eb5 visa source of funds
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EB5 Visa: The Importance of Source of Funds

If you get a chance to interact with any EB-5 visa investor, you would know the list of documents they had to provide to prove the source of funds. And the total number of documents sent to the USCIS can reach upwards of 10,000 pages. The investor may provide  2000 pages of documents to prove the source of funds.

So, you may wonder, why would someone have to provide 2000 pages of financial documents?

Look this Final Court Order.

Federal Judge Amit Mehta, dismissed a case filed by an Iranian EB-5 Investor after USCIS had originally denied the Investor’s I-526 Application for EB5 Visa. But, why did USCIS deny the petition in the first place? Questionable Source of Funds! USCIS was unable to trace the source of EB5 investment funds of the Investor.

The first stage of EB-5 Visa application is filing the form I-526 and providing documentation to that shows investor’s eligibility, including the source of EB5 invested funds.

EB5 Visa – Source of Funds

The EB-5 Visa Funds should be acquired by lawful means.

Iranian Investor submitted I-526 with $500,000 investment in Jan 2014. the investor used three sources of funds as follows:

  1. Sale of Gold Coins
  2. Rental Income
  3. Husband’s Income

Here’s an assumed visual depiction of the expected flow of the source of funds.

eb5 visa source of funds

 

The investor should provide sufficient documentation to prove the sale of gold coins, rental income deposits, contracts, and the husband’s income.

As part of proving the source of funds, the EB5 Investor should provide documents to prove the sale of gold coins.

As per the final order, the investor had listed a Selling Invoice for gold coins “1000 gold coins-2007” at the price of 1,100,000 Toomans for each coin for a total of 1,100,000,000 – Tooman.

Tooman is a form of Iranian currency. And the same invoice listed the total sale of 1,100,000,000 rials – different Iranian currency.

 

Also, as part of the documents, investors are required to show documents about the origin of the money and the track the path to the EB-5 Project’s bank account.

As per the provided documents, the EB5 funds were not wired directly to the EB5 Project’s bank account, but from two entities in Dubai.

 

eb5 iranian investors court order source funds

USCIS issued an RFE, requesting to verify the lawful path of the capital investment. In other words, they wanted to know how the money got from the investor to the entities.

Eventually, the petition was denied and investor sued USCIS. The court got involved and the Federal Judge denied the summary judgment – The investor lost the case.

This case proves the importance of the source of funds and why every penny needs to be accounted for by providing the source and tracking every penny from how it was earned and path money took to reach the EB-5 project’s account.

The Bottomline: EB5 Source of Funds

Here’s what USCIS is expecting from the Investor about Source of Funds for invested amount into the EB5 Visa project.

eb5 visa source of funds

 

If you are wondering if I can borrow the money from friends or gift from family, just refer to this image. Can you show end to end documentation? the money can be a loan or gift. If it’s a gift, then the person providing the gift should provide the required documentation.

EB5 Visa Series

  1. EB5 Visa Process for US Green Card – I-526, I-485, and I-829
  2. Glossary of EB5 Visa Terms
  3. 20 FAQ’s About EB5 Visa for H1B Visa Holders
  4. Source fo EB5 Visa Funds for H1B & H4 Visa Holders
  5. Can $500,000 Investment be Any Type of EB5 Projects?
  6. EB5 Investment – $900,000 or 1.8 Million
  7. EB5 Visa Investments: Direct, Direct Pooled vs Regional Center

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