India's demand for EB-5 visa applications to jump despite stricter norms

Even as the US government debates a proposal to toughen the norms for a cash-for-visa programme, demand from India is expected to continue strongly, potentially upstaging Chinese applicants in 2018. 

Indians have invested upwards of $120 million in the United States through the EB-5 visa programme which offers foreign residents the chance to become permanent residents, provided they invest a minimum $500,000 (more than Rs 31 million) in a government-approved EB-5 business or create 10 full-time jobs in the country. 

Recently, the US government reportedly began discussions on increasing the base investment component in the EB-5 programme to $920,000. "We expect demand from India to continue in 2018 no matter the changes and catch up to China, which remains the largest source of EB-5 visa applications," Abhinav Lohia, vice-president of India and Middle East at visa facilitation firm CanAm Enterprises, said. 

Significant demand is coming from tier-II cities such as Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, and Rajkot as well, Lohia added. 

The largest firm of its kind catering to the Indian market and processing a significant share of all such visas, CanAm, has said the number of Indian applicants have grown 140 per cent since 2014, currently ranking just behind China and Vietnam. There were more than 500 visa applications from India in 2016-17 and higher numbers were expected once the official data for the current financial year rolls in. 

A total of 10,000 visas are up for grabs every year with no country allowed more than seven per cent of all visas, or 700 slots, in the first instance. However, if applicants from a country cross that limit, they are put on a waitlist, which is the case for most Chinese citizens with whom the programme has been a hit since the beginning. 

After applications close, remaining slots are allotted to waitlisted candidates. As a result, more than 85 per cent of visas went to Chinese nationals till 2014. 

"The demand from China has continued to fall potentially as a result of longer wait times and limited slots," Lohia added. 

While the scheme has been running since 1990, later, amendments started the regional centre programme that Indians favour. It facilitates investments in targeted employment areas, mostly in rural areas, where unemployment rates are 1.5 per cent higher than the national average. 

But, the programme is not expected to be an alternative to the HIB visa programme through which most Indian technology majors send employees to the US. "While a clampdown on temporary work visas used by information technology professionals have continued ever since the Donald Trump administration took charge, it will not be feasible to source employees through the EB-5 since it would be just too costly,” a senior official from industry body Nasscom said under conditions of anonymity.