Select Highlights of the Interview with Kishore from India
EB-5 Investor in the EB5AN Bay Creek Rural EB-5 Project
“Bay Creek itself looks very beautiful. Not as an investor—if I wanted to buy, I will love to stay somewhere like that. So that was one thought process.”
“We were looking for a rural project for sure, because we wanted this fast processing of our EB-5 visa. Apart from that, the most important point was that the project is creating the required number of jobs.”
Full Interview with Kishore from India
EB-5 Investor in the EB5AN Bay Creek Rural EB-5 Project
Transcript of the Interview with Kishore from India
My Background as an EB-5 Investor
Thank you for taking time to join us on today’s webinar testimonial interview. Today we’re going to be speaking with one of our recent Indian EB-5 investors in our Bay Creek rural senior EB-5 loan project. All right. So today we have Kishore from India with us who recently joined the Bay Creek senior EB-5 rural loan project. Kishore, thanks for taking some time to join us today. To start, could you introduce yourself and share a little bit about your background experience and what brought you first to the U.S.?
Finding an EB-5 Immigration Attorney
Got it, got it. And over the last nine years, what fields have you been primarily focused on in terms of employment?
Why I Selected EB5AN and the Bay Creek Rural EB-5 Project
Got it. Okay. So having a child who you want to pursue higher education in the U.S., that was one of the key motivations for making EB-5 investment. Any reason for yourself in terms of employment benefits as well?
Since I have lot of experience in software, maybe in future I want to do something more. So that is one reason. Another reason is in future if I want to start a business—I don’t want to continue my work—I can do that and stay in the U.S. So there are a lot of benefits actually.
Summary: My Key Advice for EB-5 Investors
In terms of the benefits, did you explore and consider some other visa options for you and your wife as well? And what kind of motivated you to really focus in on EB-5?
Got it. And so I guess when did you first hear about the EB-5 program, and what kind of made you want to really get serious about making an investment this year?
Recently, I think three, four months back, I started watching some videos about EB-5. EB5AN, they have so much information online available, like on YouTube, that I came to know, okay, with this, you can actually get your visa quickly. So yeah, it’s not a long journey for me to decide on EB-5, but I came to know about EB-5 quite late, that you can get in this category your Green Card earlier.
Got it, got it. Okay, so a couple months ago you watched a lot of videos, you read a lot of information about the rural, the faster processing, and then you decided, “Okay, this is a good fit timing wise for my goals.“ So then what did you do next once you’d reached that mental decision point?
During that kind of attorney research process … Tell us a little more about that. How many different attorneys did you end up interviewing, and which one did you end up hiring and why?
Got it. Okay. So you did some interviewing, and you decided to go with Anahita George as your EB-5 immigration attorney. Tell us what that process was like, doing your source of funds documents. Was it a smooth process? How long did it take? And would you recommend working with her now having just gone through the process recently?
You mentioned earlier responsiveness and ability to directly contact the attorney. Tell us what that back-and-forth looked like over that month while you were working on the application.
So for example, I sold one of my property in the last five years, and there was a few documents missing for that. So for that, I had to go to the bank and get the documents—which I never thought, because I had the statement that I bought the property at this price and sold it at this price. I was thinking that that much information is good enough, but she told that no, we need to show that the payment was done from your paycheck and how it was transferred, all those details.
She is very thorough with her job. And lot of documentations are required for source of funds. So I will advise that hire some attorney who has very good experience in EB-5 filing.
Having just gone through the process in the last month or two, what suggestions or tips would you have for another person like you on H-1B in the U.S. already in terms of what to look for when hiring an attorney?
The second advice will be it is good if the attorney himself or herself handles all the queries and response, because you will not feel that there’s someone in between to where you pass on the query and then it goes further and comes back. So it really helps to get a fast response.
The third thing will be whatever investment fund, like $800K, better to sell your stocks, or wherever you have the fund, better to move all those funds at one place so that it can be invested at the time. Because this one month was very fast for me, and fortunately, I already accumulated around $600K. I had to still get by selling some share $200K, and it was very, very fast. So I will suggest that better to have all the money at one place before you start or during this process. It will speed up your filing basically.
Got it. Okay, perfect. All right. So let’s change gears a little bit and talk a little bit about the project and the regional center. So at this point, you’ve done some interviewing. You hired Anahita George to help with your application. You were preparing your source of funds documents. Then tell us about regional centers. What was important to you as you started to do your research for potential regional centers and potential projects? What were some of the things you were looking for? And how many different regional centers and potential projects were you considering?
