Ep.15_Bruna Canto and Immigration Attorney Tadeu Ferreira Discuss EB-5 U.S. Visa Option for Students and Families

Featured guests, Bruna Canto Managing Director of Latin America for FPP, and U.S. Immigration Attorney Tadeu Ferreira who is Managing Partner at Leaf Law – are joined by hosts Martijn Van de Veen of ICEF (International Consultants for Education and Foreign Students) and Craig Riggs, as they discuss visa options in the U.S. for international students and their families after graduation. 

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On today's episode of investing in the American Dream podcast, we have featured guests Bruna kantele, Managing Director of Latin America for FPP and US immigration attorney to del Ferreira, who is managing partner at leaf law. They are both joined by co host Martin VanderVeen of ISEF international consultants for education and foreign students and Craig Riggs. On today's episode, they will be discussing and focusing on visa options in the US for international students and their families after graduation. Let's get into it. Being able to study overseas depends as we all know on many factors such as language proficiency entry exams, budget accommodation insurance, but especially on the ability to simply enter the destination country, the ability to get that much desired visa that actually allows you to study in the destination country which is our main topic this month. Joining me are Bruna canto managing director Latin America at first pathway partners and Taddeo Ferreira partner at leaf law Bruna today. Oh, thank you so much for joining you are both visa and immigration experts and it would be great if you could get us started with a brief introduction of yourselves, please Bruna. Hi, Martin. Thank you very much. So my name is Bruna. canto. I am the managing director for Latin America for first pathway partners. We are a regional center authorized by the US Immigration Department USCIS to offer EB five projects for internationals looking to live in the United States through the EB five program. Right. And what's been the regional center and the EB five program and a bit more detail later in this episode. Today you can watch and my name is Tara Fajita. I'm the managing partner of Leif Ferreira data visual, also known as Leif law. The firm was founded over 20 years ago, almost 25. We focus specialize in business immigration, in addition to servicing individual clients and organizations in the areas of say, EB five investor visa, we also do extraordinary ability, national interest waiver and other related activities. Right, thanks very much. To set the stage, Bruna, can you walk us through some of the current visa options that are available to prospective international students? Sure. So obviously, the first option is the f1 visa, the international student visa, which only allows those who have that visa to study in the United States and they're not able to work or do a lot of other activities. I specifically work with the EB five visa, which actually allows for applicants to obtain the green card. So permanent residents, this helps international students in a lot of ways already while they're studying. There are many benefits, such as lower tuition costs, increased number of scholarships available to us residents, higher acceptance rates to US universities, and when they graduate, they are able to work anywhere and live in the United States continue living in the United States. So the EB five sounds like a very attractive option. And I'll have some more questions about that specific visa in a second. And just wanted to summarize the visa opportunities that exist in the US typically their r&d three student visa types. The one you mentioned the F student visa the academic student visa for study at an accredited US college or university or to study English at an English Language Institute. The M visa also known as the vocational student visa rates to non academic or vocational study or training in the United States and the J visa, commonly known as the exchange visitor's visa has focused on a range of cultural exchange programs. Now, you just mentioned the the EB five visa, which I believe is not technically a student visa, but does provide indeed, an alternative to enter the US and the ability to study there today. Okay, tell us a little bit more about this EB five visa, when was it created? And what are the conditions to apply for an EB five visa? So the EB five was created in the early 90s as an option to invest in the US business for the purpose of creating jobs minimum of 10 full time jobs, and the visa has evolved since and we're going to discuss that next. But I would also briefly like to touch on, which I think is very important to understand and very relevant for the subject is why EB five is often the best in reality, sometimes the only option available to international students. So this is a point of contention for a very long time. There are a limited number of options in terms of not immigrants, so something temporary to reside in the US and people would obviously need to work in the US, and also to emigrate, which is the green card. So what often happens is the options that a recent graduate, say, with a bachelor's degree has to remain in the US are very limited. Of course, this has improved recently with the STEM extension of the op T, which allows for people to stay under the OPC, as opposed to one year, which has been the case now for three years. But even accounting for that the next step is always very challenging, because a person, let's say, with one or three years of experience, does not normally have the employment based options of showing that they have a long career of success, and that they have various accomplishments in the field, etc, which would allow them to what we call self petition, meaning I have reached a certain standing in the field and I can self petition to remain in the US, their options are limited to a sponsorship. So meaning a company would have to sponsor them for a position so that they can remain in the US. Now this option is normally the h1 be many, many years ago, the h1 visa was not a bad option, because the cap was seldom reached. But now, and we expect that in the future, the cap will be exceeded every single year. So the likelihood even if you do find an employer who's willing to sponsor you, the likelihood that this application will be selected in the lottery is I would say less than 25%. And then what that also contributes to is making it more difficult for people to find sponsors, because the sponsor is unwilling to go through the process, knowing that even though we meet all of the requirements, the individual meets all the requirements, it's up to chance. And it's actually less likely or say less than 50%, that there'll be selected. So very often what we have seen in the past years and an increase in demand for the EB five, because you know, someone that's investing in even thinking about, you know, the family, the family's investing in the child's education coming to the US, it's obviously, you know, requires a financial commitment, but also family planning and all these things. I mean, I can also speak for myself, I went through this, I moved from Brazil to the US when I was 18. Luckily, I had a green card that my parents gave me when I was younger. So I was lucky. But I studied and all of my international student friends face this issue. And I would say a majority of them were forced to leave because they did not have this option. So EB five actually became a good option for those people who are planning more long term and want to offer this opportunity to their kids. Just want to clarify, I'm sure the majority of our audience knows what a green card is, but just want to highlight that it's officially