EB-5 in the Digital Currency Age
How EB-5 investors can explore the emerging and growing world of digital currencies when transferring funds.
By Rana Jazayerli
Some people interested in the EB-5 immigrant investor visa are finding it increasingly difficult to move their investment funds to the U. S. This is a result of many countries instituting strict rules and limits on the exchange of their local currency to U. S. dollars and on the transfer of such funds to the United States. This has been an ongoing issue for investors in China, who dominate the EB-5 investor program.
However, it is also an issue for investors from many other countries, including Vietnam and Ethiopia. Recent changes in local currency laws, as well as stricter requirements on sourcing of funds by the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services( USCIS), have added additional complications and barriers to using traditional currency and banking for the exchange and transfer of funds internationally. For example, in January of 2017, China issued new rules requiring disclosure of the purpose of the currency exchange, and certification that the exchange is not for the purpose of immigration, or that an individual is not exchanging funds on behalf of another person to assist somebody in exchanging currency. And as of July 1, 2017, new regulations further limited the transfer of funds from China to another country to about RMB 50,000($ 7,500) per day per person.
In Turkey, the worsening political climate has made it very difficult for citizens to transfer funds out of the country altogether. Simultaneously, USCIS has started requiring evidence of the legitimacy of the source of funds of the third-party individual or entity that assist the EB-5 investor in the exchange of currency through“ currency swaps”- where an EB-5 investor transfers local currency to an account for the individual or entity in the home country, and then that individual or entity transfers the equivalent in U. S. dollars to an account that the investor opens outside of the home country. Despite challenges, there may be a digital solution to this at the tip of an EB-5 investor’ s fingers- the emerging and growing world of digital currencies.
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