The project has to generate the required number of jobs so that the applicant can get his/her permanent residency in the United States. To ensure that they will receive their invested funds back, one should also be careful and choose a sound project. The developer, as well as the regional center behind the project, should have a clean record. They should have solid I-526 and I-829 approval records. Investors should find out whether they have returned any principal in their previous projects. These are experience-related checkpoints. When it comes to the project, we always prefer projects where all the financing is already in place. We like to ensure that the developer will complete the EB-5 project, even if they fail to raise some or most of the EB-5 funds. We also pay tremendous attention to the waterfall. We want to make sure that there is a senior loan. Even though it is ahead of the EB-5, it gives us comfort that an institutional money manager, bank, etc., has looked at the project and decided to fund it. If the project is good enough for the bank at, for example, a 60% LTV (loan to value) ratio, we reckon that it should be acceptable for our investors at a 75% LTV. If, on the other hand, no institutional money is touching the deal, even if the developer claims the EB-5 is ahead of everyone else in the waterfall, it is a red flag for us. In some seldom cases, we do seriously consider projects whereby the developer with outside assets guarantees the NCE loan to the JCE that would give indirect comfort of repayment of principal to the EB-5 investors.
