United States EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program
- Processing time
- 24–48 months
- Physical presence
- A green card is a residence you must actually keep: extended absences can be treated as abandonment. Conditions are removed after two years, and naturalisation becomes possible after five years of permanent residence, with substantial physical presence.
- Family
- One investment covers the investor, a spouse and unmarried children under 21.
See the investment routes and what each one really costs →
Limits and drawbacks
- A green card makes you a US tax resident on your worldwide income — the heaviest and most far-reaching tax net on this list — and leaving later can trigger an expatriation “exit tax”. This is the single biggest thing to plan for.
- The capital is genuinely at risk: the project must create at least ten jobs, and your money is not a deposit. Choosing the project and regional centre well is everything.
- Timelines are long — commonly two to four years — and far longer for nationals of backlogged countries such as China and India.
- It demands real US residence; you cannot treat the green card as a flag to collect and ignore without risking its loss.
What it gets you
- A US green card leading, after five years, to one of the world’s most powerful passports
- The right to live, work and study anywhere in the United States, for the whole family
- No language, age or business-management requirement
- Rural targeted-area projects receive priority processing