COMMENTARY | In a tight economy, the government is looking at all possible avenues to help stimulate job growth. Though the government is quickly running out of money, or has already exceeded its income, there are non-monetary avenues that the government can take to reach this goal. One such avenue is the longtime, but little known, visa program called EB-5. First established in 1992, the EB-5 visa program essentially gives visas to foreign nationals who come to the United States and invest at least $500,000 and create or preserve at least 10 full-time jobs over two years.
Those who believe this program should be utilized more argue that this visa is a way to attract investors who would take their money to other countries to create jobs there. It is more than just purchasing a visa, rather it is a way to keep citizens employed and get money flowing to the economy. It is not utilized often and the program comes with a lot of oversight.
Those who are against the program look to scandals like the Mamtek sweetener factory and the fact that this program lets wealthy individuals have greater access to the United States. The Mamtek sweetener factory was a failed program that had EB-5 approval, but somehow didn’t have the funds to keep the plant operational. The plant defaulted on bond payments and the net result was the loss of many jobs. On the other hand, the opponents of the program also argue that it allows wealthy individuals to buy their way into the United States instead of waiting years for a normal visa, a luxury that poorer individuals would never have.
It would seem that as the visa gets more and more publicity, it will be more and more likely that people will try to get around the system, as may have been the case with the Mamtek sweetener factory. With only less than 2,000 visas issued per year of the 10,000 available EB-5 visas, if the government cannot give proper oversight to the existing visas, it would seem easy to take advantage of the situation. I believe it is a good idea in theory, but unless the government is willing to step up its oversight of those receiving the visa, it may be best to reconfigure the program. The United States was not founded on rich people who paid their own way over, but, for the most part, on the “tired, poor and huddle masses” that yearned to be free.