the Permanent Resident Card and identity document that shows that a person has permanent residency in the United States and green card holders are formally known as lawful permanent residents. Right. So that's, that comes with a lot of advantages. So you're claiming that the EB five is so attractive, but we of course need to recognize that that has quite a price tag attached to it Bruna? Yes, so the new amount, which was recently approved by the US government in March of this year is $800,000. The amount in the past was 500,000 for almost 30 years, and for a long time it was there was a discussion in Congress regarding changing this amount increasing this amount. And this was finally done this year. And the 800,000. Is that a one time investment or is this spread over a specific timeframe? Yes, normally, the full amount needs to be invested before the applicant is able to request the EB five visa. There are also some additional fees, which I like to say can go up to an additional $100,000 which are the project's administration fee, immigration attorney fees, translations and other miscellaneous fees. So we're going towards the $1 million needed right to get this started. Yeah, so I'd say about 900,000. But the most important part is that the 800,000 is an investment and it comes back to the investor. So it is not an expense only the additional say 100,000 are actual expenses. But as this is an investment, the capital should come back to the investor and normally after at least five years. Right so what we have here is a money making opportunity for those that can't afford it. And with that EB five come a lot of additional advantages. I believe it allows for a green card for the whole family and with all Family I believe parents and two children's I've Correct. Actually, it includes all children under 21 that are not married. So applicant, husband or wife and all kids, regardless of number that are under 21 and unmarried. So the larger the family more benefits through one investment amount, if I can just add one interesting option for those people who say are investing in the EB five on behalf of a child who's you know, in a US university, what they can do is gift the money to the child, the child would then invest in the EB five and receive the green card in their name. And then in the future, once they become US citizens, which is five years of green card, you're eligible to become a US citizen. Once you become a US citizen, you can then apply for a green card on behalf of your parents. So you could transfer that benefit of the green card to your parents, who could then transfer it to your other siblings. Of course, you can also apply for your sibling. But that takes about 15 years there other ways of planning that can do it faster. But the point is, even if you were to do it in your child's name, you could still extend the benefits looking made long term to the other family members. And is this EB five visa available to any nationality? Yes, so nationals of every country are eligible to apply for the EB five visas. Obviously, some countries have some difficulties transferring money out in order to make the investment but there are no countries that are not qualified to apply for the five visa and always the same amount and the same rules independent where the applicant is from credit. How does this EB five visa opportunity in the US compare with visa options in other major study destinations? Yeah, that's a great question. I was just reflecting on what today I was saying earlier, which I think is a really, really important context for our discussion about this program. The the broader trend in the world amongst major study destinations is towards expanding postgraduate work opportunities and settlement opportunities for foreign graduates. We see that in Australia, for example, just in the last couple of months, there was a really significant expansion of postgraduate work opportunities for foreign students in Australia, we see the same in the UK, we see the same in Canada where post study work rights have been expanded. And also Canada has tied sort of longer term immigration goals much more directly to foreign graduates than has been the case in the past. And so I think it'd be fair to characterize that as a global trend amongst other leading destinations, we do not see the same policy movements in the US, it's really optional practical training. And there has been admittedly some expansion of that and the h1 B visa, which are the other pathways for students to pursue postgraduate and subsequently settlement opportunities in the US otherwise. And just this week, I was just reading an academic paper that was published just this month that was talking about this very issue and highlighting that the US retains actually only a very small percentage of foreign graduates by the author's reckoning 70% of master's students, 90% of bachelor's students leave the US after graduation. And those are much lower retention rates than we would see in other major study destinations. And simply because there are no other channels by which students can pursue work opportunities or settlement opportunities in the US right outside of op T and h1 B, that's the significance of the EB five is that it is an example of a policy instrument in the US that opens up some additional settlement opportunities for graduates after they complete their studies. And there are direct counterparts in other countries, sort of immigrant investor programs, if you will. But I think the significance of it in the US context is that it provides another important channel for students that wish to remain in the US to work or even to settle in the US after their studies, which are otherwise not available. Well, another factor that makes it very significant is that according to Bloomberg, the EB five Visa Program has attracted more than 37 billion US dollars in foreign investment since 2008. So I'm sure that this is a very attractive route, all those involves somebody and as the students are going through the green card application process, can they already work and study during that process? Yes, so this is a recent change with the new program in the past applicants for the EB five program had to wait for the process to actually be approved in order to obtain residency and be able to work and have all the benefits of permanent residents with a new program approved in March of this year. Applicants for the EB program are able to concurrently file for Adjustment of Status, which means that they're able to obtain work authorization within a few months. Currently, some applicants for Adjustment of Status are receiving work authorizations in as little as four to five months. So this is a game changer, especially for international students already living in the United States because they can remain in the United States, apply for EB five with adjustment of status and be able to work in as little as a few months. First pathway partners known as FPP, specializes in helping foreign nationals obtain US residency through the EB five visa program. FPP has been authorized as a regional center by the US Immigration Department since 2008. Being one of the oldest and most experienced in the EB five industry, we take care of the entire process managing our clients investments and immigration requirements. FPP has assisted hundreds of immigrant investors through the EB five visa program from all over the world. FPP is one of few regional centers to have obtained various Permanent Green Card approvals and redeemed investors full capital contributions on various projects, placing us in the highest category of EB five industry achievement. With our experience, investors can be confident in our ability to make their immigration and investment journey both secure and worryfree