The fifth employment based visa preference category was created to encourage foreign investment in the United States by providing a permanent resident visa if the investment meets certain criteria. To date, the approval application is one of the shortest, and the eligibility criteria are less restrictive than other U.S. immigration programs.

 

In order to encourage foreign investors to invest in the U.S. and create new jobs, in 1990, Congress enacted the "Immigrant Investor Program" and the immigration category known as EB-5. Investment for the EB-5 category is generally $ 1,000,000. If the investment project is located in a U.S. low employment area, it can be reduced to $ 500,000. The condition for the applicant is to invest $ 1,000,000 or $ 500,000 U.S. dollars in a U.S. company which creates ten jobs. The applicant will then obtain a two-year conditional green card. Ninety days before the two year period expires, the investor may apply to lift access conditions and receive an official green card to become a permanent U.S. resident.

 

Investors can meet the conditions by a direct investment in projects or enterprises, or through a regional center investment. Regional centers are certified by the federal government based on geographic areas. Regional centers may be a private investment company, or regional government agency. In order to speed up the project approval and meet demand for a project or investment through a regional center, the federal government provides 10,000 EB-5 investment green cards per year; 3,000 of which are directly assigned to regional center investments for foreign nationals.

The Oregon Regional Center is pending approval through the USCIS.