Select Highlights of the Interview with Bhaskara from India
EB-5 Investor in the EB5AN ONE Tampa EB-5 Project
Full Interview with Bhaskara from India
EB-5 Investor in the EB5AN ONE Tampa EB-5 Project
Transcript of the Interview with Bhaskara from India
Hi, everyone. This is Sam Silverman, managing partner of EB5AN. Thank you for joining this webinar presentation. Today, we're going to be discussing our ONE Tampa EB-5 project with one of our recent investors who's joined the project, Bhaskara from India, who's graciously given us a few minutes to share his thoughts about his EB-5 journey, selecting an immigration attorney, doing research on projects, and ultimately deciding to invest in the ONE Tampa project. So thank you again for taking a few minutes out of the day to join us and share your recent experience and thoughts and knowledge.
I guess to start with, could you introduce yourself and just share a little bit of background information about your journey to the U.S. and why EB-5 was the next step for you?
Sounds good. Yeah. Thanks, Sam. My name is Bhaskara Gangavarapu. I’ve been living in the U.S. for the last 10 years, and prior to that I worked in the U.S. on and off. I spent some time in the U.S. in 2000, 2005, went back to India, and again moved back to India in 2015. Since then, I’ve been living in the U.S. I’ve been working in the tech space for about 25 years.
Yeah, I decided to invest or go through EB-5 process to get permanent residency, to get a permanent status set in the U.S. That’s my main goal.
Got it. Okay, perfect. All right. You hired the attorney. You did research. You ended up with Anahita. A few weeks later, your source of funds documents, which weren't overly complex, were all prepared.
What motivated you to pursue EB-5 instead of just continuing on previously under a work visa scenario?
Yeah. Sam, primarily, I have been working for the last 25 years. So if I need to take a break, I can’t take in the U.S., so I have to leave the country and then probably go back to India or other places. So that’s a primary motivation. I’ve been working tirelessly for 25 years.
I think currently I’m in EB-2 priority date sometime in August 2017. That’s not going to happen anytime in my lifetime. So I don’t want to wait indefinitely. I don’t want to get tied to working, so I wanted to have the ability to take a break and travel around. So I decided to go with EB-5.
Great, great. Well, I'm glad you felt that way and ended up choosing one of our projects.
Got it. Got it. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. Those are some of the same reasons that we hear from many of our U.S.-based H-1B investors as well. Obviously, since you’re in the U.S. already, you were able to do the adjustment of status, go for the work and travel permit and the EAD. How important were those to you when you were considering making an EB-5 investment?
Yeah. For sure, Sam, those are the primary reasons for me to consider EB-5. I’m looking to get a permanent residence status here. The first and foremost, as soon as I get that, I’m going to take a break from work. So that’s not going to change anything in my status. I will still have my home. I can live where I live today. And then I can travel around. So that’s the primary motivation for me to consider EB-5.
Got it. Were you looking at any of the other visa options other than EB-5, or did you just zero in initially on EB-5 as the best option?
Yeah. I hadn’t explored any other options other than the EB-2 that I was already in the queue. As I stated, the priority date is somewhere around August 2017. Other than that, no, I didn’t explore anything else.
Got it. Got it. Okay. So looking back—now you’ve filed your application, money’s been invested, you’re through most of it—going back in time, when did you decide that you were definitely doing EB-5 and then really start the research process for finding an experienced attorney to help with your application?
I think it started somewhere around April 2024, April this year. That’s when I decided I’ll go in the EB-5 route.
Okay, got it. Got it. Once you had made up your mind, “I want to do EB-5. I know I’m going to need to find an attorney and also find a project that meets my criteria,” can you tell us a little bit about that process for finding an attorney? How many attorneys did you talk to? What was most important to you when you were considering between one attorney and the other? What did that identification process look like?
Yeah. When I started exploring EB-5, first I started looking at projects and came across EB5AN and a few others. I spoke to many regional centers. I explored a lot of projects. And then through that process, I was introduced to my current attorney. I think she seems to have a good success rate, and she is meticulous at her work. I spoke to her, and yeah, I liked her work. And then decided go with Anahita George. That is my current attorney. It’s been good so far. She did a good job with my application, the entire documentation as well.
She has got always my interest as her priority, and she’s good at listing out the risks in all the various projects or various regional centers. She was thorough at her work and meticulous.
Once you had interviewed a few attorneys and you ended up hiring Anahita George, what did that process look like once you had decided to work with her? How long did it take to actually prepare the documents? Were you working on nights and weekends? How did that documentation process work? Yeah, what was that like?
Yeah, the documentation process for me is fairly simple, Sam. Most of my funds are from the U.S. My employment income and RSUs are in the U.S. It’s really totally straightforward. It probably took me about a week to gather all the documentation, and Anahita took about a couple of weeks to review everything, and then she asked for additional documentations. I would say I think a couple of weeks, two, three weeks, she finished everything. Yeah. It went very smooth.
I know you’d mentioned to me separately that you did interview a number of different attorneys. What made you decide to hire Anahita versus some of the other attorneys that you were speaking with?
Anahita has been in the space for quite some time. She has got a lot of wealth of information, and she knows I think most of the regional centers I explored. Essentially, the reason for me to go with her is her experience in that space.
