The Department of Homeland Security recently published changes to the U.S. immigrant investor program — the EB-5 program — which aims to attract foreign investment and spur job creation in the United States. AAF’s Director of Immigration and Trade Policy Jacqueline Varas explains how these changes affect the visa applicants and the program’s overall purpose.

An excerpt:

The EB-5 program is highly utilized by foreign investors. Only 10,000 visas are allocated annually to both EB-5 investors and their family members, and this cap has been reached each year since 2014. Therefore, barring a drastic change in investor demand, these new investment requirements will likely increase the amount of EB-5 investment in the United States. Simultaneously, however, these changes may encourage investment to move away from the United States and to one of 50 other nations with similar immigrant investor programs, including nearly half of the European Union.

Read more about Varas’ previous research on the EB-5 visa program here.

Read the analysis.