In 1990, Congress created the EB-5 Regional Center Program, also known as the Immigrant Investor Program to attract investments from wealthy foreigner investors to boost the U.S. economy. These foreigners would invest in commercial enterprises that would create jobs for qualified U.S. workers.

In 1992, Congress created the EB-5 Regional Center Program to increase the economic impact of the EB-5 program. Regional Centers were created so that multiple foreign investors could pool capital for investment in USCIS-approved projects.

Regional Centers are publically or privately owned organizations designated and regulated by USCIS. They identify and invest in job-creating economic development opportunities in local communities. They market and utilize EB-5 funds to leverage more capital.

There is still risk involved. EB-5 investors must invest at minimum 1 million dollars in commercial enterprise in a city or at minimum $500,000 if the area for the commercial enterprise is in a rural or high-unemployment area.

Benefits of choosing a regional center to EB-5 applicants:

While EB-5 foreign investors cannot be passive in the his or her role, choosing to invest in a regional center, he or she may choose to become a advisory limited partner with the regional center, which would take the investor out the day to day responsibilities involved in the investment projects.

With these regional centers, EB-5 investors can not only create jobs in their businesses, but they are also creating jobs indirectly through the economic impact of their investments. Whereas, without the regional center, the EB-5 investor would be solely responsible for creating or developing a commercial enterprise that creates 10 full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers in 2 years. Investing in a regional center offers less restrictive job creation. It allows EB-5 investors to create direct, indirect and induced jobs.

By pooling together investments from multiple foreign EB-5 investors, regional centers can develop larger scale economic development projects. They usually create more jobs than the minimum 10 required by individual EB-5 investors, which is beneficial to the U.S. in the current difficult economic environment.

95% of EB-5 capital is raised and invested by EB-5 Regional Centers. There are 781 USCIS approved regional centers across the U.S.