Wealthy Vietnamese restore relics in US in exchange for green cards

Wanting to settle in the US through investments, Hung, a businessman in HCM City, decided to attend a seminar on investment opportunities held by a consultancy firm. The seminar was organized at a small room in the office building located on Ky Con Street in district 1.

There were about 20 attendants like Hung. Three or four of them were middle aged, while the others were all young, just a little over 30. 

At the seminar, a woman introduced herself as the consultant on investment in real estate in the US, affirming that the investment type is safer than other business types.

“Investors will be ‘remunerated’ with green cards and get 100 percent of the money they invest,” the consultant said.

Also at the seminar, Hung heard information about a project to renovate the Institute for Military Medicine at Centennial Plaza in Mississippi, capitalized at US$151 million.

The representative of the consultancy firm said that the projects on restoring historic relics attract more investors than ones on building new works because they receive support from the US government in credit and tax.

She concluded that this is the safest way for investors to obtain green cards while paving the way for Vietnamese to settle in the US.

An analyst commented that seeking foreign citizenships through investments is now bettet known to many more Vietnamese. The US is leading countries where Vietnamese want to move to, followed by Canada and Australia. 

However, the governments have tightened immigration policies recently.

Under the EB-5 Visa Program, approved by the US Congress in 1990, for example, the required minimum investment was US$500,000, with the consent of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

According to consultancy firms, EB-5 is considered the safest program for foreigners to settle in the US through the investments. Every year, the US government grants 10,000 visas under the EB-5 program. 

However, since September 30, 2016, the minimum required investment capital has been raised to US$800,000.

Since the number of investors to be accepted is limited, the rich have to run a race for green cards. Not all of them can satisfy the requirements to become investors and obtain green cards, though they don’t lack money. 

One of the things they have to do is to prove that their money is ‘clean’. That is why consultancy firms have mushroomed. On average, the firms pocket US$20,000 in service fees for every successful consultancy case.