How can I turn my business into an EB-5 regional center?

First, retain U.S. immigration counsel (as the EB-5 program is a U.S. immigration program) with a qualified team of professionals (business plan writer, economist, and others). From the absolute beginning of the representation to the approval of the regional center, the timeline is one to two years (which includes the processing time once the forms are filed).

You should directly consult with an experienced EB-5 immigration attorney to determine if you even need a regional center, and if the costs and processing time make sense for your project. If you have a smaller project, and you can make the EB-5 structure work by relying on direct job creation, for example, then you do not need a regional center. If you are going to do one project only, and it does require indirect/induced job creation, you might be able to contract with an existing regional center and save some costs and time, in order to get your project moving quicker. There are many factors to consider and you really need to go through all of them with legal counsel.

With the assistance of an experienced EB-5 immigration attorney and a team of professionals you can prepare an application for regional center designation based either upon a hypothetical or actual project. Our law firm represented a client who obtained regional center designation in less than 28 days, but it is difficult to predict with exact accuracy how long it will take.

What it takes to become a regional center is a basic understanding of federal laws and regulation pertaining to immigration and securities, a track record of past successful business execution from start to finish, guidance from experienced attorneys, and the starting funds of $100,000 - $150,000. All in all, in about 12 months, a regional center certification could complete its birth cycle.

You would have to form your own regional center and file the appropriate paperwork with USCIS, the approval of which sometimes takes more than 12 months. Remember that you do not need the regional center if you are seeking investments in a non-TEA area and those investments are at least $1 million per participant.

Applying for a regional center requires the filing of an I-924, which currently takes about 10 months to get approved by USCIS. It is best to consult an experienced EB5 attorney on the steps needed to help you apply for a regional center, as each case is different.