Foreigners retiring to the USA for fulltime RVing: has anyone here done it?

[VallAndMo]

Hello folks,

We are foreigners a few years from retiring, and we are planning to move to the US and enter the fulltime RV lifestile as soon as we retire; I posted a message introducing us here.

Of course, we want do it legally.

Has anyone else here done that? Vall has a good prospect on getting a job in an US company which automatically sponsors all foreign employees for a green card, but if that doesn't work out, I would like to have a "backup plan" (fulltime RVing in the US is just too good an idea to let it fail).

We have been reading a lot on special VISAs etc and so far, it looks like our best bet would be to try and get an EB5 visa on a qualified RC ($500K initial investment plus around $70K in taxes and lawyer fees), but we are worried as there's really no guarantee that we will have the money back someday (to say nothing of a decent ROI), and no guarantee that we will have a permanent green card after the 2 year "evaluation period" ends... and $570K is just too much money for a 2-year stay visa).

Any advice, experiences, hints etc are very welcome.

Thanks,
--
   Vall and Mo.

[Tom]

There are a number of us who came here through some kind of employer-sponsored visa. It's a long process to obtain a green card and even longer to achieve citizenship, but well defined, and I can't think of any pitfalls per se. Similarly, companies we've worked for have sponsored employees via various visa routes.

I'm not aware of anyone here who has gone the E5 route (well, maybe one), but I do know, from a recent discussion with an immigration lawyer, that it's possible. That $500K minimum investment could be as much as $1M, depending on geographic area, and it requires that it "creates at least 10 new full-time jobs for U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or other lawful immigrants, not including the investor and his or her family."

There are no guarantees but, if you meet all the requirements, follow the defined process, and don't do anything illegal, I can't imagine why you wouldn't come out the other end of the process.

I can't speak for the ROI or the possibility of recovering your initial investment, but I assume you'd do your homework before investing that kind of money.

Consulting with an immigration lawyer would certainly be money well spent.

[DearMissMermaid]

It used to be you could come in as a tourist for a year, then renew, since you have your own income to support your visit in the USA. 

You can find out more by making an appointment at one of the US Embassys in Brazil. 

http://www.usembassy.gov/

[Tom]

Speaking from personal experience, in the last 40⁺ years, you have not been allowed entry to the US as a non-immigrant for more than 6 months at a time. There are special provisions to extend that non-immigrant stay by, for example, filing a form I-539 (see this message), but the original entry has a 6 months maximum stay.

What Vall and Mo are talking about is a special case where they are allowed entry as immigrants under one of the following provisions:

• Sponsorship by a company that is otherwise unable to recruit some special talent, experience or skill.
• Investment of  $500,000 to $1 million in a US company that results in the employment of at least 10 people, excluding the investors or their family.

Links to detailed requirements have been posted in prior topics, but you can search the US Citizenship and Immigration Services web site here.

No US embassy can change or waive the immigration laws.

[DearMissMermaid]

I didn't imply they could waive or change it, I said they could get more information from the US Embassy in Brazil by making an appointment.

It is possible to get more than 6 months entry to come visit without working. 

[Gary RV Roamer]

I don't know of any investment that guarantees you get your money back, except maybe some bonds and they don't qualify under EB5. Whether the $500, 000 investment is risky or not depends on how well you select it. Creating 10 jobs implies a start-up company or maybe a major expansion and those are always on the risky side.

[topdownman]

Easier to just cross the border from Mexico into Arizona or Texas, thousands do it everyday and it's free.

[VallAndMo]

Hello Folks,

Thanks for all the replies. We have been researching into this EB-5 stuff, and it's somewhat confusing, but we think we have most of it nailed down. Here's a brief summary of what we found so far:

- There are 2 kinds of EB-5 visas: the ones where you invest in a qualified RC (Resource Center), and the ones where you don't.

- For the RC EB-5, minimum investiment is $500K, for the non-RC, it's $1M.

