Rahul from India

My name is Rahul, and as you alluded to, I was born in India. I’m still an Indian citizen. I came to the U.S. as a student for my undergraduate degree. I ended up getting an undergrad in finance. And right after that, I was fortunate enough to work for a year, but then with all the H-1 regulations and things of that nature, I went back to getting my master’s. I ended up getting my master’s, and then I joined a software systems integrator as a professional. I’ve been with them for about nine years.

As for choosing an EB-5 investment route, I felt that it would provide my family and me with some certainty—especially with India being one of the two backlogged countries for employment-based visas in the various categories (except for EB-1, but I believe that’s also now backlogged). We felt that it would provide us with a little more flexibility and certainty regarding our lives in the U.S.

I think EB-5 met almost all our criteria. Other options included going back to India and coming back later on, but that didn’t make a lot of sense because you would be starting a new life. Although we’re Indians, it would still be a brand new start to our professional careers. Then, we were like, “Okay, it would be easy not to move anywhere.” As for the dates, we thought, “Let’s just go with EB-5.” Especially after last year’s regulatory change that broadened the EB-5 rural [category], which I’m sure we’re going to talk about later on here. That was definitely a big influencing factor in our decision-making.

That’s exactly what happened. One of my wife’s really good friends had invested in an EB-5 project. He texted me out of nowhere, saying, “Hey Rahul, let’s grab a bite, and we can discuss a few other things.” We weren’t even going to talk about immigration-related items. From there, he dove into what they did in their EB-5 journey. This was prior to any regulatory changes. Regional centers were still operational. We didn’t really think about it [EB-5] at that point, but later on, when that new set of regulations was put in place, we were like, “Okay, now that the dates aren’t moving and we know that we’re going to be in the U.S. for rest of our lives, why don’t we look into EB-5?”

That conversation was the first time that we thought of EB-5 as being a legitimate choice, or a legitimate path or us to take. That’s how it all started.

That would been right before COVID. Yes, I believe that was right before COVID. As for the answer to your second question, last year we started thinking about EB-5. Anybody who is looking into EB-5 knows that the source of funds is a massive, massive undertaking. Make sure that you have that almost put together before you spend a lot of legwork finding a project.

So, my wife and I sat down together and we said, “Okay, let’s look at what our financial situation looks like.” From there, we started looking at different projects. We also thought of doing something of our own— direct EB-5 projects were definitely something that we thought about—hotel construction or things of that nature. But then we came back to EB-5 rural, and that’s what we ended up investing in.

Our attorney search process began with just a regular search query, “EB-5 immigration attorneys in the U.S.” From there, we contacted about three different attorneys. We had pretty in-depth consultations with two of them. Then, I reached out to you [Sam] as well. That’s when you put me in touch with one of the attorneys that we ended up engaging for our project.

A big shout-out to Anahita George: that’s the attorney and the law firm that we ended up retaining for this work. After the first couple of calls, my wife and I felt that she and her team would be the right fit for us. The main thing for us at that point was, one, how reliable she was. She was able to provide references that we double-checked with. And number two was how comforting she was for us regarding this whole journey, because this was pretty new to us. She really put us in that state of, “Okay, don’t worry, don’t be nervous or frustrated. This is what it’s going to look like, and this is how we’re going to tackle one thing at a time.”

As for the timeline, I believe we were able to wrap up everything from retaining her to actually filing everything in about two and a half months. I think it was right around 60 days when we were able to get everything wrapped up and filed.

I could give a slew of items to think about, but I think for us the biggest three or four items were: Number one, how is the attorney communicating with you? Do we always have to go through their secretary, or do we have open lines of communication with the attorney or their partner? That was huge, that was a big thing for us. Second, their track record. Anahita and Nick (her partner), whenever we talked, we felt that they had such a strong grasp of the subject matter that we felt, “Okay, whatever they say is going to end up being the right choice or path for us to take.”

Number three, going back to communication, how available are they to you? I know people who have been laid off. I know a couple of them really well, firsthand. These people went through EB-5, and they weren’t able to get their filing done in a timely manner, mainly because the attorney and their law firm weren’t available to them at all times. So that was a big factor for us. The best part is that both Nick and Anahita are so analytical. I believe Anahita even has experience as a tax attorney, so the understanding of numbers and how we could communicate to arrive at that source of funds document was very important to us.

I think these are the four or five. Communication was such a huge thing to me because I was traveling a lot, and they would still get back to me, sometimes even on weekends. That was a big factor for us.

If we were to include the Anahita, I spoke with four in total, so I’ll talk about the other three that we didn’t end up retaining. Two of them just gave me that sense of a big-law-firm feel. Again, I feel that this is such a life-changing event for anybody, not only because the number is so large: $800,000, it’s not an easy-peasy number to gather and collect. That was number one. Number two, because it’s immigration-related, I think it’s also a life-changing investment.

The two of them were very big law firm types, and I felt that I would just not get that customized, personal attention that I would need given the uncertainty, getting that kind of money, putting together things of that nature. The third law firm was just not ready. Maybe they had taken too many clients compared to how much they could actually work on. Their bandwidth was so tied that setting up a call took four weeks or three weeks, and that’s not something that we felt comfortable with.

Whereas with Anahita, I remember I was driving and she quickly answered, and we started chatting.

