Select Highlights of the Interview with Mr. Lin from China
EB-5 Investor in the EB5AN Snake River Rural EB-5 Project
Full Interview with Mr. Lin from China
EB-5 Investor in the EB5AN Snake River Rural EB-5 Project
Transcript of the Interview with Mr. Lin (Chinese) from China
Hi, everyone. This is Sam Silverman, managing partner of EB5AN. Thank you for taking time to join us on today's webinar. Today, we're going to be speaking with a real EB-5 investor, Mr. Lin from China, who recently completed an EB-5 investment in our Snake River Sporting Club rural EB-5 project.
So with that, Mr. Lin, thank you again for joining us. Maybe to start could you tell us a little bit about your background, where are you from, and what’s your experience been with `{`the`}` United States so far?
Yeah, of course. Hi, I am Mr. Lin. I am from China. I was a law student in [the] U.S., and now I’m working. So far I’ve been in the U.S. for three, four years.
Got it. So you’ve been in the U.S. for a few years now pursuing law. What made you decide to pursue a path to permanent residency in the U.S. after your studies were completed and you had a chance to be in the workforce for a few years?
So two main reasons. One is that I have a job here, and I can see a clear career path for me in the United States. So naturally, I want to stay and remain indefinitely. Second is I see the potential that I can bring my parents to the U.S. when they retire. Of course, after I obtain permanent residency and become a citizen, I can apply [is for] Green Cards for them.
Got it. As you were exploring different options to stay in the U.S., what were some of the other options that you considered, and how did you kind of end up deciding on pursuing EB-5 specifically?
So I did the traditional F-1 student, OPT, H-1B path, but H-1B wasn’t successful, and I still wanted to stay. So that led me to the EB-5 program.
Got it, got it. And I’m sure as an attorney, you’ve done quite a bit of research on the program, the pros, the cons. Understood that finding an experienced … to help assemble your application, make sure that everything was well-documented, was really important for you. So could you share a little bit about what that experience was like, interviewing a few different attorneys, and who did you end up hiring and why, and how was that whole kind of attorney selection and process?
So I kind of talked to immigration attorneys from three, four different firms, different teams, and ended up with Mr. Yang from Reid & Wise.
There are several things that I considered. Well, first of all is there’s whether this attorney has experience in helping EB-5 investors. Second, you want an attorney that’s capable and independent. So what I did is that I personally reached out to different attorneys, and I did the choosing.
So far, the experience with Attorney Yang’s team and him has been great. They are very responsive. They’ve been helping out with my source of funds documents and answering all types of different questions.
Got it. One of the things that you mentioned there was the importance of hiring an independent attorney. And I’m sure as an attorney yourself, you have a little bit more understanding of the importance of that. But could you kind of elaborate a little bit more on why finding your own independent attorney was really important to you and why any investor considering an EB-5 investment in any project should really do exactly that, find an independent attorney to help them through the process?
Yeah, of course. I mean, this is a big investment, and you want an attorney that’s looking out for your interest and your interest alone. So finding an independent attorney means that there is someone looking out for you. They are not secretly helping out with other parties or thinking about other parties’ interest. I think that’s the key. That applies to any situation when you are hiring an attorney.
Got it, got it. And so having just gone through the attorney selection and source of funds documentation exercise, what are the couple—two or three—main pieces of advice that you would give to someone considering EB-5 in terms of picking their own attorney?
I would say, of course, shop around. You would need to talk to at least a couple or several attorneys before you make a final decision. You don’t want to just talk to one and say, “Okay, that’s it.” You want to talk to several, see what they offer, ask them how many cases they have dealt with, what is their experience.
Of course, you can ask for some suggestions from maybe former investors or the regional centers. They may provide you with some suggestions, and you can go from there. And of course, there’s nothing that stops you from doing your own research or maybe just a Google search to find out what are the EB-5 attorneys out there.
So after having done a lot of research on potential regional centers and potential projects, what made you decide to work with EB5AN as the regional center for your investment?
So there are several regional centers out there doing EB-5 programs. And I think EB5AN is one of the largest ones, one of the ones that has better track history of the former programs, has more success.
And also, I contacted several regional centers and their projects. I asked them for their investor memos, and I looked at them. The ones from EB5AN tend to be projects that, well, I personally like most. Hospitality, property developments—those are the projects that I think are safer in terms of financial risks. And I also look at the terms in the memo. They seem more reasonable compared to the others that I’ve looked at.
And maybe spend a minute and touch on why it’s so important to really carefully read the investment memo as an investor. And then second, having reviewed a number of these memos from EB5AN and some of the other regional centers, what were some of the key differences that you saw across memos from different projects?
The investor memo is the one key document in making an EB-5 investment. It’s an equivalent of a prospectus if you are buying shares from a company that goes to IPO. So this is the one [of the] most important documents that contains all of the key information associated with this project. I would say the structure of the funds, the risk factors, when and how you’re going to be repaid from the loan, so these are the key factors in the memo, and you have to read it as an investor, as it provides all of the most important information in there.
Having read several different memos and talked to people, I think that the memos and the projects from EEB5AN, they tend to have reasonable terms. I’ve seen some sort of unreasonable terms in other contracts from other memos, which I’m not going to disclose. But from my perspective and considering all the different factors, I think that the investor memos from EB5AN tend to be more balanced, more reasonable, and friendlier to the investor.
Got it. So following up on that same line of reasoning, having talked to a few different regional centers and reviewed a few different projects, how did you find kind of differences in terms of access to information? So things like the latest sales information, all the financial statements, the ability to visit the project, current job information and capital spend data—what were some of the differences that you saw in terms of some of the other projects and memos versus your experience with EB5AN?
