- October 6, 2011
- Category: EB-5, Regional Center, USCIS
The federal government has shut down a program here that allowed foreign investors to obtain green cards in exchange for investing $500,000 in the El Monte Transit Village project, officials said Wednesday.
See full story:Â PASADENA STAR NEWS
The EB-5 Program makes 10,000 visas available annually to immigrant investors who invest in commercial enterprises that create at least 10 U.S. jobs. EB-5 investors may petition independently or as part of a USCIS-designated Regional Center. The El Monte Project had been designated as a Regional Center.
City officials Wednesday celebrated the decision by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services – which runs the EB-5 regional center program – to shut down the local program.
The closure comes as the former developers of the public- private partnership have fallen under heightened federal scrutiny, including an FBI investigation. Despite the investigations and the city disassociating itself from developers Transit Village LLC and San Francisco-based Cross Ocean Holdings in 2009, the developers continue to seek overseas Chinese investors, city officials said.