post your six year limit due to severe backlogs in the EB-2 and
EB-3 categories, the potential removal of the AC21 rule and
targeting families in the U.S. on extended vacations opens up
a growing and emerging market for issuers to market their
EB-5 projects.
STRATEGIC WAYS TO ACCESS
ONSHORE EB-5 INVESTORS
Now we will analyze how to access these prospective EB-5
investors. There is a myriad of ways to reach these potential
onshore EB-5 investor s. However, the key will be having the
appropriate relationships and networks to make this occur, as
gaining access to these investors is much easier stated than
accomplished. There are several options one can take in the
mind of the EB-5 marketer or placement agent.
A place to begin might be to hold multiple seminars on college
campuses that educate foreign students on the parameters of
the EB-5 program, allowing you to market your given project.
A record high of over one million foreign students came
to America for higher education in 2016 2 , proving the vast
potential of this market. California, New York and Texas were
the most populated states of foreign students, with numbers
of 150,000, 125,000 and 115,000, respectively. 3
New York University, University of Southern California, Arizona
State University and Columbia University were the top four
universities hosting foreign students, with numbers of 15,500;
13,300; 12,800 and 12,700, respectively. 4 China (30 percent),
India (19 percent), Saudi Arabia (8 percent) and South Korea
(8 percent) were the top four places foreign students came
from. 5 Additionally, within these colleges you can target
independent societies or social clubs primarily comprised of
foreign students. Seminars and presentations in cities that
attract a high number of tourists and have a high number of
non-resident aliens could be effective in targeting prospective
onshore EB-5 investors.
It is evident that places such as Orlando, Disneyland, Silicon
Valley, California, New York, Texas, New Jersey and Miami
would all have a high number of non-resident aliens and
tourists. Examples of where these EB-5 seminars and
presentations could be held include name-brand hotels,
convention centers or luxury commercial office spaces.
They could be catered events with quality food and drinks,
accompanied with a small gift for attending.
Approximately 70 percent of H-1B holders are employed
by large corporate IT and tech firms in Silicon Valley. 6 From
2001 through 2015, approximately 1.8 million H-1B visas were
issued in the U.S., with Indians and the Chinese accounting
for 50.5 percent and 9.7 percent of approved H-1B visas,
respectively. 7 Targeting the millions of existing H-1B holders
who are primarily in California (17.7 percent), New Jersey (14
percent), Texas (12.2 percent) and New York (7.2 percent) in
your EB-5 marketing efforts could bear a lot of fruit due to the
sheer size of the market. 8 Like other alternatives, electronic
promotion could be more compatible with your business
model than webinars.
You could utilize email and/or social media as a more
37
EB5 INVESTORS M AGAZINE
"Targeting the millions
of existing H-1B
holders...in your EB-5
marketing efforts could
bear a lot of fruit..."