Investment Visas: Eligibility

Permanent resident status is available to investors, either alone or coming with their spouse and unmarried children. Eligible aliens are those who have invested -- or are actively in the process of investing -- the required amount of capital into a new commercial enterprise that they have established. They must further demonstrate that this investment will benefit the United States economy and create the requisite number of full-time jobs for qualified persons within the United States.

In general, "eligible individuals" include those:

1. Who establish a new commercial enterprise by:
   
   
   • creating an original business;
     
     
   • purchasing an existing business and simultaneously or subsequently restructuring or reorganizing the business such that a new commercial enterprise results; or
     
     
   • expanding an existing business by 140 percent of the pre-investment number of jobs or net worth, or retaining all existing jobs in a troubled business that has lost 20 percent of its net worth over the past 12 to 24 months; and
     
     
2. Who have invested -- or who are actively in the process of investing -- in a new commercial enterprise:
   
   
   • at least $1,000,000, or
     
     
   • at least $500,000 where the investment is being made in a "targeted employment area," which is an area that has experienced unemployment of at least 150 per cent of the national average rate or a rural area as designated by the Office of Management and Budget; and
     
     
3. Whose engagement in a new commercial enterprise will benefit the United States economy and:
   
   
   • create full-time employment for not fewer than 10 qualified individuals; or
     
     
   • maintain the number of existing employees at no less than the pre-investment level for a period of at least two years, where the capital investment is being made in a "troubled business," which is a business that has been in existence for at least two years and that has lost 20 percent of its net worth over the past 12 to 24 months.