Chinese Family Now Calls
America Home Thanks to EB-5
Cathy Wang’s family thought they would never be able to visit the U.S. after three tourist visa
denials. But with the help of EB-5, this land of dreams is now the place they call home.
By Fang Tian, EB5 Investors Magazine Staff
T
he United States was once an unreachable destination for
Chinese national Cathy Wang and her family. After three
denials of their U.S. tourist visa applications, the Tianjin-based
family lost hope of ever being able to visit the country. Back
then, Wang and her parents never imagined there would be a
day when they could become permanent residents in their land
of dreams.
It was the EB-5 program that opened the door to them. In
contrast to the family’s tourist visa application experience, their
EB-5 journey was surprisingly smooth. Instead of investing
in real estate development projects, which are popular
among most EB-5 investors, the family invested $500,000
in the entertainment industry, more specifically a television
production project and helped fund some of the well-known
American TV shows, including “2 Broke Girls”, “Shameless”
and “Pretty Little Liars”.
Why did your family decide to use the EB-5 program
and immigrate to the United States?
Back in China, my major was digital media with a focus on
post-production. Hollywood is like the Mecca for many young
students like me. Being able to visit Hollywood and study here
would mean a dream come true. Besides, my parents always
wanted to send my brother abroad for world-class education.
Immigration could be a perfect solution for both of us.
We first tried to apply for tourist visas but were denied three
times. After this frustrating experience, the U.S. did not seem
to be a viable option anymore. In 2010, my parents started
looking for other immigration destinations, including Canada
and some European countries.
With the good fortune of applying before the EB-5 retrogression
hit, it only took the Wang family three years to receive EB-5
visas. Despite of our visa denial history, the migration agent we
worked with still thought that EB-5 was worth a shot. We
were told that an EB-5 visa could be obtained in as fast as
three years. The program was affordable and there were no
requirements on English proficiency. Although hesitant, we
decided to give it a try.
Now, the newly graduated architectural design student has
become a permanent resident and is fully prepared to start a
career in the U.S. What did you invest in?
Since I was already 20 years old when we learned about EB-5
and my parents wanted me to be included in the application as
22
EB5 INVESTORS M AGAZINE