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don’t want to boldly step in. We think project selection is like
stock selection, you need to look at the industry’s situation. If
the industry is not prosperous, it is hard to count on someone
to bring the project to success through management. It will
also increase the difficulty of management, in general. For
hotel projects, I also know that there are many hotel projects
everywhere, so we usually conduct a specific analysis for hotel
projects too. For example, we have a Four Seasons hotel project
in Puerto Rico, a holiday resort type hotel. We think this is
a very good project because Puerto Rico and the Caribbean
Sea area are tourist attractions. This location is very suitable
to build a resort type hotel. So we believe it is easier for the
investors to accept this project. The real situation proves the
acceptability of this project is very high. Yet it doesn’t mean we
embrace all hotel projects at any location. Hotel project depends on operation (and) its future revenue counts on its operation, so we will scrutinize the hotel location and hotel type.
EB5 Investors Magazine: What do you think is the
biggest obstacle for developing EB-5 in China? For
example, competition and government control?
Winner Xing: We think the biggest obstacle is the waiting
time. In the past, the U.S. program had the time advantage
compared to Canadian program. The U.S. program was faster.
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As far as I recall, two or three months, one or two months for
approval. Now the waiting time is longer and longer. EB-5
investment is an entity investment, and if the processing
time extends, it conflicts with the nature of entity investment
because the construction time of an entity has a limit and the
fund injection is according to a plan. However, if your EB-5
time is uncertain and has an extension, it will increase the risk,
even may drag down an originally good project. The investor’s
immigration plan has a timeline too. If the whole immigration
process takes a long time and is full of uncertainty, the investor’s immigration goal and motivation could have changed
drastically. This is why we think it is a big problem. We hope
that in the Congress’ future discussion, the (reduction) of
waiting time could be considered, and solution and strategy
could be applied. This is the problem we see, other than that
there is no obvious obstacle. Since people already know EB-5
investment is risky, but the attraction of green cards exist, the
investor would find a balance between risk evaluation and
green card attraction. Of course if the investor has concerns
about investing in the U.S., we will suggest they invest in
Canada, Europe and other British Commonwealth countries.
EB5 Investors Magazine: Which one do you think is
more important, the reputation of a project or the
reputation of a regional center?
Winner Xing: Usually, a migration agency will take a
look at the regional centers and select the familiar ones. This
is because through long-term collaboration, there is a trust
built. If the project belongs to an unfamiliar regional center,
they will be concerned about any possible issues happening in
the future. So migration agencies consider the collaboration
history and experience as important things. However, w e
found that in real investment behavior, investors don’t really
care about the regional center. The care more about the
project. For example, if you’re promoting a project with a
very good investment subject, investment structure, and job
creation calculation method, even if it belongs to a not-veryreputable regional center or an unfamiliar regional center,
the investor will invest in the project. Maybe even after his
petition is approved, he still doesn’t know the regional center’s
name. So, investors focus more on the project itself. Because
of this, migration agencies also focus more on the project. If
have to pick up one from the two, I believe migration agencies
will put the project first, because investors put this first.
EB5 Investors Magazine: Does Worldway work with
time-tested regional centers only, or do you work with
some new centers as well?
Winner Xing: We have both. We take the regional centers
that we’ve collaborated with before more seriously, because we
have worked on projects together. Both sides want a long-term
collaboration, and the two sides are more responsible to the in-
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