Karthik from India

Thank you.

Totally. So my name’s Karthik. I’m from Bangalore, which is a city in the southern part of India. I first moved to the U.S. when I was 19—and this was back in 2017—to pursue a career in music. So I’m a musician, I’m a guitarist, I’m a songwriter. I first came to Minnesota, and I went to a private music college there, after which I transferred to Berklee College of Music in Boston and then moved to LA. And now I work as an artist manager in the entertainment industry, and I specialize in legacy rock.

The reason why I pursued EB-5 was that given what I do and the nature of my work, it was so hard for me to secure a long-term solution to immigration because the H-1B, which is something that most people consider, wasn’t a viable option given that you have to apply for it through an employer. And since I was more of a freelancer, it didn’t really make sense—which I’m not now, but at the time I was. And it didn’t really make sense for me to apply for something that I wasn’t even eligible for.

And the other option for me was an O-1, which, again, is something that’s very hard to get. At least when you’re starting out and you’re a new college grad, you don’t have the credentials, you don’t have the awards, and there’s so many other criteria that you have to fulfill when it comes to applying for an O-1. So you have to be somebody that’s a very important figure in the industry, and I didn’t have the accolades that it took. And I mean, honestly, I feel like now I’d be in a position to apply for it given the progress that I’ve made, but I wasn’t at the time.

So that led to being in this conundrum where I wasn’t really sure how I was going to proceed, and EB-5 was pretty much the only option on the table for me, because it was the only one that I could apply for that, well, one, wasn’t employment-based and, two, it was something that I could do on my own. And I wasn’t beholden to any employer, and I didn’t have to depend on somebody else validating who I was and how good I was at what I did. It was something that I could do by myself to solve my immigration problems for good. And given that I do work in the music industry, it’s something that I needed, because I live in Los Angeles and this is where the industry is, and I needed to be in LA in order to build my career and get better and network. And I think it was the right decision for me given what I do and who I am.

So actually, I discovered the viability of the EB-5 quite late into my OPT. I finished grad school at USC, and I got about a year of OPT. And I had discovered that I was actually eligible to do this stuff quite late into my OPT. So I just had about I want to say three or four months left before my OPT had ended, and that’s when I started doing a lot of research into EB-5 and getting serious about it and wanting to apply for it. So that’s when I did consultations and I read about it online and I tried to find the best project for me.

And it was, I think, through another EB-5 person that I met my lawyer, Anahita, and she’s the one that told me about EB5AN and the Twin Lakes project. That’s when I did my research into learning about the project, what it is, what it does, its results, and how viable it was for me, not just in terms of securing immigration, but also monetarily. And that’s kind of how it began.

The whole thing happened at the 11th hour because I was quite late in my process of doing research and trying to come up with a game plan for doing the EB-5. I’m glad that I did it when I did, because if I had delayed, then I probably would’ve been too late to adjust my status from within the U.S. because I was already in the country at the time.

So she was pretty much the only lawyer that I consulted. I did consult other … I think it was about one other regional center that I spoke to, but she was the only lawyer that I consulted. And when I spoke to her for the first time, I just knew how amazing she was.

She is somebody with a good track record. She has good references. And she’s worked with regional centers. She’s quite tight with them, and she understands how these projects work. And she’s somebody that understood how the concept of the source of funds can be presented in the best way possible in a context that is very catered to my country of origin, and she’s very good at that. And she’s somebody also that I felt like was willing to go to bat for me and get my petition approved. And she was very on top of things—she was very responsive. She ensures that there are no loose ends.

And after having a couple of calls with her, I just knew that she was the right fit for me, and I didn’t want anyone else handling my case. So yeah, I mean, to start with, she was the only lawyer that I spoke to, but I didn’t need to look further because she was the one for me.

Overall, it was very smooth. If I had more time, it would’ve been probably even better. But given the time crunch that I was under, it was actually very smooth. And she is very easy to work with, and the feedback that she gave me for each document that we submitted was exceptional. And she made sure to get me to present everything the way that USCIS would want to see it, and that’s something that I find quite remarkable in her as an attorney because she understands things and she knows how to present things in the best way possible.

And the whole process I want to say took about 60 days, to get everything consolidated and to have the funds arranged and to transfer the funds from my home country to the U.S. and then to the escrow account. The whole process was very seamless. And for me to get together my source of funds, it took about 60 days, maybe a little less.

Totally. So when I came across regional centers, at least the regional centers that I was investigating, I was very particular about trying to find a regional center that ensured that my funds were paid back. And I looked at EB5AN, and it stood out to me for multiple reasons. One, it had a 100% USCIS approval rate, which was huge. And for the Twin Lakes project specifically, all the jobs had been created already, and that was big, because there were so many other regional centers that I had come across and projects where they were taking your money but construction hadn’t even begun. So that was a giant red flag. But when I came across EB5AN and all the work that you did, I just knew that you had a really good track record, and it was something that I felt very safe going with.

Plus, for most EB5AN projects, the EADs and the advanced parole documents were being issued in 60 to 90 days, which is exactly what happened to me. And I needed that because I had a job at the time and, in order for me keep my job, I needed my employment authorization. So I had an easy time working with my company to ensure that they would wait until I got it, so that was very nice of them.

