Andres Bazo

MIAMI—For decades, a number of real estate developments and other business ventures have been financed by foreign investors looking to become permanent residents in the US through the EB-5 program. Effective Nov. 21, EB-5 visa seekers/investors are going to pay more as the Department of Homeland Security increased the standard minimum investment amount from $1 million to $1.8 million. For targeted employment areas (TEAs), the required investment amount has risen to $900,000 from $500,000. As a result, there is an expected decline of EB-5 petitions after that date, which means a potential decline of foreign investment funds in the US and South Florida. This has been the first increase since the program's inception back in 1990.

"Foreign investment will continue to flow into the United States either through the EB-5 or alternative visas such as the E-2 (Treaty Investor Visa) although not all countries are eligible for this option, regardless of the visas," says Andres Bazo, foreign legal consultant with Rasco Klock Perez & Nieto. "There are other countries such as Portugal, Spain, UK, Greece, Turkey, Caribbean Islands and the Province of Quebec in Canada, among others, with similar foreign investors programs and these jurisdictions may benefit from this increase in the EB5's investment amounts," he tells GlobeSt.com. Quebec's program, for example, is similar and they recently increased their minimums to C$1,200,000 (equivalent to US$900,000) except for Portugal and Spain where the minimum is E$500,000.

"Wealthy foreign investors will always invest in the US," says Bazo. "Developers, however, may feel the impact since they were getting significant amounts of money through the EB-5 program which may decline after Nov. 21 with these new rules. Out of the 10,000 visas per year, including investors and family members, only around 3,500-4,000 investors get their visas each year. In perspective, this is rather a small number (in people and dollars) when talking about foreign investment."