US Immigrant Investors Visa Program Ill-Managed, Needs Improvement

There is much to be done in the US EB-5 visa program - visa cases are not very well managed, accounting for only 0.2 percent of new foreign investment to the United States.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Alexander Mosesov — The US EB-5 visa program for immigrant investors is not very well managed and needs to be improved, experts told Sputnik on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, mistakes made by government officials were discovered by ABC News investigators after five different whistleblowers from the Department of Homeland Security spoke with them about a range of EB-5 approved visa cases.

David North, a senior fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, described the EB-5 program as "an international investment program run by a police agency" adding that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is "badly cast to do this sort of thing [attraction of investments]."

The expert added that the EB-5 program accounts for approximately 0.2 percent of new foreign investment to the United States, being "a drop in the bucket."

"It is a very small, not very successful, not very well designed program," North said, adding that EB-5 is gainful only for the middleman, who invests the assets into various small businesses across the United States, not necessarily in the regions where such investments and job opportunities are urgently needed, the so-called "depressed areas."

As for the people, who apply for EB-5 visas, Muzaffar Chishti, the director of the Migration Policy Institute's office at the New York University School of Law, told Sputnik that some of them are "just using it [EB-5] principally as a way to get Green Cards."

Chishti also said that "better checks on that kind of usage" are needed for the EB-5 to function better, at the same time noting that no generalizations should be made on the issue as an overwhelming number of the program's participants "would be and are contributing creatively" to the US economy.

US Department of Homeland Security press secretary told Sputnik on Wednesday that the EB-5 program was "primitive and under-developed" before the release of a 27-page EB-5 policy memorandum in May 2013 and the creation of a new program office, staffed by economic and security experts.

Since then, according to the DHS spokesperson, increased order, consistency, and integrity has been brought to the program, an opinion which runs counter with the views of experts.