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September 20, 2022 31 mins

During this episode, Mr. Beshara shares his thoughts on how the EB-5 Visa Program compares to alternative visa programs, from its cost efficiency and overall benefits – to the process of immigrating to the United States. Mr. Beshara also provides his thoughts on past and current EB5 trends, his outlook on the future of EB5, and how he has helped investors choose the right Visa program for them.  Mr. Beshara has been exclusively practicing U.S. Immigration Law and offering immigration guidance and solutions since 1983. Based out of Orlando, Florida, he has represented many clients worldwide regarding their business, and family U.S. Visa goals. He is also a valued member of EB-5 Investors Magazine and was recognized nationally as one of the Best U.S. immigration Lawyers in America.

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Episode Transcript

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Unknown (00:00):
On today's episode of investing in the American Dream
podcast, we have featured guestimmigration attorney Ed Bashara.
Interviewed by guest host PeterHelLand. Mr. Bashara has
exclusively been practicing USimmigration law and offering
immigration guidance andsolutions since 1983. Based out
of Orlando, Florida, he hasrepresented many clients from

(00:22):
all over the world in regards totheir business and family US
visa goals. He is also a valuedmember of EB five investors
magazine, and was recognizednationally as being one of the
best US Immigration Lawyers inAmerica. During this episode,
Mr. Bashara shares his thoughtson how the EB five visa program

(00:42):
compares to alternative visaprograms from its cost
efficiency and overall benefitsto the process of immigrating to
the United States. Mr. Basharaalso provides his thoughts on
past and current EB five trends,his outlook on the future of EB
five, and how he has helped manyinvestors choose the right visa
program for them.

(01:03):
Let's get into it.
And I want to thank you so muchfor joining us today. We're
extremely happy to have you withus. Well, it's a pleasure
joining you. And I'm sure thatwe'll have a
lively and worthwhilediscussion. I agree. So it's no

(01:27):
secret that you have representedcorporate and individual clients
from many different countriesworldwide in regards to their
business and family US visagoals. However, what today all
about EB five and its visaprogram. I wanted to start off
by asking, When did you firstget involved with the EB five
visa program? Well, you know,it's sometimes I find it hard to

(01:49):
believe that I've been anattorney for 45 years, and
practicing US immigration for39. But we definitely started to
represent clients in the EB fivespace back in 1991. In fact,
9192, we had our first EB fiveinvestor, it was a direct

(02:12):
investor investing. I believethat that time 1 million US
dollars into a hotel project, hewas able to show that he was
going to create 10 full timejobs, which he did. And within
the year, he was able to obtainpermanent residency, conditional
by the way conditionalresidency. So it was a very good
first experience with an EB fiveinvestor. And then over the

(02:37):
years, we started to see more EBfive investors, especially
especially since 2007 2008, westarted to see more investors
come to our firm and be involvedin the EB five program, either
direct or regional center.
That's great. Soalong with all that history, how

(02:58):
is the EB five visa programdifferent from some of these
other visa programs that someinvestors are keen to get into?
I think that basically, ifsomeone wanted to be very
passive,as a candidate for residency,
then the EB five program is agood program for them, of

(03:21):
course, they still have to havethe minimum investment
requirement. But if they said tome, Well, look, we just want to
sit back, put our moneysomewhere, as if they were
investing in bonds, orsecurities, and we want to let
the money sit there, and theneventually get the residency
cards for themselves, theirspouses and children. Well, this

(03:41):
is the way to go. It's passive,they can be involved a little
bit in management, decisions,policy decisions, but if they
trust the project, which iscould be a regional center
project, they trust the peoplebehind the operations, the
entrepreneurs, there's a longhistory, maybe your success of
the business operation in thehotel, for example, it can be

(04:02):
passive, and that's how it'sgonna be different to other visa
programs, but to the benefit ofthe investor that wants to go
that way. Also, more predictablesometimes where you can say,
Look, you know, I'm nottrying to get a green card
through a job offer, then I haveto see if there's any US workers
that are available for the job,that sometimes it's not

