Mykolas Rambus, Chairman of GIIC, article on US Investor Immigration in Global Banking & Finance Review

The US Immigration Act of 1990 led to the creation of the EB-5 visa, an immigration route for those willing to invest at least $500,000 in US businesses. The program was in some ways similar to Canada’s Investor Immigration Program, which had enjoyed strong uptake since its introduction in 1896.

The EB-5 program grew in the mid-1990s, led by strong demand from wealthy citizens of Hong Kong, who were wary of the impending handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997. There was also a large number of applications from Taiwan, which was undergoing democratic reform and faced uncertainty over its relationship with mainland China. However, uptake for investor immigration in the US was much lower than in Canada. In the late-1990s and early 2000s, with demand from hong Kong and Taiwan falling, the program fell into obscurity…

Read the full article in Global Banking & Finance Review, p60-63, here.