In the last few years there has been a tremendous increase in the popularity of the EB-5 Program. More regional centers were created and more developers started turning to the EB-5 Program to find investors. This increased the number of projects available in the EB-5 marketplace for investors to choose from.

With so many choices in the EB-5 marketplace, investors and their agents have to narrow down their criteria for choosing the best projects.

To gain insight into the EB-5 marketplace, it's important to look at what criteria EB-5 investors and agents use to select projects to invest in or promote.

The primary goals of the EB-5 investor are to receive a green card and to receive their money back from their investment. How they do that is by looking at the following 5 factors:

1. Job creation success

• Do the economic models point to strong job creation?
• Is there a job creation buffer?

2. Market demand for this new commercial enterprise

• Is there research or are there models showing the demand for this project?
• What is the competition like?
• When looking at where the project will be located, what is the local economy like?

3. Conservative future forecasts

• Investors are primarily concerned with job creation and getting their money back
• Projects that project high revenue are more likely to look too risky for EB-5 investors

4. Escrow terms that favor the investor

• This includes refunds for investors who's petitions are denied
• Investors want an escrow deal that won't release their funds into the project until the project's business plan is USCIS approved

5. A strong EB-5 team

• Investors and agents look for regional centers that have a strong history of success and quality
• They look for reputation and knowledge of the industry and project field
• They want a professional team, not one individual who's going to act as the immigration lawyer, business planner, and bank