(04:25):
predictable. So this ispredictable, you know, I'm
making an investment. I'mputting the money into a project
or the my own project or someoneelse's project that's managed by
other people that experience andso those are the big differences
of why an investor would chooseEB five. Right. And I know that
you just mentioned the minimuminvestment requirement. What are

(04:49):
some of the qualifications thatmake a potential investor
eligible for an EB five visa?
Yeah, I think thatBasically, if we're looking at
what the investor has to commit,as far as their funds to the
investment,you've got areas that can be

(05:09):
classified as target employmentareas, or rural areas. And so
there are definitions. Usuallythe economist will say to the
project less analyze with thedata that they have available as
to whether an area is consideredto be a target employment area
or area of high unemployment. Ifit is, well, then the investor

(05:31):
can make the minimum investment,which today is 800,000. But if
it's not in a rural area, ortight employment area, well,
then they have to make theinvestment of $1,050,000. But
it's not much of a differencereally, today, it used to be a
big difference at one time,though, of course, was the
difference between 500,000 and 1million. At one time in November

(05:52):
of 2019, the minimum was 900.
But then the maximum non TA andrural, non rural areas 1.8
million. So we're back to asituation that we haven't seen
since he first started where thedifference between a minimum
investment amount and themaximum is only right now.

(06:13):
200,000. Right?
So would you say that EB five isthe most cost efficient
investment employment visaprogram, if we talking about,
you know, there's different waysthat people can obtain residency
either through a family based,you could be married to a US
citizen, yourparent, your parents of a US

(06:36):
citizens, etc. So with thefamily based process, of course,
it's not expensive, you know,when you're looking at paying
for the attorneys fees, and thenjust paying for the government
filing fees. But if you'relooking at employment based,

(06:56):
if you're going through aprocess of company saying well,
I want to offer you a job,and see if there's any value for
us workers, well, then, ofcourse, that's not that
expensive if you're extraordinary, and you are a famous
tennis player or soccer player,and you can show the government
that you're on the top 1% ofyour, that's not really
expensive. But when we'relooking at business related

(07:19):
processes, employment basedbusiness related processes, even
if you're looking at thetemporary business place,
processes, you're looking at EBfive as being the least
expensive. And I'll give you oneexample. There's a process by
which foreign nationalsexecutives or managers cannot

(07:43):
obtain permanent residency, ifthey are transferred from their
parent company, which could be aholding company in their own
country, or another country, andthey transferred to a US
subsidiary.
In those situations to createthe US of surgery.
A lot of money has to be spentsometimes $2 million, as an

(08:07):
example, because the way thatyou can get approved through a
business related and this isemployment based intercompany
transfer is that a lot of moneyhas to be spent on either a new
setup in the US, or buying anexisting business or even
maintaining an existingbusiness. And the basis for me

(08:29):
saying that is that you've gotthe requirement that if you want
to be transferred into the US,as an executive of Manager,
which will be the basis for youobtaining residency of the US,
you have to show that you are anexecutive or manager according
to the USCIS policies anddirectives.

(08:51):
They want you to be able to saythat I'm an executive or CEO as
an example of VP. And myinteraction is with other higher
level managers and executives.
So that means that you'relooking at payroll alone, for
having an organizationalhierarchy to support an
executive transfer could be, asI said, a million or two or

(09:12):
three to either be in thatsituation to put yourself in
that situation or to maintainit. So that is a lot more
expensive to do an intercompanytransfer and qualify for
residency as an executive thanto have a set amount with a say
200,000 or 1,000,050. In an EBfive regional center project,
lot less expensive. Yeah. Yeah,you make a lot of great points

(09:36):
there. And now obviously,there's a lot of moving parts of
this program, as I'm sure thelisteners can predict. So how do
you as a lawyer yourself, helppotential investors through this
process?
Our law firm has done both youknow, we've created the

(09:59):
documentaryAsian with the team of
professionals to qualify aproject either under a direct EB
five or a regional center EBfive. We've done that for many
years. But if an investorapproaches us and says, Mr.
Bashara, we would like to investin an EB five project. First of
all, we have set of questionsfor the investor.

