Ahmedabad: Facing unemployment of over 9 per cent, the US is trying to woo high networth individuals (HNIs) from India through its employment-based immigrant visa EB-5.
"Due to lack of awareness, the participation in EB-5 investor programme from HNIs in India is low. In first six months this year, only 40 Indian investors have availed the programme as compared to 62 in 2010," Green Card Fund (GCF)
Managing Partner Greg Wing said in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
"Around 10,000 EB-5 visas are available every year, but so far not more than 4,200 have been availed in any given year by investors in the US from across the globe," he said.
GCF is a federally-approved United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regional centre for EB-5 programme. It has joined hands with Fox Mandal (FMAS), an Indian consultancy and advisory firm, to create awareness about the investor programme for job creation in US.
As part of its promotional drive in India, GCF, jointly with FMAS, will be organising seminars to educate HNIs in cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Hyderabad and Chennai.
The EB-5 programme enables a foreign national secure green card (permanent residence) for himself as well as for his family (children up to 21 yrs) by making an investment of $5,00,000 into American commercial business that creates at least 10 jobs for US citizens, Ashok Kumar Joshi of FMAS said.
FMAS is the facilitator of this programme in India.
"The investment of half a million dollars in American commercial business shall be refundable to the investor over next three to four years' period with some minimal interest," said Wing, referring to advantages of the programme.
"GCF offers projects in sectors like education, health care, clean energy and healthcare facilities," Wing said.
China topped with 866 investors under the programme in 2010, followed by South Korea (295), Great Britain (135) and India (62). The programme helped US attract investment of $1,104,500,000 in 2010.
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