Regional Centers and the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program
The immigrant Investor Pilot Program was created by Section 610 of Public Law 102-395 (October 6, 1992). This is different in certain ways from the basic EB-5 Investor Program.
How The Pilot Program And Regional Centers Fall Within The EB-5 Investor Requirements
The requirements for an investor under the Pilot Program are essentially the same as in the basic EB-5 investor program except that the Pilot Program allows for a less restrictive requirement for “indirect” job creation rather than “direct” job creation. The capital investment requirement for any EB-5 investor, inside or outside of a Regional Center is $1 million. The capital investment requirement for an EB-5 investor in a Targeted Employment Area (TEA) or a Rural Area (RA) is $500,000.
Indirect Job Creation: An important advantage to obtaining Regional Center designation is the “indirect” nature of the job creation, which is less difficult to achieve than the “direct” creation of 10 new jobs. The requirement of creating at least 10 new full-time jobs may be satisfied by showing that, as a result of the investment and the activities of the new enterprise, at least 10 jobs will be created indirectly through an employment creation multiplier effect. To show that 10 or more jobs are actually created indirectly by the business, reasonable methodologies may be used, such as multiplier tables, feasibility studies, an alyses of foreign and domestic markets for the goods or services to be exported, and other economically or statistically valid forecasting tools which support the likelihood that the business will result in increased employment.