(10:22):
More likely than not they bebecome our client through an
agreement representation. And wewill say less introduce you to
Eb five projects that we believecredible, their experience have
had a good track record, andthat they are
complying with the new laws.
Right. So if we feel as thoughthat the integrity provisions

(10:45):
will be complied with, and wewill say to the investor, we're
going to provide some duediligence, when we introduce you
to the project, we will be ableto offer you immigration advice
as to whether this project wouldbe able to be approved by USCIS
from an immigration standpoint.

(11:07):
But we would say to theinvestor, you have to make your
own investment decision orbusiness, we cannot offer you
investment advice. So I'm surethere are, you know, investment
advisors and broker dealers thatcan offer that independent
advice to the investor if theyso wish. So we would might have
to ask a number of questions tothe investor, which project Do

(11:29):
you have they like, you know,they've been introduced? And
then at the same time, we'redoing that we are asking the
investor? How did they get theirfunds to invest in the project?
Because we have to authenticatetheir funds, and show that they
came from lawful sources andlegitimate sources, right.
So we have to authenticate that.
So if they convincing us that,yes, the money is coming from

(11:53):
authenticated sources, then wehave to ask them to provide the
documentation to support thatprocess to support that source.
And once we have talked to theinvestors about authenticating
these sorts of funds, about thetype of project they want to
invest in, how much they want toinvest. And again, as I said,
usually this is done, you know,as they are our client, then we

(12:17):
can spend the time and talkingto them, introducing them to the
projects, they make a decision,and then we can move forward.
But again, I think that the onlyway that an investor can get
really good advice is go toattorneys that have the
experience and expertise to beable to advise them correctly.

(12:39):
Yeah, absolutely. And I knowthat you mentioned some projects
there. And I just want to realquick mention our brand new
callus project that FPP haslaunched and we're partners with
montage and Pendry. And it's agreat, great project. It's an
$800,000, minimum investmentamount of over 40 jobs for

(13:00):
investor, a single census tractT, EA and a lot, a lot of great
things about it. We actuallyhave a previous podcasts on it,
and you can learn more about itthere. Well, we've been working
with the first public partnersince 2007 2008. And we've had
many investors that haveapproached us that we have

(13:22):
introduced to first pathwaypartners. And of course, you
know, nine, Bob and Dan, Jessicafor many, many years. Yeah,
well, a lot of history there. Alot of great, great
partnerships. So getting back ontrack to the EB five visa, are
you seeing any trends in the EBfive industry? Or are you seeing

(13:44):
more or less interest frominvestors looking to come
through to the United States?
Under this new law? Yes, I seethat, you know, the trend has
been, you know, we had close to100,000, maybe five investors in
total,around about 2020. And then now
we're seeing the trend.

(14:09):
I think that 2019 When theminimums went up, you know, to
800 1900 1001 point 8 million.
We saw it a little bit of adrop, then we had COVID There
was another drop, and then Juneof 2021, we saw another drop
because the program lapsed. Andthen now we've seen the
resurgence as of March of thisyear, right because of the new

(14:32):
Ria,the reform Integrity Act, which
is the new EB five program. Sowe're seeing a couple of things
happen right now. There are manyeconomies in this world,
unfortunately, that arecollapsing. You know, some in
Europe, some in South America,some in Asia, back actually
collapsing. We've seen it. Sothe investors want to leave that

(14:54):
their own country and move toanother kind
Country and the US is one ofthose countries that, of course,
is number one on their list, youknow, standard living quality of
life, you know, not only forthemselves, but especially for
their children is here. So thetrend that I'm seeing, and we
saw this trend back in2007 2008, when,

