US quota for Chinese investor visa runs out

Chinese tycoons with US immigration plans face another obstacle before the end of next month as the US citizenship and immigration service is reported to stop issuing EB-5 visas, following Canada's cancellation of its investor immigration policy earlier this year.

Due to a surge in applications from Chinese citizens, the United States' quota of immigrant-investor visas offering quick permanent residency has been exhausted, with the Department of State announcing on Aug 23 that the EB-5 program had reached its quota for Chinese nationals for fiscal year 2014, which ends on Sep 30. The program will reopen for Chinese on Oct 1, 2014, the start of fiscal year 2015.

It is the first time the number of Chinese applicants, accounting for 85 percent of all claimants for EB-5 in fiscal year 2014, has reached the limit since the program started in 1990.

The World Post reported that the San Francisco Shipyards project, a typical example of the EB-5 program, has received $200 million in the past two years from Chinese investors hoping to secure a green card through investment.

The US has always been a favored immigration destination for Chinese investors and the cancellation of Canada's investor immigration policy is another reason for the surge in Chinese applicants, according to a Beijing-based immigration consultant.

The American government's EB-5 program sees 10,000 visas issued annually to foreigners putting a minimum $500,000 into development projects such as bridges, hotels, ski resorts and dairy farms. In exchange, investors and their families are eligible for permanent residency, or green cards, for a two-year period.