住宅类房地产项目，对于非EB-5投资非常好，然而，对于EB-5投资来说却是高风险。

在当今EB-5市场上有很多非常安全的项目。这些项目为EB-5投资人首先获得有条件绿卡从而尽早开始美国生活，接下来获得永久绿卡而继续无忧无虑地生活在美国提供了很好的媒介。但是，在EB-5项目里还有一类，大大的增加了投资人想要通过EB-5移民美国的风险，那就是住宅类房地产项目。

虽然美国的不动产对于非EB-5投资者来说是一个很好的长期投资，但是美国专家认为，由于美国移民局的排期政策和EB-5法律可能的变革，住宅类房地产项目已经不再适合EB-5。正因如此，许多专家建议EB-5投资人避免EB-5住宅类房地产项目，而选择投资BE-5中在其他行业范畴运作的，可以可靠地为投资人获得永久绿卡的项目。这些可靠的范畴包括投资EB-5酒店业和制造业。

接下来的文章重点阐述了投资EB-5住宅类不动产项目二大风险。

风险点1：住宅类房地产项目面临高不确定性：在转永久绿卡的时候需要满足移民局“可持续投资”的要求。

住宅类房地产项目的EB-5投资人面临的最大风险是他们的I-829（转永久绿卡）申请将不会获批。美国移民局明确规定投资人50万美元投资款在I-829审理阶段必须继续投资于产生就业的公司。但是，大多数住宅类房地产开发商将会在三到四年内出售给第三方。一旦住宅类房地产开发商将项目出售，EB-5投资人的资金将不再被认为继续投资在项目里；这笔钱将被放在银行账户上，而这将不符合移民局对于审批通过I-829的标准。这是住宅地产类EB-5项目的极大的缺陷；EB-5投资人将仍旧会得到I-526，临时绿卡的批准（因为以上的标准不适用于I-526阶段），所以这些投资人将能够拿到临时绿卡并开始在美国的生活。但他们在美国开始生活三年之后他们将面临很不好的消息，他们的I-829转永久绿卡的申请将被拒绝。

投资人也要小心住宅类开发商承诺公寓建成之后不进行出售。大多数的公寓需要2-3年的时间建成。一般开发商在公寓建成后将马上进行出售，因为从未使用过的公寓在市场上往往能卖出更高的价钱。开发商基本不会先将公寓出租一段时间，因为出租过的公寓一般会在价值上受到负面的影响，也会影响之后出售的价格。对EB-5投资人不出售公寓住宅的承诺也会造成很多法律上的问题，这样的承诺会使得开发商在未来的法律诉讼上占到优势，以后任何对开发商的诉讼都将有很大的可能败诉。所以，尽管开发商愿意做出这样的承诺，也不代表他们未来会遵守这样的承诺。尤其是当投资人I-829被拒之后，开发商早已将项目出售给第三方。

一般来说，其他类型的项目就不会面临这样的风险。例如酒店类项目，一般由精通酒店行业的开发商来开发并且持续经营该项目。就像制造业类型的EB-5项目一般会投入到制造本身。

风险点2：房地产项目并不能创造大量的工作岗位，所以对于投资者在转换永久绿卡的时候并不可靠。

为了获得您的I-829批准，每一个投资者的投资款必须产生至少10个或以上的全日职工作岗位，对于像工厂，酒店，医院这些类型的行业是比较容易的。以上类型的产业前期工作岗位的产生通常是在施工建设时通过雇用劳工，后期则是通过商业运营产生的。但是对于房地产项目所产生的工作岗位只会停留在前期施工，一旦施工结束，在大多数情况下开发商是不会运营这些地产项目的。

所以相对非EB-5投资比例来比较，他们必须将EB-5的投资比例降低。目前面临的一个问题则是国会认为并且要求增加EB-5投资比例，如果这一提案被通过，住宅类房地产项目都将面临这一困境，住宅类的房地产项目相对来讲，由于不能产生大量的工作岗位，所以开发商不能将EB-5的投资比例大幅度增加。与此同时，假如这一提供最终被通过，这类项目将不能满足国会的要求。

作为快速移民美国的重要渠道，美国EB-5投资移民政策历来备受国内买家欢迎。不过，尽管EB-5投资移民要求低，但整个过程要涉及区域中心资质、投资项目选取、办理流程等诸多专业问题。为帮助国内投资者更好地了解美国EB-5投资移民政策，居外网将会陆续推出EB-5的系列专业解读文章，帮助大家更顺利的申请。如果您对美国EB-5有疑问或问题，欢迎致电居外网专业服务热线400-041-7515咨询。

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 （点击下一页查看英文原文）

There are very many safe projects on the EB-5 market right now.  These projects provide a terrific vehicle for EB-5 investors to first obtain their conditional green card so they can begin living in the US as soon as possible and later obtain their permanent green card so they can continue living in the U.S. for as long as they wish.