(15:18):
number one, some of theinvestors that wanted to go to
places like Canada and othercountries could not do so they
wanted to invest their money andmove to a country that would be
receptive to their move. Andthen we saw the fact that the
projects themselves at that timein 2008, there was a downturn in
the US economy. So the bigprojects, were looking for other

(15:42):
ways of fundingtheir developments, you know,
the, especially if they're atthe construction stage. So
because the EB five money wasnot that expensive compared to
bank funding.
And even today, bank funding ishard to get in. It's extensive,
EB five, where it's, you know,maybe 1% 2%, three, or 4%,

(16:05):
on their rate of return, is alot less expensive than
traditional funding.
So the trend that we see now isthat the people still want to
come to the US. And they have ameans by which they can get
residency, the projectsthemselves are trying their best
to accommodate the investors. Sothat's a trend I see. But with

(16:28):
the new Ria, and I would like totalk about this a little bit
later. But with the new IRA, thetrend for what investors can do,
in pursuing the EB five,immigration process has changed
dramatically. So kind of goingoff of that. And everything
happening in the EB five worldwith modern events happening as

(16:49):
well.
As you know, there was a recentbig update in the world of EB
five, specifically, howinvestors can now file
by five to six e petitions 10days after the regional center
files their i 956. F projectapplications. How do you think

(17:11):
this will affect EB fiveinvestors in their respective
regional centers? And do youthink this update will set a
precedent for a futurestreamlined EB five process?
Yeah, look, I think that the EBfive regional centers that are
very serious about wanting tomove forward with their
developments.

(17:34):
They want to be efficient, theywant to be effective. They also
want to make sure that USCIS isbehind their projects. And
that's why the 956 F is filedwas very similar to the old
exemplar 94 petitions. But theidea is to show the USCIS that

(17:54):
the project documentation is inorder
to show that they're complyingwith the EB five laws and
regulations and policies bysaying, here's the EB five
supporting documentation to notonly show that the project will
be approved from an immigrationEB five standpoint, but the
investors are protected theintegrity of the investors is

(18:16):
everything. So when theproject is filing the 956 F,
business plan, economic reportsecurities, offering documents,
information on fund management,etc, they're letting immigration
know that they're in compliancewith the new integrity board.
Now, the good news is thatonce you file that 956 With a
supporting documentation, youdon't have to wait for an

(18:40):
approval, you know, you file it,you show proof of filing. And
within 10 days, if you don't geta receipt, notice, then you can
show that you did file it, youknow through the caching of the
check that you sent in, or someother means, right, but the 10
days is the limit. So then theinvestors can file their five to
six petitions with the project.

(19:03):
I think the investors feelcomfortable. That and regional
center has gone to the troubleof filing the project
documentation. I think one daywhen USCIS becomes more
efficient, and they approved the956 F within 10 days, it would
be wonderful, because then itgives the investors more of a
comfort level that the USCIS hasapproved the project
documentation ahead of time. Theother I believe advantage and

(19:27):
yet time will tell whether thisis going to be the case. And I
think in the act, it says thatwe can do this, where when we
file the five to six epetitions, we won't have to file
all the project documentationthat was submitted with a 956 F.
Now that may be allowing us tobe a little bit more effective,

(19:49):
less time consuming in filingthe five to six e petition. But
even though it's in the law, wewanted to have feedback from
USCIS as to their policy inregard
To the filing. Right? Yeah. Sowe see this as a marvelous way
of protecting investors, andgiving the investors a comfort

(20:10):
level that the regional centerprojects are in compliance.
Right? You are exactly right.
And,you know, I kind of signals that
the EB five visa program isfully back in business. Oh, it's
definitely is, you know, we'reseeing many inquiries on a daily
basis. And, you know, it's, it'sreally, you know, not hard to