Yeah, I would say EB5AN definitely did a great job in terms of transparency for all this data. How many jobs are created, how many funds have been invested into this project you can simply find on EB5AN’s website. Compared to other regional centers, they will probably provide you with the same information if you ask, but it’s not like you can simply go to EB5AN’s website and look at the very up-to-date data there.
Great. So you mentioned earlier that you had a preference for hospitality and real estate development projects. Could you talk a little bit about what were the most important things that you were looking at when you were evaluating potential EB-5 projects? What was your investment framework as you considered different projects, and what kind of led you to consider some of the ones at EB5AN, including the Snake River project?
So as I mentioned, the type of investment is one of the key factors. Hospitality, real estate, the thing about these types program is that the business model is straightforward. We all know how the hotel is run. We all know how real estate, how houses are sold, how the housing market is. So very straightforward. I don’t like to get into industries that I have very little knowledge of. Infrastructure, some other industry, I don’t know how those work.
Another big factor why I chose this specific project is Snake River has almost all of the jobs created before I even invested. To me, that’s a big plus. I prioritize Green Cards, and as an EB-5 investor, we all know that the USCIS looks at the jobs created when they are deciding whether to issue you a Green Card.
And as an EB-5 investor considering both projects in urban areas and in rural areas, how did the fact that the Snake River project was in a rural area, how did that kind of fit into your decision-making, and why is that important for you as a Chinese national?
So according to the latest statistics that’s published from USCIS, there is already a huge backlog, I think, at least for urban projects. So if you invest in an urban project as a Chinese or Indian investor, you are looking at potentially five to 10 years of backlog. So that’s a huge factor. And at least for now, rural projects, even though they might be facing some backlog, but not as serious as urban projects. You might be looking at maybe three years of backlog for rural projects, but I think that’s manageable.
And can you talk for a second about the faster priority processing for rural projects and the 20% set-aside and kind of how those factored into your decision for seeking out a project like Snake River that’s rural?
As we all probably know, there is 10,000 headcounts every year, and the USCIS sets aside 2,000 headcounts for rural projects and 1,000 headcounts for urban projects. So there’s that. Apparently, there’s a huge difference when you’re looking at 2,000 instead of 1,000. And when you’re making that decision, and especially if you are a Chinese or Indian investor, that is a huge factor, because that would determine how long before you will eventually get your Green Card.
And just zooming out about the Snake River project, how did you first come across EB5AN or the Snake River project? How did you find us originally?
I was doing my Google search. I just put in “EB-5 investment projects” in Google, and one of the regional centers that comes up was EB5AN. Of course, I also looked at different other regional centers. But yeah, I was looking at several—maybe five, six—different projects at the same time. But yeah, a Google search was what originally brought me to EB5AN.
Got it, got it. That’s good. You did a search. You spoke with a number of different companies, evaluated a few different projects. Let’s just say for a moment that the Snake River project was sold out, was no longer available. How big of a difference between the Snake River project versus one of the other projects that you were considering, how big of a difference was that? Or I guess said differently, if the Snake River project was a 10 out of 10 in terms of what you were looking for—rural, under construction, proven sales, all of that—what would you say was kind of the second-best option in comparison that you found?
I chose the Snake River project because first, as I said, I looked at how many jobs have been created. By the time I invested in this, I think almost all of the jobs had been created. So as long as your funds are okay, you are very likely getting a Green Card. That’s a huge factor for me.
Another thing is EB5AN provides you with the possibility of a partial investment. You can invest partially and then submit all the filings to USCIS, and you are granted a period of time and you can get the rest of the funds ready and invest in it.
I was looking at another project. I think it’s a car parts factory. They also have created all the jobs, but they would not accept partial funding. That makes a huge difference for me. That’s why I eventually chose Snake River.
Got it, got it. So having now gone through the experience of working closely with the EB5AN team through the onboarding and getting all the documents together for Snake River, can you share a little bit about your experience working with the EB5AN team? How was the experience? And yeah, what was your general thought of that process?
The experience is definitely positive. The team are very responsive, especially Patrick. He has been answering my different type of questions very quickly and timely. The rest of the team are also very responsive. I ask for all different types of documents, which the team very timely provide me with. And everyone’s polite and friendly. I would say interacting with the EB5AN team, it’s a pleasure.
And last question, having gone through the experience with the immigration attorney that you picked out and EB5AN, would you recommend your attorney and EB5AN to other potential investors considering EB-5 and why?
Yeah, absolutely. Attorney Yang from Reid & Wise, he is definitely capable, with a lot of experience. Working with him has been smooth. The team is very responsive. They have been taking care of my documents, my filings. For anyone out there, I would totally recommend my immigration attorney.
And so having now gone through all the initial stages of the investment process and filing and whatnot—and let’s assume now speaking only to other potential Chinese investors specifically—what kind of two or three main points of advice would you give to fellow Chinese investors considering making an EB-5 investment in the near future?
I would say the near future is one key, because we are looking at backlog that’s already there. If you are looking at making an investment, you better act fast, because once the backlog appears on USCIS’s board, we don’t know how long that’s going to take. So if you are thinking of making an investment, you must act quick.
But again, second, I would say this is no small money to anyone. For anyone who’s thinking about making an investment, be very careful. Do a lot of research. Do your own due diligence. Hire a lawyer or hire someone who’s experienced in this to provide you with counseling.
Third, I would say there are a lot of programs out there on the markets. You need to look at several and compare them. Do a thorough comparison between these programs and make your own decisions.