We did interview around four to five regional centers, but we had some concern. A few of them were not disclosing all the offering documents about the project, or some projects are still in the process of inception. You don’t know whether … For example, a few projects which are getting built in areas where you might not get environment approval. Those kind of constraints are there. So you need to be thorough with whatever project you are investing in.
And even if you are investing in some project, it does not mean that it will be successful. So you need to see that you invest with a regional center which has a very good history of completing successfully all the projects.
And before we talk specifically about different projects, tell us a little bit more about the transparency. You mentioned that some of the other regional centers weren’t willing to share documents. How did that compare with your experience working with EB5AN?
You can actually feed these data to a lot of this xAI or ChatGPT kind of input, and you can ask queries about the project: What are the complications? What are the drawbacks? What risks are there? You can do all that.
And you can even ask … So I was handled with Mike. You can ask whomever you are coordinating with EB5AN. You can ask them all kind of questions. They will be very composed, and they will explain you everything bit by bit. Yeah, it was really nice working with EB5AN.
And in terms of the projects themselves, stepping back, what were some of the key aspects of a potential project that were important to you—like location, profitability, job creation, rural area? What were the top three or four items that you were really looking for as you started looking at individual projects?
Apart from that, the most important point was that the project is creating the required number of jobs. That was the second-highest priority for us, because that is the basis of getting your conditional Green Card and then later on getting a Green Card.
And after that, the third priority was we were looking for a project where the funds are locked for a smaller duration of time as compared to the other project. That was the third priority.
And fourth priority was definitely we are looking for a project where actually it is a successful project because the way it is located or the features it is providing, those kind of information. Those were the criteria for our selection of the project.
And speaking of rural projects versus the urban high unemployment, since both categories are current and you can get the work and travel visa at the same time in both rural and urban projects, what about the rural project just was much more appealing, versus some of the urban projects have a shorter investment period? Yeah, just what made you gravitate toward the rural versus urban?
Got it. And so what about the Bay Creek project, other than it being in a rural area, was really attractive to you? And did you look at some of the other EB5AN projects? And what about Bay Creek made that one the one you were most comfortable with?
Plus on top of that, it is very near to the water bodies and everything. The project itself looks very beautiful. Not as an investor—if I want to buy, I will love to stay somewhere like that. So that was one thought process.
Another thought process was … The timeline for the project was like four year for completion and one-year extension, so total five years. That was another reason for getting into Bay Creek.
Got it, got it. And in comparison to some of the other projects that were also rural, with EB5AN or with other regional centers, what were some of the things that just made you uncomfortable that you were thinking, “Oh, you know what? I don’t like that project because of X reason.“ What were some of the things that you just said, “No, I don’t want to go in that project“?
The third thing was the project itself was not that big from EB-5 prospective. So you see the dependency on these kind of loan is less in Bay Creek as compared to the other project. So that was another reason.
So yeah, overall, these were the reason why we selected Bay Creek as compared to other project.
Got it. Got it. Okay. So once you had decided that you wanted to invest in the Bay Creek rural EB-5 project, what was the process like working with the EB5AN team after that decision was made to finalize your subscription and make sure that the money was transferred correctly to the escrow account? Tell us a little bit about what that process was like and having Anahita print and mail your application.
And later on also, once all the transfer was done, they prepared the subscription document very quickly and the same was used by Anahita to file my case.
So overall, I think once my source of fund documents were ready, I think it took only three or four days to file my 526E application.
Got it. Okay. That makes sense. All right. So having just gone through the process just a couple of weeks ago, what advice would you have generally for other similarly placed Indian investors already in the U.S. who are on the fence, considering EB-5, maybe a little bit intimidated with the process of documenting the funds and picking a project?
And for selecting the projects, make sure that the project, what you are selecting, is creating enough jobs. That is very much important. And it should be from a regional center which has a history of successfully completing the projects. And make sure that all risks are covered, and discuss your risk with your attorney. They can really help you to identify if there’s risk involved in the project.
Got it. Okay, great. And looking back on that process, would you recommend your immigration attorney and EB5AN to other investors? And why, why not?
And regarding EB5AN, they are really doing a great job. I highly recommend everyone to go with EB5AN. They have a very high amount of resources available on YouTube as well as their website about all the queries. You can reach to Sam or Mike. Both are very responsive, and they’re really doing a great job.