(20:32):
keep up. But it's mainly, we,instead of devoting an hour and
a half, sometimes to an initialconsultation with the investor,
we have to now invoke, you know,probably only provide 30
minutes, and then they sign upwith us, and then we move
forward. But the other thingthat is tremendous, as far as a
trend is that there's so many1000s of investors already in

(20:55):
the US, right, and they are in aprocess where they could be a
visitor, it could be a student,they could be the beneficiary of
another employment basedcategory. And these processes,
the employment based categorymay take a long time, because
the priority dates are notcurrent, let's say for China or
for India. And it's gonna takelonger for them to get

(21:19):
residency, maybe eight years, 10years, etc. And so instead of
waiting to get a green card orpermanent residency through a
job offer, and those investorsare jumping in to the EB five
program, and they say, Okay, nowwith the new law Ria, not only
can we now jump to a five to sixpetition, but at the same time

(21:40):
we're filing the five to sixpetition also apply concurrently
with the application forconditional residency, and the
Employment Authorizationapplication and the permission
to travel. So we don't have towait for the five to six
petition to be approved. As longas it's filed, we can currently
file now application for thegreen card. And those are for

(22:01):
not only those individuals thathave a long wait in another
category, but all those otherindividuals that are in the US
as non immigrants, but theylegitimately here with a true
intent to be an unknownimmigrant students, visitors,
people that are here as nonimmigrants running their own
small business. Now they canjump into EB five and

(22:22):
concurrently for otherapplications delivering care.
Absolutely, that's great.
There's a lot of there's a lotof moving parts of this again,
and investors might be concernedwith the amount of money that
they're spending on investmentsand fees and all that other
stuff. So how well does the EBfive visa program protect

(22:44):
investors wealth? Well, well, Ithink that, you know, that by
investing in a project, theinvestors are realizing that
they have to invest their funds,whether it's 800,000, or
1,050,000, with a project andtheir investment has to be at
risk 100%.

(23:05):
So that's why it's veryimportant for the investors to
do due diligence, not only onthe immigration compliance, that
the projectwill be involved in, as far as
making sure there's immigrationcompliance, but there's also the
investment decision to invest ina project where the players in

(23:26):
the project, you know, theentrepreneurs, the people that
own the operations, the Will Itcould be hotels or warehouses
etc. What is their background?
What is their credibility, whatis their success rate. So when
the investor is making aninvestment decision, they want

(23:46):
to make sure that when theyplace their funds, which are at
risk, that the funds are goingto be maintained, the projects
are going to be credible enough,they're going to be financially
successful, and that the moneyis going to be somewhat
preserved and use the right wayin the project. So more or less
if the project is going to befinancially viable. Well, then,

(24:08):
at the end of their conditionalresidency, when it comes time to
see an exit strategy when theinvestors could possibly see a
return of capital, that theprojects are either going to get
refinancingof the project or to sell the
project and then those funds aregoing to filter their way back
to the investor which they canlegally see a return of,

(24:31):
of capital,not the original capital, but a
return of capital based upon thefinancial viability of the
project.
So they can see that their moneycan be preserved, even though
they might not make a lot ofmoney, but it's preserved so
that they can get a green card.
The other way that they canreserve the capital and a lot of
clients say, Look, we want toleave that country, you know,
the value of their own currencyis being reduced compared to the

(24:54):
American US dollar. SoSo what we may suggest is that
they can invest either in theirown country or the US into other
wealth management andpreservation products. They can
invest in real estate. In theUS, they can invest in real
estate, they can spend a millionor two on a house, which they

(25:17):
can live in, then at the sametime, they can go to a mortgage
company get borrowed funds onthe house that they just pay
cash for, and use those borrowedfunds towards their EB five
investment in the project. Soeven though the investment in
the project is at risk, and nota large red return, by putting
their money first into a home asan example, that home is going

