Congress established the EB-5 Immigrant Investor program in 1990 to encourage foreign entrepreneurs to make capital investments in the United States and produce jobs for American workers.
EB-5 requires foreign nationals to invest $1 million in a new or existing U.S. for-profit entity and create ten full-time job positions for U.S. workers are eligible to apply for an immigrant visa. The required investment decreases to $500,000 when the business operates within a TEA is a rural area or an area with high unemployment rates.
Congress allocates approximately 10,000 immigrant visas annually to immigrant investors and their immediate family members.
In 1992, Congress attempted to spur more participation by creating the EB-5 Regional Center Program. The Regional Center Program allowed investors to pool investments into larger projects that would have greater impact on the U.S. economy. The Regional center supposed to sunset after running five years, but has been extended repeatedly and most recent extension to September 2019
When the scheme was launched in 1990, zero applications were received for the first two years. The first 52 applications received in 1992, the interest in the American immigration scheme swinged back and forth.
It was only after 2012, the scheme gained more momentum. In the same year Portugal introduced golden visa scheme in Europe.
According to DHS annual report 2018, a total of 73,495 EB-5 visa admissions from 1990 to 2017 and a further 9,602 EB-5 visa admissions in 2018 according to State department.
So in total, a total of 83,567 EB-5 admissions granted to foreign investors in 28 years.
Sources: DHS Annual Report, State Department EB-5 admissions
The breakdown of EB-5 visas approved per year are shown below
| FY | EB-5 Admissions |
| 1992 | 59 |
| 1993 | 583 |
| 1994 | 44 |
| 1995 | 540 |
| 1996 | 936 |
| 1997 | 1361 |
| 1998 | 824 |
| 1999 | 285 |
| 2000 | 218 |
| 2001 | 191 |
| 2002 | 142 |
| 2003 | 64 |
| 2004 | 129 |
| 2005 | 346 |
| 2006 | 749 |
| 2007 | 806 |
| 2008 | 1380 |
| 2009 | 3688 |
| 2010 | 2480 |
| 2011 | 3340 |
| 2012 | 6628 |
| 2013 | 8543 |
| 2014 | 10723 |
| 2015 | 10188 |
| 2016 | 9863 |
| 2017 | 9855 |
| 2018 | 9602 |
| Total | 83,567 |
Sources: DHS Annual Report, State Department EB-5 admissions
Roughly calculating, EB-5 since its creation from 1990 to 2018
- 83,567 EB-5 visa admissions
- 1.3 million jobs created (assuming 16 jobs created per eb-5 investor according to department of commerce evaluation)
- USD 41.7 billion investments received, assuming half a million invested in each eb-5 project
