Here's an EB-5 visa project that's turning heads on the Chinese marketing scene.
Country Place Living's CP Homes, LP, an assisted living facility, is attracting lots of investors ? more than 100 since the project's debut in March of this year according to a Chinese news source. A Website for the development states that the project is receiving EB-5 funds via the CP Regional Center in Irving, Texas and America's Center for Foreign Investment in Alabama.
Language on Country Place Living's main Website says it offers seniors a place to "truly feel at home, remain active, and maintain their dignity." The facility Chinese investors are funding has already received official acknowledgement (and, presumably, support) from the Alabama Government and State Economic Development Council.
Government support, whether official or even tacit, can go a long way toward convincing investors that an EB-5 immigrant investor project is sound.
At a recent news conference in Guangzhou, EB-5 visa attorney Brandon Meyer met with Jinghong Immigration Consultants, the company marketing the project to prospective investors. Among the more curious statements made during that event, which was documented by a Chinese publication and translated by EB5info, was that Guy Lam, a CP homes representative, is "very confident" that the project's investors will be among the first to enjoy 15-day premium processing under new USCIS guidelines.
But premium processing is still a few months away. Just last week, USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas told a group of EB-5 stakeholders that the agency would have to create a completely new form before it could proceed with more speedy processing of some exemplar petitions.
Current EB-5 investors in CP Homes almost certainly wouldn't qualify for premium processing at this time because it simply doesn't exist yet.
Since Guy Lam's statement was made on September 3, he may have been led to believe, as were many others, that premium processing would become an option sometime this month. We now know that isn't the case.
Regardless, it's easy to see why CP Homes is attractive to EB-5 investors. With an aging population in the U.S., more such facilities will need to be built ? an indicator that this is a growing industry with potential for job creation.
Project promoters are also telling investors that CP Homes "will receive strong support from local government no matter where."
The Country Place Living umbrella currently includes housing complexes in Texas, Kansas, and South Dakota. Individual communities operate as franchises.