We specialise in helping our clients have their cake and eat it too. An EB-5 visa seeker should keep 5 primary goals in mind:
1) Get approval in the quickest manner possible: Direct Investment Businesses have always been the quickest approach to get EB-5 visa, and especially now, it takes about half the time to get I-526 approved for Direct Investment Businesses in comparison to Regional Centers.
2) Ensure that they are able to document the creation of 10 jobs: Regional Centers go for indirect jobs and tenant occupancy, due to which their I-526 petition denial rate is high, while I've personally had over 50 clients approved for Direct Investment Businesses without any hitch whatsoever due to the simple fact that I advise my clients to start / buy businesses that meet and exceed USCIS criteria in a PROFITABLE manner.
3) Get a decent ROI: EB-5 visa seekers who've used my services to buy / start businesses usually get an annual ROI of over 22%, while those who invest in regional centers or partnerships usually struggle to get even 1% annual ROI. One of the major reasons low (or no ROI) is seen in partnerships and regional centers is that the promoters of partnerships and regional centers are usually engaged in fraud and conflict of interest.
4) Get capital gains when you exit: Capital gains are usually unknown to those who invest in partnerships / regional centers / third rate franchises, whereas my clients usually see pretty decent capital gains because I steer my clients into safe and usually lucrative businesses that usually end up appreciating over a period of time.
5) Easy exit strategy: Regional Centers and partnerships usually lock in EB-5 visa investors for 5-9 years, and even then charge an arm and a leg to exit the investment, whereas those who invest in their own Direct Investment Businesses usually exit whenever they want. EB-5 visa seekers should remember that a Papa John's or Dominos
franchise may be great for Pizzerias, while Marco's Pizza may be a risky
investment due to an unproven model and customer preferences.
Similarly, a McDonalds or 5 Guys franchise may be great for burgers, but
Elevation Burgers may actually be quite risky for reasons stated above.
A final example would be Subways being a great option while Quiznos not
being so great. Quite often, unscrupulous franchise brokers may try to
solicit EB-5 visa seekers to invest in a business with a risky business
model, in order to earn commissions from the franchisor at the expense
of the EB-5 visa seeker.
An easy way to find out if a franchise is a good option or not, is to
ask a lender bank if they will finance that franchise. If the lender
says no, then the EB-5 visa seeker should avoid the franchise. Another
easy way to find out is to ask the franchisor to provide audited
financial statements from 10 of the closest franchisees to see what was
the annual NOI per store, and in case the stores are making losses or
very little profit, the EB-5 visa seekers should avoid the franchise.
EB-5 visa seekers should also ask Franchise brokers and promoters to
disclose in a notarised affidavit the commissions they will receive from
all sources, in order to make an informed decision on whether to invest
or not in a particular franchise. Finally, EB-5 visa seekers should
seek the help of reputed and experienced Business Advisors who offer a
written guarantee of freedom from conflict of interest to their clients,
to help EB-5 visa seekers make an informed decision.
The following is a list of franchises that are usually safe for EB-5 visa seekers:
There are also several non-franchise options available for businesses such as movie theatres, child care, gun shops, skating rinks, sports facilities & sportsplexes, liquor stores, used car dealerships, motorcycle & scooter dealerships, pharmacies, etc.
All business brokers and EB-5 visa advisors are not alike either. The unethical
ones promote risky, third rate franchises and / or regional centers to EB-5 visa seekers, while
we've helped our clients buy / start only reputable franchises such as 5
guys, McDonalds, KFC, Subway, etc., due to which our clients have never
had to face operating losses or capital loss, while those who invest in
dubious franchises are usually encounter capital losses and operating
losses. Our competitors usually don't offer written guarantees of full
disclosure and freedom from conflict of interest, while we do so
confidently and proudly. Our competitors don't have 9 years of Business
Brokerage and Advisory experience helping investors buy / start
businesses to qualify for the EB-5 visa, while since 2004, we've helped
48 investors get their EB-5 visa approvals so far.
We
offer a full fee refund guarantee in case our client's EB-5 visa
petition is denied due to our fault. We also offer a written guarantee
of full disclosure and freedom from conflict of interest, and none of
our clients has suffered operating losses or capital losses. If you find our competitors willing to offer a similar guarantee, look at them, and if not, do yourself a favour and avoid them.