However, there is one category of EB-5 projects that raises huge risks for investors wanting to immigrate to the US through EB-5: real estate projects.

While real estate in the United States are a great long-term investment for non-EB-5 investors, experts around the United States agree that real estate projects are no longer suited to EB-5 both because of USCIS retrogression policies and because of possible changes to the EB-5 law. It is for this reason that many experts recommend that EB-5 investors avoid EB-5 real estate projects, and instead invest in EB-5 projects operating in other industry categories that can reliably obtain for investors their permanent green cards.  Such reliable categories include hotels and manufacturing.

The following article highlights two major risks of investing in EB-5 real estate projects.

Risk No. 1: Real Estate Projects Face High Uncertainty Re: Permanent Green Card Approval Because Face Hurdles In Satisfying USCIS “Sustainment of Investment” Rules

The most notable risk raised by EB-5 real estate projects is that their EB-5 investors will not get their I-829 (permanent green card application) approved.   USCIS policy states clearly that an investor’s 500,000 capital investment must remain invested in the job creating enterprise at the time the investor’s I-829 is adjudicated.  However, most real estate developers will complete their project and sell it to a third party within three to four years.  Once the real estate developer sells the project, the EB-5 investor’s money is no longer considered to be invested in the project; the money is instead simply sitting in the developer’s bank account and this does not qualify under USCIS rules for approving I-829 approvals.  This is a significant new defect in EB-5 real estate projects; EB-5 investors who ignore it will still get their I-526 conditional green card application approved (because the above rule does not pertain to I-526 approvals) and therefore the EB-5 investor will be able to begin their life in the United States.  But three or so years after they begin living in the US they will face the bad news that their I-829 application to convert their conditional green card into a permanent green card has been denied.

Investors should also beware of promises by developers not to see condominium projects.  Most condominium construction projects require roughly 2-3 years to be built. When a developer completes a residential condominium project, the developer will almost always sell those condominiums as soon as they are complete, as new previously un-used apartments fetch high prices on the market.  A developer would be very unlikely to choose to rent such apartments for a period of time, since renting an apartment tends to devalue the apartment and make it more difficult to sell for a premium price later on.  A promise by a developer to a EB-5 investor not to sell the projects raises complicated legal questions that could very likely prevent any viable legal suit from being raised against the developer.  Since this is the case, developers might be willing to make the promise even though the developer doesn’t plan on abiding by it.  This is especially true because by the time the investor learns their I-829 has been denied, the developer will have long ago completed the project and sold it to a third party.

Typically, other types of projects don’t face this risk.  Hotels, for instance, are usually built by developers who specialize in hotel management and typically keep their hotel properties.  Likewise, EB-5 investment in manufacturing projects is typically invested into the manufacturing enterprise itself.

RISK No 2:  Real Estate Projects Cannot Create Lots of Jobs and Therefore Are Unreliable Vehicles for Investors Trying to Obtain their Permanent Green Card Approval

In order to obtain your I-829 approval, an investor’s capital investment must be shown to have created a minimum of 10 full time jobs.  This is usually easy for enterprises like factories, hotels and hospitals.  These types of projects create jobs first by hiring workers to construct the relevant buildings, and then they further create jobs by hiring workers to operate as a commercial entity.  Real estate projects, on the other hand, only hire workers for construction.  Once construction is complete, they do not in most cases get to claim any operation jobs.  Because of this, real estate projects do not create very many jobs, and they there must keep their EB-5 capital ratio low in comparison to non-EB-5 investment in the project.  The problem with this is that Congress is now looking at ways to require that projects have high EB-5 ratios.  If such bills are passed, real estate projects will face difficulty: on one hand, they cannot have too high of a EB-5 ratio because they don’t create lots of jobs; on the other hand, Congress might pass a law that effectively requires EB-5 ratios to be pegged at higher levels than real estate projects can support.