In this episode we talk to Immigration Attorney Mona Shah on the difference between Regional Center and Direct investments with regard to the actual EB-5 immigration petition
Mona is the managing partner of Mona Shah and Associates located on Broadway in New York City. She has over 19 years of legal experience, with more than 15 years concentrated in U.S. immigration and litigation. Mona has hands-on experience setting up, working with and establishing EB-5 Regional Centers nationwide, as well as an impressive track record of many years handling complex immigration matters, including private non-regional center investor cases.
In this episode you will hear:
- A compassion of the EB-5 Direct investments vs. Regional Centers from an Immigration standpoint
- How Regional Centers make use of ‘indirect’ jobs
- The indirect job risk of the ‘last investor’
- General guidelines for Direct Investments and Regional Centers
- Examples of petitions for Direct Investments and Regional Centers
- Legal issues that should be considered when choosing between the 2 programs
- How different EB-5 models may work better for various industries (i.e. Hotels vs. Restaurant franchises)
- How the paperwork may be reduced for ‘self-directed’ EB-5 investments, but the importance of the business plan is increased.
- shameless plug for my firm’s free ‘Matter of Ho’ business plan checklist.
Mona also shares with us:
- Business Advice: The KISS principle: Keep it Simple Savvy Investor (I may have fudged that last part)
- Her personal habits that she attributes to her success: She contentiously reads books not just to expand her professional knowledge, but also to increase her cultural understanding and empathy
- Parting Thoughts: She thanks me for my show! (ahhh… I’m flattered)
[…] we predicted in our podcast two months ago, along with many other experts, finally occurred. On August 23rd, the U.S. […]