Green Cards for Sale: $1 Million

by Dave Bennion · 2008-10-13 03:43:00 UTC
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Need a green card?  Got a million bucks?  Dr. Evil, EB-5 investorThen head to Florida -- you're all set!

Lake Buena Vista Resort Village & Spa has become Florida's first federally-designated EB-5 Regional Center.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service designation, known as the EB-5 immigrant investor program, allows foreign buyers to eventually become permanent United States residents by investing at least $1 million in properties.

The EB-5 program, created by Congress as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, grants foreign buyers U.S. residency in exchange for investing $1 million in a project that creates at least 10 jobs.

Meanwhile, if you're like most of the millions who came through Ellis Island -- unskilled and poor -- your wait time for a green card "approaches infinity."  From Reason Magazine:

The worst case scenario [for immigrating to the U.S.]? You are an unskilled worker hoping to make a better life for yourself in America. "Unlike previous periods in our history, there is virtually no process for unskilled immigrants without family relations in the U.S. to apply for permanent legal residence," the chart by Reason Foundation and the National Foundation for American Policy states.

Unskilled workers just have to hope they get lucky. That's because only 10,000 green cards are given to these workers each year and "the wait time approaches infinity." Skilled workers may have better chances, but still face strict caps, thousands of dollars in fees, and an 11 to 16 year wait to obtain a green card and gain U.S. citizenship.

What was it I learned in grade school?  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all millionaires are created equal . . ."

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Dave Bennion
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