So then let’s shift the discussion over to some of the projects. So walk us through what that research process looked like for you in terms of finding a project. What were some of the key questions for you? What was more appealing for certain projects versus others, and what led you to ultimately decide to go with the ONE Tampa project?
Yeah. In terms of projects, I explored a lot. I would say I spoke to at least four or five regional centers, various kinds of projects, rural and urban. When I looked at EB5AN projects, one thing is the information is very clear, transparent. Each project, anytime I can go to your website and then get all the information I need, including the capital structure, the financials. Everything is available, so I can do my own research and then decide on what are the risks I am going to carry, what are the benefits. So that helped a lot, the information that you guys made available. Nothing is hidden. Everything is transparent. So that was very good working with EB5AN.
Some of that is missing with other regional centers when I was exploring some of them. Not fully transparent. I don’t see all the information that I need. I need to go back and forth. Sometimes even the project status is not clear. Approvals are not clear. There’s many hidden risks that I’ve seen in many other projects.
Got it, got it. You mentioned you looked at some rural and urban projects. What was important to you when you were considering some of the rural projects versus urban, and what ultimately motivated you to pick an urban project?
Yeah. I was primarily looking at the rural or urban. Either one of them, I’m open. But some cases, rural projects, the finances were not clear. They looked more risky. Most of the urban projects, at least the finances and the capital structure is clear. And it’s easy for me to assess. Okay, let’s say, if I am a real investor, if I’m investor in this or if I’m a buyer, would I buy at the rate that the builder is planning to sell? So there’s good information available for me to assess that in case of urban projects. It is easy to make a decision for urban projects. I would say in most cases, rural projects, that’s hard to assess. So I wasn’t sure what kind of risks I’m going to face in those projects. Yeah, I decided with this urban project.
Got it. Okay. That makes sense. In terms of the job creation of the project, how important was the project being under construction and having a large job cushion? How did that factor into your decision about a particular project?
Yeah, for sure. Job creation is a primary criterion for a successful approval of an EB-5 application. That’s important, Sam. So having all the approvals in place and then projects in progress, I would say that’s already a low-risk project. I believe in the case of a construction project, it is resource intensive, labor intensive. The likelihood of those projects meeting the job creation goal is high. That’s the one reason for me to pick a project such as ONE Tampa, which is already underway and everything is in place. For sure, it’s going to need enough labor requirement, so job creation. It is important. So that’s the primary criterion for an approval.
In terms of the developer, I’m sure you evaluated the developers of some of the other urban projects that you considered as well. What was attractive about the ONE Tampa project in terms of the developer?
Yeah, the developer seems to be well known in that space, Sam. I have seen their previous projects. And also they know Florida well. They know the market well. So this is a safe investment to go with. Kolter, it’s got multiple projects, I think with you and even others. So their reach and then their expertise in that domain, that attracted me to Kolter.
Got it. Okay. Okay, great. In terms of the EB5AN team—I know you mentioned earlier that you did speak with some of the other regional centers about some of their projects as well—what about your interactions with our team just made you feel comfortable that this was going to be a good investment and that you were getting the right information that you needed?
Yeah. As I said, Sam, I spoke to you first, and then I spoke to many other regional centers. One thing I liked about EB5AN, when I was speaking to you or others, you never tried to oversell. You presented the facts. You understood my situation, and then you suggested a few projects, but you’re open to anything. You didn’t push for anything. You didn’t aggressively follow up—in fact, you never followed up. You’re very transparent. The information that you provided is very clear. So that makes the investor comfortable, looking at everything, the capital structure, the safety cushions that the project has got. Yeah. As I said, your team never tried to oversell. You presented the facts, and that’s what matters for me.
So now that you’ve invested the funds, you’ve filed your application, looking back at this process, what is some advice that you would give to others like you already in the U.S., likely on H-1B, don’t want to be working forever? Yeah, what advice would you have to others in a similar situations who may be considering an EB-5 investment in early 2025 in terms of hiring an attorney and/or picking a project?
Yeah. Again, start with the attorney. That’s going to make the process faster. In fact, in my case, I delayed finalizing the attorney. That delayed my process. Even before you choose a project, I think you should have an attorney.
When it comes to the project, go with whoever is very transparent, that they provide all the information that you’re looking for, including the project finances and builders and all the investors in the project. Think of it as if you’re investing your money—as if it’s your own company, let’s say, if you are investing your own money in your company. Assess everything, understand all the risks, and be prepared for it. Yeah. That’s pretty much it. Ask all the information that you would ask if you’re making your own investment into a company. Yeah, it’s like any other investment.
Yep. Just looking back, would you recommend your EB-5 attorney, Anahita, and EB5AN to other investors considering EB-5, and why do you feel that way?
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I would recommend Anahita. I would certainly recommend EB5AN. Again, as I said, the EB5AN team has been very transparent with their process. They provided all the information that I am looking for. I think you have many previous projects. and you are in this space for quite some time. You’re serious about your work. Yeah, I like that fact. And yeah, I would strongly recommend anyone considering EB-5 to certainly consider EB5AN.
Great, thank you. Thank you, Bhaskara, for taking a few minutes to join us today to share your experience and your process in terms of hiring an attorney, evaluating a project, and then ultimately pulling the trigger and making an investment just a month ago now at this point. Yeah, really, really appreciate it.
Thanks, Sam. Thanks for your time. I appreciate all your help. It was great working with you and your team and Anahita as well.
