U.S.A. issued more than 6000 startup visas in 2013

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service issued record number of EB-5 popularly known as “startup” visas in 2013. Startup visas allow international travelers and their families to live in the

United States if they invest a minimum of USD 5, 00,000 in a company that produces at least 10 jobs within two years. For people who try to apply for green cards, they have to wait for these two years while the company investment is still standing.

 
Last year, the number of EB-5 visas crossed the six thousand mark reaching a figure of 6434, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. This is almost a 5 percent rise than the 2012. While startup visa applicants have risen in considerable number, the money acquired from these investors are use by big companies like Marriott International, Sony Pictures Entertainment to tap funding for their innovative projects.

 
About 80 percent of all EB-5 applications come from Chinese investors. The State Department has said that in 2014 it may establish a cutoff date for applications from China.

In 2012, about $2.5 billion was invested through the EB-5 program, creating an estimated 33,000 jobs. The EB-5 was known as the “immigrant investor” visa until 2012, when the immigration service began referring to it instead as the “alien entrepreneur” visa, leading to the current, much-catchier vernacular.