Amit from India

I am Amit. I come from India. We came to the US around 2013 with our two kids. My wife’s name is Deepti. I am a software engineer. We came to the US on an H-1B visa to work for Amazon. Then, because of the H-1B, at a certain point, we decided that we wanted to stay here and apply for permanent residency. So, we went through the EB-2 process, which is an employment-based visa category. But, as we know, EB-2 has a long queue, especially for India. It might take us the next 10 to 15 years to get permanent residency through the EB-2 route.

That’s when we started thinking, “What are the other alternative solutions?” So, we explored the EB-1 process, where we could go to another country with the same company and try to use the L-1 visa and international manager category. I think it is called EB-1A. We could basically get a quicker [processing] period once we came back.

But, with the family, it wasn’t a feasible solution, so we didn’t choose that route. And then we started exploring EB-5 projects, the EB-5 route.

I think that was the main concern. When we thought about [pursuing] EB-5, we searched on Google, “What are the top five EB-5 attorneys?” and tried to get an appointment. And it was very hard to get someone quickly. There was always a wait, and then you had to schedule an appointment.

So, we asked a couple of our friends and, from there (basically, from our network), we found Anahita’s name—through one of our trusted resources. And Anahita had helped a friend of a person in my network and gotten a good recommendation. So, we talked to Anahita.

First, it was very fast. Anahita was ready to come on call quickly. So, when we started talking, within five minutes, we knew that we were going to hire Anahita. She was super responsive and to the point, providing clear information. She was very helpful about a lot of things, telling us the pros and cons of each and every thing.

That gave us good confidence that we could invest, that EB-5 was a big enough investment. We were not sure, but after talking to Anahita, we were ready to put our money into the EB-5 process.

I think after talking to Anahita, she gave us a good idea of the source of funds and what the process would look like. We didn’t go for any overseas funds at all. I collected funds from whatever we had here.

So, the overall process took around two weeks, and Anahita was super awesome. I think her average response time was 15 minutes, which was pretty awesome. And I was like, “Is she working with her team, because I’m getting responses all the time?” But then, Anahita told me she now works alone, and that was very impressive. But overall, we completed the file in, I think, less than two weeks.

That is a fast turnaround time, for sure.

I think one of the main criteria for me was the ease of communication: telling both sides, like the pros and cons of each of the things we should know. And Anahita was very clear on them.

The second thing is: you should always choose an attorney who is only dealing with EB-5, because EB-5 is a very document-oriented process. It’s a very lengthy process in terms of documentation and the verification of the source of funds. And, if I remember correctly, it was like 2,000 pages that the attorney had to prepare for the file—or more than that. So, it’s important to have a good relationship with your attorney to go back and forth with each source document and all that. Ease of communication was one of the main criteria; working with Anahita and her responsiveness.

When you look for projects where you’re going to invest such a large amount of money, you want to protect your investment. We got a reference for a couple of projects. Twin Lakes was one of them.

We like the Twin Lakes project for two primary reasons. One reason is that it qualifies for the rural initiative. The second one is faster processing. Those were the main reasons for looking at the Twin Lakes project.

Another primary factor when you’re looking for a project is the builder. Kolter is the builder for the Twin Lakes project. The builder’s records: they have been working for a very long time, and their records are impeccable. That gave us confidence to put our money into the Twin Lakes project.

Yes—and the builder, Kolter, has a very good record of returning money to investors. They have seen the 2008 recession and all that, and they stood well in all the ups and downs. That gave us confidence that our money was secure there.

There were two more things. One was that the EB-5 jobs were already created for this project, and the project was more than half complete. So, that gave us good confidence. See, when we make an EB-5 investment, we want to protect our investment, and we want to get the Green Card. Having all the jobs already created and the project being more than 50% complete gives us good confidence that we will get both things.

No, we haven’t gone to the project, but we relied on a couple of testimonials from previous customers. They visited the project, and the project was in good shape. My wife is in real estate, so when she looked at all the numbers and all the details about the project, she had good confidence in it.

I think EB5AN is a very professional team. We had lots of doubts that were project-related and process-related, and EB5AN was very upfront about giving all the information. They were very responsive. Overall, I loved working with the EB5AN team to understand our doubts and make a decision to invest in an EB-5 project.

I would suggest evaluating the project they’re interested in. One main thing is the builder of the project, which was a key thing for me. We have to make sure that the builder has experience in completing big projects and also fulfilling commitments to all the investors. That becomes a key aspect of choosing a project.

I think Anahita was really, really good at her job. She has a lot of experience in dealing with Indian clients and different kinds of sources of funds. When you are investing your overseas funds, then they need to basically tie up all the funds. They need to trace all the funds. I think she has great experience there. So, I would definitely recommend Anahita as an immigration attorney and EB5AN as your EB-5 regional center.