows from China in recent months, which would normally provide an incentive to tighten capital controls.
In September alone, investors pulled $194 billion from the country, according to Bloomberg. “A lot of people suggested that if the economy slows, if there’s more volatility, the Chinese will drop the reforms,” Andy Rothman, an investment strategist at fund manager Matthews Asia, told Bloomberg.
“I don’t think that’s the way the Chinese government views it. They are not worried about the scale of the outflows.” ISG World, an Aventura-based brokerage, recently partnered with one of China’s top real estate firms that has more than 60,000 agents spread throughout 17 cities.
It’s the latest move in Miami’s real estate market, where eyes have turned to Asia now that a strengthening U.S. dollar has sapped the energy of South American investors.
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Renewal of the program – which awards a U.S. green card to foreigners who invest $500,000 into the U.S. economy – was part of a short-term spending bill approved by the House of Representatives Friday. The bill, approved by the Senate on Thursday, will keep the government running through Dec. 16while lawmakers negotiate the $1.15 trillion budget, of which EB-5 is a small component.
“From the point of view of New York developers, almost all of them have, in the past, qualified for the $500,000 reduced investment amount of the TEAs,”Klasko said. “Many of them will not qualify for that under this new law, meaning investors would have to invest $1 million. That’s an issue.”
“There have been long waiting lists for investors in China when they were competing for 10,000 visas,”Klasko said. “Now many of them for the New York projects will be competing for 4,000 visas.”
China’s Central Bank is moving forward with capital markets reforms that could make it easier for Chinese citizens to invest in South Floridareal estate.