Special Interview with
Dr. Winner Xing
by EB5 Investors Magazine Staff
Dr. Winner Xing of Chinese immigration agency Worldway Group spoke with EB5 Investors Magazine about
which concerns he’s heard from Chinese investors about the EB-5 program, what they look for in an investment
opportunity, and how Worldway continues to support investors once they’ve moved to a new country.
EB5 Investors Magazine: What is the most popular
immigrant destination for your clients?
Winner Xing: We have four (specialties): the United
States, Canada, Europe, and the British Commonwealth. The
United States and Canada have larger application amounts.
EB5 Investors Magazine: Since you’ve been in this
industry for a long time, what are your clients’ biggest
concerns about the EB-5 program? Just based on your
daily connection and communication with clients.
Winner Xing: There are two. The first is the risk of their
investment. Clients are worried about their investment
money because the investment is by nature under risk.
Sometimes EB-5 projects have some problems. The second
is worry about its job creation risk, because at the beginning
the clients only obtain a conditional green card. They can
remove the condition only when the job creation fulfills
the program’s requirement. So they know that whether they
complete the job creation requirement decides whether they
get the permanent green card. They know that the risk of job
creation is the risk of their green card. Recently, we found
that with the EB-5 program extension, there are more and
more applicants. So more and more petitions accumulate in
(USCIS), and the waiting time is extended. So (our) clients
now have a third concern, which is the petition waiting time.
If the EB-5 application waiting time is extended, it has impact
on both their investment and their future immigration plan.
evaluate the investment subject by checking their history, experience, capability, and reputation. The second thing investors
care about is the investment structure. It includes both the
project cover rate and EB-5 fund percentage. In general, if
the EB-5 fund takes a smaller percentage and the cover rate is
lower, the risk to the investors will be relatively lower. Some
projects have high cover rate, consisting of more than 90
percent bank loans, fund loans, and EB-5 loans. These kinds of
projects could bother the investors. This is the second pr oblem
investors are concerned about. Then the third issue investors
(are concerned) about is job creation. The biggest concerns
are the job calculation method, and the cushion job numbers.
What the investors know is an estimated job creation number
when they start the application. The number could be taken
into consideration as long as its deemed to be reasonable.
However, after two years a real job creation report needs to be
submitted. There is always a difference between expectation
and reality. If the cushion job number – the part of the expected job creation number that exceeds the required job creation
number—is higher, the investor will feel safer. Of course
this cushion can’t be endlessly high, after all there is total job
creation volume. In most cases, if the cushion job creation
number reaches 30 percent higher than the actual required
number, investors will feel safer. The higher this percentage is,
the better. In terms of the calculation method, it is riskier for
operational jobs because there are more uncertain factors that
influence the future operation. So depending too much on
operational job numbers would make the investors worried.
EB5 Investors Magazine: As you said before, the
two consistent concerns are investment risk and job
creation risk. As a migration agency, the solution is due
diligence, right? What do you think are the three most
important things in project underwriting?
Winner Xing: The most important thing is the selection
of the project. Who is the investment subject? This is the key.
No matter how well a due diligence is conducted, it is just a
security lock. Any due diligence method has its limitations.
The investors care about who is the investing party. We will
EB5 Investors Magazine: What kind of project is
Worldway seeking now?
Winner Xing: We do not have a preference. Among the
projects we’ve been promoting are hotel, apartment and
new energy projects. We did quite a few new energy projects
already. Specifically we did solar energy projects, and had success. So we don’t have preference for project type. However, we
do consider the prosperity of an industry. For example, now
the petroleum industry is not prosperous, and investors (are
wary of those projects). So if there is a petroleum project, we
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