Funding Diversity in the US - Show #98

Marko Issever is CEO of America EB5, a company that works with immigrants on getting a visa through an investment program.  I’ve known Marko for a few years and enjoyed having the time to learn more about the specific work he does.  It’s fascinating. 

Before diving deep into the EB5 visas, he explains the different types of visas a person can request for extended stays in the United States. 

First, they break down into immigrant versus non-immigrant. Non-immigrant visas include part time stays for students, tourists and part-time workers. 

Immigrant visas can be family based or employment based.  Employment based visas fall into five categories: 

EB1 – Exceptional people who are well known due to their accomplishments in academics or business, performances, or sports ability.  They are well known or featured in the news. They can self-sponsor to apply for a visa. 

EB2- Highly educated people that have at least a Masters Degree and have a job offer in an area that domestic companies have a hard time hiring. 

EB3- Nonskilled worker that are needed particularly in a needy or growing area. Again, the workers must have a job offer and apply.   

EB4 – Religious leaders such as Rabbis, Imams, and Priests can apply for a visa under this category. 

EB5 – Investors can apply under this visa to help stimulate employment in the US. 

 

The EB5 visa is the area that Marko specializes in and what we discussed in more depth.  It applies to global marketing as it offers people from around the world a chance to come to the United States to expand their community and bring their diverse experience to the US. 

Originally, the program offered a visa to a US immigrant who invested $1 million in a business and hired at least 10 people for at least 2 years.  This partially worked, but put a difficult burden on some investors who could invest the capital but had a hard time fulfilling the 10 employee requirement.   

The US kept this program but started another called the Regional Center Program (RCP) that has the authority to create opportunities with multiple investors to keep the international investments coming in, and also allow support in how the jobs are created. 

 

The RCP coordinates multiple investors to create bigger projects which is easier to create jobs. 

So, the visa applicant can work with a US developer and a bank to finance the project to create a financing tool with the following investments: 

EB5 visa applicant – 20% 

Developer – 20% 

Bank financed debt – 60% 

Marko says that the expected return is $5 for every $1 invested. 

 

It’s a win-win: 

• The developer hires the local people and runs the project which creates more stable jobs.  And they’re motivated to get the job done with favorable funding. 
• The bank wants secured projects with experienced and connected developers. 
• The EB5 investor can get the credit for hiring employees and thus receive a visa. 

 

For people outside the US, if you have $1.5 million dollars that you can invest for 5 years, you can apply for an EB5 visa and Marko can assist you in the practicalities of making it happen. 

We then discussed who are the people that apply for these visas.  Marko says that about 80% of them are families of students that are studying in the US.  The students can get a student visa but can’t work in the US after graduating.  By staying in the US for work, they get practical work experience and can earn higher wages. After spending $250k-300k for a US education, the higher salaries help increase the return on their educational investment.  If they return to their home countries, they may make a fraction of the salary.  By getting 3-5 years of entry level experience in the US, the graduates can return to their countries at a higher level so it’s a real advantage to get the US work experience. 

Parents with the means, invest the money to increase opportunities for their children.  

A person approved for an EB5 visa can bring in their spouse and children under 18 years old. On average, the EB5 applicants use 3 visas for each investment. 

With only 10,000 EB5s available each year, that means there are approximately 2500-3000 investors each year for about $1 million each. 

Marko said that historically, Chinese families received most of the EB5 visas. In 2004, the program was marketed to other countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia and Korea and limits were increased for the number of visas granted to each country.  

Chinese are still prominent in applying for the Visa but there is more diversity in applicants now. 

Recently, they instituted new guidelines to carve out projects for specific areas. 

1. Infrastructure – investments in large scale, and needed infrastructure. 
2. Rural – 200 visas were added for investors who want to focus on rural investment. This has no country restrictions. 
3. Standard – investment in areas where unemployment is 150% or higher than average. 

 

When I asked whether this was a program for rich people to buy their way into the United States, he explained that the typical family doing this has a net worth of about $3-10 million.  They decide to invest a substantial amount of their net worth into an opportunity for their child(ren).  If a family is extremely wealthy, they can do the original EB5 visa and invest $10-50 million and enter the US. The families utilizing this program anxiously wait to get their investment back.  It’s not just a one-sided benefit for the families. 

The US benefits from international investments, job creation, and funding for projects in areas that might be overlooked. 

With 2500-3000 investment visas, over 30,000 jobs are created in the US. 

The students who study in the US and then work with the EB5 visa are lawyers, medical professionals, doctors, IT experts and more.  Even if the EB5 visa is pending, companies can offer the graduates a job and hire highly qualified global citizens. 

After Marko graduated with an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, he had trouble getting a job having to answer the dreaded question…. Do you have authorization to work in the US?  He had to find a sponsor company that would help with the visa process.  The EB5 program changes that as students can say that the application is pending and the companies can hire them. 

The advantages of the EB5 program are tremendous: 

• Expands the high-quality talent pool for hiring managers in the US 

• Allows the hiring company to hire for merit and experience rather than just legal eligibility 
• Adds international experience to the domestic team 
• Gives a resource to open business in the new employee’s home country 
• Adds diversity of thought to the team which increases creativity, and innovation 

 

We ended the discussion on how he attracts new clients interested in EB5 visas.  He said that his website, www.americaeb5visa.com is translated into 25 languages.  He knows the importance of high quality translation so he had humans do the translation – he would not use Google Translate because the quality is not good enough. 

 

If you’d like to reach out to him to learn more, you can reach him on WhatsApp at 917-355-9251 or at info@americaeb5visa.com  or on his website at www.americaeb5visa.com 

 

 

   

Links: 

WhatsApp at 917-355-9251 or at info@americaeb5visa.com  or on his website at www.americaeb5visa.com 

Connect with Wendy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendypease/ 

Connect with Marko https://www.linkedin.com/in/markoissever/  

Music: Fiddle-De-Dee by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com