More Koreans Choose Investment Option for U.S. Greencards

An increasing number of Koreans are immigrating to the U.S. through an investment program as the U.S. has loosened immigration restrictions in order to boost its economy hit hard by the global economic crisis.

In 1990 the U.S. government began granting permanent residency, or greencards, to immigrants who invest over US$1 million in the country, and in 1993 it introduced an immigrant investment program dubbed “Regional Center EB-5 Program” which offers greencards to those who invest at least US$500,000. The number of agencies which file applications for the immigration program on behalf of clients tripled to around 60 to 70 last year from 23 worldwide in 2008.

Immigration through investment is a popular option especially among parents seeking to have their children educated in the U.S., as the parents and all children aged 21 or under are able to receive greencards. Various benefits come with permanent residency, such as lower tuition fees for U.S. residents. Between 2006 and 2008, 1,454 Koreans obtained greencards via the program, the highest number among 67 countries that participated.

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Tags: Add new tag, Economy, Federal government of the United States, Immigration, Investment, Permanent residency, Residency, Tuition, United States

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 8:40 am and is filed under EB-5 Visa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.