California: AVG American Investments - founded by Shalabh ‘Shalli’ Kumar, President Donald Trump’s biggest Indian American donor during the 2016 election is luring Indian businessmen to invest in the US, with the promise of a green card via the EB-5 investor visa. EB-5 visas are allotted to foreigners who invest $500,000 in a project that employs 10 or more people in an area designated as a high unemployment area, also known as a targeted employment area. Now the Congress is seeking to increase the qualifying amount to $1 million.
EB-5 visas are also allotted to those who have currently invested $1 million in a project that employs 10 or more people, anywhere in the US. Until now, Chinese nationals have largely availed this opportunity, but AVG American Investments is hoping to create a pipeline of Indian investors attracted by the visa.
Roughly 10,000 EB-5 visas are allotted each year. No country can initially get more than seven per cent of the visas meted out that year, but when other countries do not use their allotted number, they are given to other applicants waiting in line. India has never used all of the 700 EB-5 visas it is allotted each year; China annually gets about 7,500.
With an EB-5 visa, an investor can jump the queue of those waiting up to 70 years for an employment-based green card. Legal permanent residency based on an EB-5 visa can be obtained in roughly 18 to 24 months. Recently, Vikram Kumar, Shalabh Kumar’s son, met a group of Indian investors and showed a video which explains how and where a businessman can invest to get the EB-5 visa.