But I think all of those things really just fit together. It was very cohesive, and that’s the reason why I picked EB5AN and the Twin Lakes project and Kolter specifically.

Yeah, totally. So when I looked at Kolter, the first thing that I noticed was that they had been in business for more than 25 years, so they clearly know their stuff. They’ve done this for a long time, and this is something that I think they have a good track record of doing. And the second point is that they put in more than $29 billion across real estate projects around the country. I mean, just reading that I knew that this is a developer that clearly knows what they’re doing. And they’re not just good at building projects, but they’re also good at handling capital.

Then I came across this testimonial from a guy named Ken Jones, who I believe is the president and CEO of Third Lake Capital, which is an investment firm and an equity partner of Kolter. And he basically talked about how in the 2008 financial crisis, Kolter made sure that every single one of their investors were paid, unlike most companies at the time that went completely bankrupt and investors were kind of screwed over and all that. So after reading that and after reading Kolter’s history and after reading the extent of their involvement in real estate and the projects that they did, it seemed like the right fit.

And the project itself had created all jobs, and the homes were being sold at an amazing rate, and the business was generating positive cash flow, which was very important. I think it kind of depends on the sector of the EB-5 project that you choose, but ideally, you’d want to pick something that generates good cash flow, which Twin Lakes was doing, thanks to Kolter. So that really went into my decision to choose a Kolter project, and I feel very comfortable with investing my capital with Kolter.

Yeah, so that was actually very important for me, because I was looking for a rural project given, well, one, the reduction in investment amount, which I think was $800,000 as opposed to $1.1 million, and two, was processing times. So I was told when I applied that I would get my EAD in about 60 days, which I did, and my 526 [I-526E] in 12 months, which is exactly what happened for me. So I got mine in exactly 12 months. And both of those factors were key in me choosing a rural project, because processing times for people from my country of origin are just ridiculously long. So I needed to pick something that in a way just expedited the whole thing. So yes, picking a rural project for the EB-5 for me was very important, and I’m happy that I picked such a good one.

Well, EB5AN was extremely great at communicating, which I found was quite lacking in some of the other regional centers that I spoke to. When I took a look at the subscription agreement, I liked how everything was laid out in a clear and legible way and that it felt like I was actually getting into business with people that were trustworthy. And yourself and Mike, it was very great when we had the initial call and you told me about what EB5AN does and your track record and how you guys operate and all the projects that you guys helped build. It was something where I felt like I was getting into business with good people.

For me that’s very important, because even though I may not be as well-versed as, let’s say, my dad, who is in this business and he can perhaps read a document and find the technical details a lot better, for me as an investor, it was about basically working with people that I felt like I could trust. And EB5AN, right from the get-go, was very responsive. It was quite helpful. It showed me as an investor what I needed to know in order to make the right decision, which I didn’t find in any other regional center. So it was kind of a no-brainer to be honest, and I’m glad that I did this.

Yeah, totally. And I think that’s a huge weight that’s been lifted off my shoulders, because tackling immigration was my biggest challenge ever since I came to the U.S. And now that that part of it has been taken care of or is being taken care of, I can now focus on my career and everything that I want to do. And I think long term, now that I’ve got my I-526E, it’s only a matter of time before I’m eligible to apply for citizenship, which I want to do. And then once that’s taken care of, I want to use the rest of my time to do what I love, which is to work in the music industry.

So I currently work in artist management, but going forward, I would want to work at Universal, which is my dream label. I’d go in there with a mission, which is to empower artists and everything that they do, and it’s my duty to then bring equity and fairness to the world of music and to create an atmosphere where everybody, including artists and people on the business side, can coexist without there being a need to feel like you got to rip somebody off, which is how the industry has operated. So that’s my grander plan. That’s what I want to do, which is to make the music industry a better place and to continue doing what I love, which is empowering artists.

Yeah, I would say, well, go with EB5AN and Kolter obviously, right? No, I’m kidding. I would say do your research into finding a project that you feel like you know. And what I mean by that is there’s so many different industries where you could invest in. There’s hospitality. There’s real estate. There’s education. There are some pretty interesting EB-5 projects that are involved with building a college or a school or something. So you’ve got to pick the one that you think you can understand well, because that is going to put things in the context of the actual EB-5 project that you’ll be investing in, so that way you can know about how the project is functioning, what are all the key things that you can look for, what does the project’s finances look like, and how do you feel like this project is going to perform in the next couple years given all the market volatilities and all that stuff.

So it’s important for you to find a project where they have a good track record. The regional center is one that also has a good track record and invest in projects that are trustworthy and that not only make an effort to return your capital, but also are good in terms of the immigration front. So you have to find someone with a high approval rate, and you have to also find a project that you kind of are familiar with so that you can answer all these questions and start ticking everything off the box.

So that would be my 40,000-foot view advice on how to go about doing this. And I mean, once you get a little deeper too, you’ll find that, within the same industry, you can have two very different projects, and you want to pick the one that you feel like is the right fit for you—and one of them being rural versus urban. Again, that’s something that the investor has to do some research on to see what they feel like is the best fit for them. And then you look at the financials, and then you look at job creation, and then you look at processing times. So all these things then kind of fit together.