EB-5 FILES

Costly path-to-citizenship program comes under fire

The most scandal-plagued US visa program lives on because Congress is too busy to fix it

[W]hile it was originally well-intended, the EB-5 program has too often been prone to instances of fraud and abuse, with foreign investors exploiting our system, undermining our laws and ultimately buying their way to citizenship without fulfilling their required contributions to the American economy as required by law.

Federal agency terminates scandal-plagued Vermont EB-5 Regional Center

Integrity measures outlined in pending Department of Homeland Security laws and past reform bills floated in Congress could help root out cases of abuse of the program before they spiral out of control. But there are few signs that the government is moving any closer to such reform.

Kushner Cos., the New York property development business owned by the family of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, has been subpoenaed by New York federal prosecutors regarding its use of an investment-for-immigration program, according to people familiar with the matter.

Father-Daughter Duo Accused of EB-5 Visa Fraud: Pair allegedly helped obtain visas for Chinese nationals, some of whom are on country’s ‘100 Most Wanted’ fugitive list

As far back as 2013, the Office of the Inspector General, which is charged with weeding out waste and abuse in the federal government, reported that USCIS lacked the authority to crack down on fraud.

One of the biggest problems, experts say, is that investors can put money into projects like Hudson Yards and earn a green card without actually creating very many jobs, at least not directly.

The most serious concerns raised by whistleblowers centered on national security. Internal records show officials inside the Department of Homeland Security had begun looking into the possibility that the EB-5 program was “abused by Iranian operatives to infiltrate the United States.”

The dark, disturbing world of the visa-for-sale program

Most of the projects that get EB-5 financing would have been built anyway, though it might have cost their developers more.

an examination of the program by The New York Times suggests that in New York, developers and state officials are stretching the rules to qualify projects for this foreign financing.