5 ms·

"But surely (undeniably) each year the United States already enjoys large numbers of immigrants" Agreed. I do not think that is the point of argument here. US

"But surely (undeniably) each year the United States already enjoys large numbers of immigrants" Agreed. I do not think that is the point of argument here. US overall has huge number of immigrants every year. The problem however is how they determine the eligibility. Family based permanent residency is much easier to get if your spouse is a US citizen no matter what your qualifications are. That is understood considering families need to be united. But why are the programs such as EB-5 investor visa so poorly designed ? If majority of those visas are going unused every year, why dont we instead try and correct it so that it makes it a little easier for aspiring foreign entrepreneurs to apply. Do we really need $1M to start a business these days ?

rhplus 14y ago
Do we really need $1M to start a business these days? The EB-5 requires the investor to create or preserve 10 US citizen jobs within 2 years. Ballpark a median salary of $50K for each of those employees and double that number to account for non-salary costs of employing someone (employer paid taxes, healthcare, office space, etc). There's a million dollars spent in the first year.
- timedoctor 14y ago
  Creating jobs for 10 US citizens is a ridiculous requirement. Creating 1-2 jobs would be more reasonable. Also US residency and citizenship is such not a wonderful asset. I for one would never want citizenship because it means that you now have to pay taxes on your worldwide income, even if you do not live in the US. So if you earn $1000 per year and you live in a developing country, the right to live in the US is very valuable. If you earn $100k per year or higher the right to live in the US or to get US citizenship becomes a lot less interesting.
  - neilc 14y ago
    Since (1) US taxes are relatively low on high income earners (right now anyway) (2) you can usually use the US taxes you pay as a credit against any foreign taxes you owe, is this actually a big problem in practice? Perhaps if you are making a large income and currently reside in a country with very low taxes, I suppose.

rhplus 14y ago

Do we really need $1M to start a business these days? The EB-5 requires the investor to create or preserve 10 US citizen jobs within 2 years. Ballpark a median salary of $50K for each of those employees and double that number to account for non-salary costs of employing someone (employer paid taxes, healthcare, office space, etc). There's a million dollars spent in the first year.

timedoctor 14y ago
Creating jobs for 10 US citizens is a ridiculous requirement. Creating 1-2 jobs would be more reasonable. Also US residency and citizenship is such not a wonderful asset. I for one would never want citizenship because it means that you now have to pay taxes on your worldwide income, even if you do not live in the US. So if you earn $1000 per year and you live in a developing country, the right to live in the US is very valuable. If you earn $100k per year or higher the right to live in the US or to get US citizenship becomes a lot less interesting.
- neilc 14y ago
  Since (1) US taxes are relatively low on high income earners (right now anyway) (2) you can usually use the US taxes you pay as a credit against any foreign taxes you owe, is this actually a big problem in practice? Perhaps if you are making a large income and currently reside in a country with very low taxes, I suppose.