(25:41):
to increase in value over thenext several years. Right,
right. Which is great. Theycould invest in real estate
homes or townhomes, where theypay cash, they take the money
out, put in Eb five, and yet,there's a management company
that will rent out these homes,either short term rental income
or long term rental income, andthen making money on the assets

(26:02):
a purchase as an example in theUS. In addition, I can go to a
bank, and I can put their moneyfirst into securities into
bonds, right? And they can say,Okay, we put our money here,
there's great rate of return onsecurities and bonds and money
market accounts. And then theygo to the bank and say, Look, we

(26:25):
want to borrow against theassets that we just purchased,
and we make money on and thebanks will say, Fine, what cash
do you need? Here's a catch. Andthen the investor will say to
the banks, do we need to pay youback? No, the banks don't have
to have a payment from theinvestor back to them for the
money they borrowed. Because thebanks, what they're going to do

(26:46):
is looking at the return therate of return, and the interest
that's been made, and use thatinterest to pay the banks back
on what was borrowed to theinvestor. So you've got
different ways and means bywhich the investors can preserve
their wealth.
Right. So they either preservetheir wealth by investing in a

(27:08):
good solid EB five project, likefirst pathway and some other EB
five regional center projectsout there, or, or they invest in
wealth management productsfirst, and then take the money
out, then to put into the EBfive, right, yeah, you made a
lot of great points there. AndMr. Bashar, I want to thank you
so much for joining us. Andbefore before you leave us, I

(27:30):
want to ask you one more finalquestion. What are some
recommendations that you havefor investors looking to
immigrate to the United States?
I think the first, the bestrecommendation is that, first of
all, we have to do it. Wheninvestors come to us we do
what's called a first stepanalysis. We sit them down in
zoom call, they're in theoffice. And we have to ask, what

(27:54):
are their goals? You know, whatare their goals for themselves?
Do they have children, they haveminor children. And we always
recommend that they do seek theservices of an experienced EB
five immigration attorney withthe expertise that they always
invest in, they're going to doit in an EB five regional center
project, again, what we said,make sure that they invest in a

(28:17):
credible project that's incompliance with the integrity
provisions. And that has thefinancial capability of
protecting the well. But we alsorecommend that they see other
professionals, not just the fiveattorney, but that, you know, we
and we've done this since dayone since 1983. Since I've been
practicing, we recognize whatwe're capable of as immigration

(28:40):
lawyers. But we also recognizethat there are other
professionals that haveexpertise that can help
investors, a CPA certifiedpublic accountant that
specializes in tax planning,international tax planning, the
corporate attorney thatrecognizes that they may want to
buy a house or a real estateattorney, or they may want to

(29:02):
buy a business besides doing theEB five. So there are other
professionals,bank managers, other
professionals, lawyers,accountants,
that can help the investor whenthey are planning on making the
move. So they could be part ofthe team of professionals.

(29:24):
Right, right. The investors haveto realize that they may have
been successful in their owncountry, but now they're moving
to a new country, and they needprofessional team members to be
able to advise them correctlycredibly, and that they have the
expertise and experience to beable to say to the investors,
this is the way that you shouldmake the move to the US. You're

(29:45):
absolutely right. The investorsdo need to take advantage of all
the resources that are at theirdisposal, including Austin with
you Mr. Bashara, but um, Iagain, I want to say thank you
so much for joining us.
I know that we covered a lot ofinformation and a lot, a lot of
great information. You know, theEB five program is fully back in

(30:07):
business. I know that you'reexcited, I know that we're
excited. And we can't wait tosee what the future holds for
not only us and you but for ourfellow investors as well. Thank
you very much for having us. Andremember the last word in self
help is help get the rightpeople to advise you and the

(30:29):
right people that you want toinvest with.
If you would like to know moreabout first pathway partners,
and how they can help you with adirect EB five investment, or if
you're looking for other visaopportunities, such as an E two
visa, please contact themdirectly online at www dot first

(30:51):
pathway.com
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