CRI听力:U.S Investment Immigration Increases in Popularity among Chinese

Chinese investment immigration has become an important financing method for more than half of the developers in New York.

Many high-end residential communities in the U.S. are being built with investment largely from Chinese investment immigration applicants.

One such community in New York is being built with a 30 percent Chinese immigrant investor stake.

Expected to provide 1,600 jobs for neighboring areas, this New York property project is only a start for Jonathan Rabinow, investment director of the property project.

"And because this project has gone so well and this development has gone so well, we are about to embark upon our second EB-5 project which is gonna be just about 20 minutes north of here."

The investment immigration plan, named Employment Based Fifth Preference, or EB-5, stipulates that foreign investors can apply for green cards by investing 500,000 US dollars or more and providing at least 10 jobs.

EB-5 was launched in 1990 and the number of applicants have soared up in the last four years.

The number of green cards issued through the EB-5 program grew from nearly two thousand in the fiscal year 2010 to more than ten thousand in 2014.

Jason Jia, an investment immigration lawyer with Yerman & Associates, says the surge in Chinese investment immigration is because of the growth of Chinese high-income earners and the growing employment demands of Chinese overseas students.

"Investment immigration may be the only method for many Chinese families to get green cards if they do not have relatives or jobs in the U.S. This is because Investment immigration has no requirements for language skill, educational background, or work experience."

As the EB-5 act expires in September, the U.S congress may prolong the EB-5 act, and increase the investment requirement to 800,000 US dollars.

It may also require stricter auditing and supervision due to some fraud occurrences with EB-5.

Based on the statistics provided by non-profit organization "Invest in the USA," EB-5 brought the U.S. some 1.5 billion US dollars of investment and 31,000 jobs in 2013.

Peter D. Joseph, executive director of Invest In the USA, says he believes the U.S. congress will continue to support EB-5 as an important financing method.
He adds that judicial oversight is needed to protect the interests of investors.

"This program has grown quickly as it has, as we discussed earlier, a 700 percent growth in about a six year time period. Investors are also protected by U.S. laws when they are investing in United States, and the federal government here in the U.S. has shown that they are willing to fight for investors when they step in, and if people are trying to take advantage of investors, they'll have to face the long arm of justice here in the U.S."

For CRI, I'm Qian Shanming.