eb-5 is also referred to as the immigrant investor program. you must create a new enterprise or business hiring at least 10 full-time employees. employees must be u.s. citizens, pr's, or immigrants authorized to work. the investor must maintain the business by keeping 10 employees fully employed for at least 2 years.
i know 2 sinkie families who have direct experience with this program. they are all pr's now, including their spouses and children. a family has sold the business, exactly after 2 years. the other is still running it, and it remains profitable. both opted for the usd1m program as their kids were young when they started, and they wanted their kids to attend "good" schools. "good" schools are only available in the wealthier suburbs in smaller cities within the larger metropolitan area (e.g. bay area).
the usd500k option is limited to 2 types of areas: "targeted employment area" with at least an unemployment rate of 150% of the national average (basically either everyone is unemployed or most are unemployable such as druggies, ex-convicts, gangsters, criminals, fugitives, unhealthy, very old, wasted
), and "rural area" in the outer boundaries of a small city or town with a population of 20k or more. the usd1m (general) option applies to all areas including cities, suburbs, urban sprawl (like the bay area with multiple adjoining cities).
there are cases where eb-5 works for both tiong and neh immigrants. tiong eb-5 immigrants who are wealthier than equivalent neh eb-5 immigrants prefer the usd1m route, due to better areas to run the business and work in. there are also benefits of strength in numbers (other likeminded tiongs in the same program and similar businesses for partnership, consultation, support, camaraderie), convenience, safety, proximity to international airports, variety of banking, wholesale stores (e.g. costco), suppliers, etc. neh eb-5 immigrants try their luck in the usd500k option. in northern california, examples of rural areas include small farming towns in the central valley (los banos {yes, the toilet}, corcoran {wrote about this town on sbf many years back}, madera, watsonville, turlock, soledad, etc.). forget about "targeted employment area". they are mostly ghost towns or abandoned areas where economic activity is so bad you cannot sustain a business for 69 days. lucky if you can keep it up for 69 weeks. if you run an eatery or fast-food joint, which many eb-5 prospectors do, you'll be feeding your employees, their families and bums and losers coming and going to freeload. nehs can take shit, and they try their luck in these godforsaken places. one even runs a motel right next to his fast-food joint and sleeps there with 2 of his hispanic manageress every other week night. weekends he would return to his wife and kids in the bay area. his earnings are mainly from truckers stopping by to catch some sleep, get a bite and bang some illegal immigrant hispanic hookers. if you try the rural areas or small towns above, you'll need to speak spanish or have a young, ambitious and pretty translator. mostly all are hispanics with few rednecks, and you need to arm yourself and advertise to all that you're well armed and ready to shoot if burglarized. hiring is easy but hiring good employees will be so tough. the hardest to manage are younger people of low integrity, morale, morals and iq - they are all over the central valley unless they are much older and doing farm work. in the metro area with usd1m, it's extremely tough now to hire reliable workers as economy is good, summer is here meaning students are gone holidaying, and many are looking for higher wages since (a much higher) minimum wage comes into effect in most major california cities.
