EB5 Investors Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 48

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EB5 Investors : Moving on to the project side , how do projects contact you or how do you find or choose your projects ?
He : We have assisted numerous regional centers from their inception of doing business in China to their current success . As a result , our industry contacts provide us with information about upcoming projects .
We also receive referrals from different regional centers or developers that we work with or through their attorneys . Interestingly we also receive a number of referrals directly from our investors .
We always have our door open to any new developers and regional centers , the market is constantly changing , so are the projects , so we need to stay up to date . Projects are welcomed to contact our company and we will conduct our initial review of the project and follow up thereafter .
EB5 Investors : It certainly seems that a lot of your business is based on referrals both from the investor side and the developer side .
He : Yes , like I said , we started out early , at a time when there were almost no EB-5 projects being offered in China . So , we helped bring in several regional centers and some of those regional centers are now very powerful names in the industry . As a result , people know the name Wailian , and know what we have achieved , so they trust us and come to us .
EB5 Investors : Why is it so difficult for regional centers to reach investors directly in China ? Why is it common to go through a migration agency ?
He : This involves some legal complexities . Like I said earlier , the brokers in China must be licensed in order to offer EB-5 services , otherwise it will violate Chinese law . Another factor is the trust issue ; when doing business with Chinese investors , there can be huge cultural differences . Also sometimes regional centers are not even aware of their licensing requirements in China , depending on what kind of office they have there .
For example , at the EB-5 summit that we hosted this past March , I learned about a certain case where a project worked directly with investors and clients based on a referral directly from their attorney . Because there are some very long I-526 processing times , a couple of investors from the project got very , very worried and concerned . They had no one to speak with because there was no representative from the project or the developer in China . The developer was unable to be reached and many of the investors did not speak English , so it was very difficult for them to gather any information . This ended up causing a panic with the overall investor group . I spoke with two of those investors who came to the conference because they knew that would be the only chance for them to meet somebody from the project side . Had the project retained a migration agency from the very beginning , the investors would know who to contact to answer any questions regarding their investment , without causing panic .
EB5 Investors : I know a lot of developers do attend these conferences because they are looking to find investors . How does that process work at a conference ?
He : The purpose of the conference is to provide a platform for the developers , projects , regional centers , agents and potential investors to learn about one another . The main purpose for the developers / projects / regional centers is not for them to be able to sell to the investor directly — they still need to work with immigration agents in China — but it is a very good opportunity to showcase the project to the market , to see if Chinese investors like the type of project they are offering and the structure of the project . It ’ s a very good opportunity for developers to see how the market reacts to the project , or test whether the project documents and marketing materials are strong enough to stand on their own , or if anything is confusing to the investors . Many of these developers and projects are new to the Chinese market and it can be quite difficult for them to understand the process of doing business in China . They may get a referral from their attorney or from a friend to meet one or two immigration brokers in China . But through this conference , they have an opportunity to meet with tens or hundreds of immigration brokers , so they have more choices . That is the point of the conference — to increase the probability of finding a suitable partner in China . At the conference , we not only provide an opportunity for developers to showcase their projects , but we also invite industry professionals , including top name immigration lawyers , securities lawyers and economists who talk about current trends and what people should know about the EB-5 program . So it ’ s also an educational and informational event for projects and for immigration brokers to meet industry professionals that they otherwise may never meet .
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