As soon as the EB 5 investor and their family have been granted green card status and are now U.S. permanent residents for a period of five years, they may then already qualify for a U.S. citizenship. For those who wanted to keep living and working in the U.S., as well as their own home country, they need to strategize this with their immigration lawyer to see how this can be done since U.S physical presence is a requirement associated with being a U.S permanent resident.
As soon as the investor receives their permanent green card, they become eligible for return of invested capital provided that the EB-5 loan has already been repaid by the borrower or the developers. All Regional Center project will have their own exit strategy which details how they are going to return the funds back to the EB-5 investors. There are two common strategies Regional Centers have. One would be selling the project entirely and the proceeds are used too pay to pay off the EB-5 loan. In this option, the investors can get the return of their investment, if an only if the sale exceeds the amount that was owed. In example, if a project like a commercial office building was $100 million when it was built and now 5-6 year later it’s valued at $125 million and is sold for $125 million then there should be sufficient funds to pay back the EB-5 investors as well as any other lenders to that project. The second option or strategy is mainly refinancing the EB-5 loan. For example, it’s a $100 million investment in building like a commercial office tower. Now, there’s the $20 million coming from the developer, $50 million construction loan from a bank and $30 million from 60 EB- investors. Now, after 5 to 6 years, the building is worth $125 million; now it might be much easier for that developer or borrower to get either a loan of $80 million against the $125 million dollar asset and pay off the bank and the EB-5 investors or just a second loan from a second bank to pay off the EB-5 loan. These exit strategies may seem very general but there are actually a lot more detail to this transaction and a lot more factors and considerations that have to be made. Nothing is currently set in stone and it is a given that there are lots of variables that come into play including economic conditions, market condition, demand/supply and some more. Read more for more information. |