EB-5 rural, that was a pretty novel concept for us. We didn’t even think about EB-5 rural as an option for us, mainly because, when you think about large projects (I’m talking about regional center projects or somebody investing a lot of money in a massive infrastructure deal), they’re usually in an urban setting. So, we didn’t think about rural. Then we thought about the targeted employment areas, which could be urban depending on what is classified; a suburb of a large city could still be considered as a TEA-approved area, and you still get that massive population of a suburb of large city.

So, we were looking at that and then Anahita said, “Okay, there could be.” Anahita cleared all our doubts. When I was looking at EB-5 rural [projects], Twin Lakes being one of them, I wanted to make sure that we worked with a project that was sponsored by—or that was basically brought into the market by—a large, successful developer. And then, when we started talking to Anahita about backlogged visa categories and rural getting 20% set aside, that basically was one of the main reasons why we said, “Okay, it is worth taking that risk in a rural project.”

On top of that, when we learned more about the Twin Lakes project after speaking with you and doing our due diligence, we felt that the risk was completely minimal, if non-existent. That’s when we went ahead with the Twin Lakes.

The brand name associated with the Twin Lakes project was a big yes for us. When you hear about Kolter and the amount of undertakings they’ve had and their decades-long track record of completing successful projects—never defaulting on a loan or any sort of funding for that matter—that was a big, big thing for us. I remember we were among the very last ones [investors] when we were ready to transfer or wire the funds. We were getting in the very last five or seven spots available [in Twin Lakes]. We definitely didn’t want to lose our opportunity to invest in Twin Lakes. So, brand name was number one.

Number two, is the track record of sales within the Twin Lakes project. When I signed up with EB5AN, we were getting periodic reports of different projects, and Twin Lakes was one of them. I was looking at how they were constantly selling and getting bookings for their houses. That was number two. Number three, speaking with you and Anahita on numerous occasions, we got a sense of confidence that “Okay, these professionals have been in their respective areas of expertise for a number of years. And if they are talking so highly of this project, there must be some merit to the spiel.” It wasn’t just a sales pitch at that point.

I think these three points were determining— and then EB-5 rural, it being a rural project that’s ready to be invested in so that we could get our EB-5 petition. That was a determining factor as well.

Oh, huge, because now you already have all the jobs created and accounted for. So when you’re ready to file for the conditions to be removed, now you don’t have to worry about that. We looked at some of the EB-5 direct projects, and that was a concerning factor—what if we’re not able to employ or fill those many positions within that two-year period and we’re not compliant? So record keeping and compliance (which obviously your firm and Twin Lakes have)—I could see myself not having to worry at night that they hadn’t created the jobs.

I have three letters, and they are S-A-M. It’s you, Sam, because whenever I spoke with you, your professionalism, the way you communicate—you’ve never forced us to sign on any project without helping us as much as you can and letting us complete our due diligence. And just the overall vibes. That’s something that you cannot explain, but whenever I spoke with you, I always felt confident that Twin Lakes was the project and EB5AN was the company that I wanted to invest through.

That’s a huge point you just made. You never said, “Invest with us, otherwise I’m going to withhold all this information.” You were ready to present the information, and it wasn’t just about your projects, it was, “If you invest with us or through anybody else, these are the things you need to keep in mind.” And number two, looking at your track record, your pedigree, obviously those things are important to my wife and I—the infrastructure that you’ve put together. You can tell that you have a team of great individuals that are constantly working on getting things done. I still remember when we were getting the wire out with the whole SVD thing, and you and your team were available for us. That was huge.

First and foremost, talk to your spouse or your significant other or family (unless you have generational wealth; that’s a different story) if you are going to put in $800,000 because it’s going to be a life-changing event, a life-changing decision. You might have to scale back your lifestyle and so forth. Once that is taken care of, and your want to go ahead with EB-5, you need to have three things in place. First, your source of funds and a competent attorney that’s always going to be available at least during the duration of filing. Now, I’m not saying you call that person at 2:00 AM, but at least during business hours that person should be responsive or that law firm should be responsive. They should have infrastructure and a track record. Anahita George and Nick would be great.

Number three would be a firm like EB5AN that would help you find a list of options that you could invest in. Then, take one project at a time and carry out due diligence on each of those respective projects. Now, that happens later on. But if somebody wants to invest in any type of project, I feel these three things are important. Knowing that you have your family’s support is going to go a long way because there will be conversations, and you’ll be second-guessing yourself because it’s a large amount. Then, an attorney that is always helpful and an EB5AN-type of team that’s there for you would be huge as well.

Brand name, who is the builder? If it’s a construction project, who is the builder? Who is the developer? If it’s not a future project, get any data that is available to you. We were lucky that Twin Lakes had already kicked off and there were sales that were actually happening at that point. We saw that, the uptick in sale numbers and bookings definitely made it easier for us to make this decision. Repayment, their track record, and repaying these loans or any type of funding for that matter. I believe the Twin Lakes project also has secondary financing already approved, right?

Right. So you know that there is a set of underwriters external to this EB-5 funding that has approved the project as well, and you know that they’re not just purely focused on EB-5 funding.

Yes, the feasibility is huge.

Right. I have one more thing to add to your question about what I would suggest for advice.

One thing not to do is to talk to a lot of people and go on different forums and start thinking about like, “What if a project goes south or something?” In this sense and anything immigration-related, I have a best practice: ignorance is bliss. Sometimes, when you start talking to a lot of people and people with zero understanding or knowledge of EB-5, they start bombarding you with negative information. That will just make it extremely difficult to find a project and really have the conviction about the project or with an attorney’s team, or things of that nature.