- If you take the RC route (best for us, as no active management is necessary), you will pay RC fees (around $50K - $70K) and also lawyer fees (around $10K-20K);

- You need to start by selecting an RC; for example, Jay Peak is apparently well regarded. You will then need to commit the U$500K investment funds (it's recommended to do that on a scrow basis, so that if your  I-526 form is rejected for any reason, you can receive the $500K back immediately).

- You will also need a lawyer to help you with the legal aspects and also to fill the paperwork.

- When you apply for the VISA, you start by submitting an I-526 application to the USCIS; this is reported as taking from 3 to 5 months to be approved. When it's approved, you must then submit an I-485 application; this one takes from 3 to 12 months, and upon its approval you and your family (wife and kids under 21 years of age) are granted an immediate temporary greencard VISA that enables you to do anything on the US (live, work, etc) for 2 years. Instead of the I-485, it seems one can also do an "IV application" that is supposed to be faster, but it seems you have to be physically in the US already to do that (we weren't able to find much info regarding this IV application).

- 90 days before these 2 years expire, you must submit an I-829 application to the UCIS, with supporting documents (provided by the RC) proving you have created at least 10 jobs; after at least 6 months processing time (and it seems it can take much longer), if all goes well, you will have the conditions on your (and your family's)  greencards removed, which makes it a permanent greencard.

- I-526 and I-829 approvals are anything but granted; in fact, we have seen rejection rates as high as 20% being reported; Unfortunately, USCIS doesn't keep or publish any records on the rejection reasons (but people believe it's mainly failure at creating the required 10 jobs).

- We searched for track records for each Regional Center; the idea is that the RC with the best rates of approval would have the best management, and so would not only provide the best chances of greencard approvals but also of getting your investment money back. It seems that there's no hard data on this, as USCIS reportedly keeps no RC-related statistics on approvals/rejections. On the other hand, some RCs (like the aforementioned Jay Peak) reports that they have (so far) 100% approval rates for both I-526 and I-829 submissions.

Anyone who has more experience or info about these matters and can comment on  or rectify the above, please do! We are not in the US and much less have talked to an immigration lawyer so far, and all our information was collected from on-line resources, so anything you can add is more than welcome.

Thanks,
--
   Vall & Mo.

PS: some of the online resources which we found are:
Wikipedia page on EB-5 (worse than most Wikipedia pages);
USCIS page on EB-5 (the official word)
Jay Peak's EB-5 site
An immigration lawyer's site with lots of info on EB-5

[VallAndMo]

Hello TopDownMan,

Easier to just cross the border from Mexico into Arizona or Texas, thousands do it everyday and it's free.

LOL :-) That's not our idea of "doing it legally" ;-)

Cheers,
--
  Vall & Mo

[VallAndMo]

Hello Tom,

Thanks for the info, and for the link to the USCIS site, we indeed found a lot of information there (and straight from the horse's mouth it's always better).

Cheers,
--
   Vall & Mo

Speaking from personal experience, in the last 40⁺ years, you have not been allowed entry to the US as a non-immigrant for more than 6 months at a time. There are special provisions to extend that non-immigrant stay by, for example, filing a form I-539 (see this message), but the original entry has a 6 months maximum stay.

What Vall and Mo are talking about is a special case where they are allowed entry as immigrants under one of the following provisions:

• Sponsorship by a company that is otherwise unable to recruit some special talent, experience or skill.
• Investment of  $500,000 to $1 million in a US company that results in the employment of at least 10 people, excluding the investors or their family.

Links to detailed requirements have been posted in prior topics, but you can search the US Citizenship and Immigration Services web site here.

No US embassy can change or waive the immigration laws.

[Tom]

Vall & Mo,

Thanks for taking the time to share the results of your research. Hopefully this will help others in the future. Interesting reading on the Jay Peak site. I have no knowledge of the company, but I'd sure want to do some heavy research before investing $500K plus all the heavy duty fees you mentioned.

I'd sure like to follow your progress, so please bring us up to date from time to time.