By Parth Vakil
Affluent Indian families’ attitudes toward migration have shifted significantly in recent years. Traditionally, their vision was to arrive in a new country, integrate into its system, enjoy a higher standard of living, and create a better future for their children, all of which could be achieved through hard work. Today, their sights are set much higher.
Now, for families migrating to the United States, it’s not just about providing a comfortable life for themselves and their children. Comfort is no longer the aspiration for the next generation…excellence is.
They envision their children securing elite jobs at world-class organizations before building their own businesses or attending top-tier law schools where they may forge the necessary relationships to propel their ascent to political leadership. And now that Indians have done these very things, there is living proof of the unlimited potential and upside of what’s possible in America for the next generation of Indians.
This “new-age” vision amongst Indian migrants reflects a significant and often overlooked shift in perspective, one that can be attributed in large part to the widespread success of the Indian diaspora in the U.S.
According to the US Census Bureau, Indians sit atop the list as the highest-earning immigrant population by a large margin. A staggering 55% of the CEOs in America today are of Asian or Indian origin. As a natural byproduct of their achievements, the aspirations of Indian parents for the next generation have become even grander.
The pressing question for many affluent Indian families today is “what can we do to optimize our children’s chances of achieving success in America to the best of their abilities?”
One such tool for establishing this foundation is the modern residency-by-investment route. The U.S. EB-5 program serves as an efficient solution for wealthy families seeking permanent residency status to bypass certain limitations that may otherwise negatively impact their children’s futures in America.
By investing a sum of USD $800k, which is repaid in five years, in a commercial enterprise that creates 10+ American jobs, an investor in India can secure green cards for their entire family. The EB-5 visa has thus become an attractive option to HNIs/UHNIs, as it provides a clear path to permanent residency and eliminates the concerns of processing backlogs and ‘luck of the draw’ pertaining to other visa categories such as H-1B (work) and F-1 (student).
The EB-5 program was initially created to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment. In its simplest form, the glide path to permanent residency through EB-5 involves documenting the source of funds, vetting and selecting a qualifying investment project, and remitting the required funds.
The investor applicant then files form I-526E with the US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) bureau to secure their conditional green card, which is valid for 2 years; once granted, they are free to work, live, or study in the United States.
At the end of these 2 years, they file form I-826 to remove the conditions and attain permanent residency. A total of 10,000 EB-5 visas are issued annually, representing 7.1% of the worldwide employment limit.
The aforementioned success of Indians in America has much to do with the importance placed on education as the foundation for a successful life. As such, the primary driver for Indians in pursuing EB-5 is the value of permanent residency status in gaining admission to top US universities.
It is also common for Indian families to leverage EB-5 as a means to unlock career opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable to their children due to stringent H-1B employer-sponsorship requirements and uncertainties associated with its arbitrary lottery system. With an EB-5 visa, they face no job restrictions whatsoever and even possess the ability start their own business in America.
It’s safe to say that we are in the midst of a gradual but seismic shift in perspective of what America – ‘the land of opportunity’, represents to Indians. The unprecedented level of wealth creation taking place in India today will enable even more families and newly-minted HNIs to take advantage of residency-by-investment programs like EB-5 to ensure that their children are well-positioned to make the most of the opportunities available to them in America.
(Author is Founding Partner, Ek.indUS)
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