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Posts from the ‘Focus on America’ Category

Investing in your American Future: An Overview of Investment-Based Immigration to the United States | Exclusive Visas

Original post by Exclusive Visas
By Marina Fooksman, Esq

Given the recent political events unfolding in Russia, which have caught the attention of international media, global leaders, and Russian citizens, our office, Fooksman Law Firm P.C., has been flooded with inquiries from our Russian-speaking clients who are concerned about the volatile political situation in their home country. As a result of the recent unrest and instability, many are looking for opportunities to secure a stable and prosperous future for themselves and their families. For most, immigration to the United States is a lucrative and highly desirable option.

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These Are the 10 Best and Worst-Run Cities in America | The Blaze

Many qualities separate the best-run and worst-run cities.* But perhaps the most important is access to jobs. The economies of the best-run cities fall into two categories. They either have a booming industry or are near other major urban areas that create employment opportunities. The worst-run cities simply do not have the same access to jobs. This analysis of the best- and worst-run cities demonstrates that encouraging businesses to prosper and create jobs is the most important function of local government.

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Million Dollar Visas | New York Times Opinion

The New York Times Editorial
Million-Dollar Visas
Published: December 26, 2011

The federal government’s investor visa, created in 1990, gives foreigners a chance at green cards if they invest $1 million to build a business in the United States that creates at least 10 jobs. Investing in an area with high unemployment would cut that price in half.

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After Receiving Bailout, GM May Move Volt Production to China | The Blaze

Although it happened back in September, 2011, it appears many American taxpayers are unaware that General Motors struck a deal in Shanghai wherein the company has agreed to develop an electric vehicle (EV) platform with its longtime Chinese partner SAIC.

What else was included in this deal? GM has agreed to effectively move all future EV development to China. It could also mean that production of the vehicle itself will be moved overseas.

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EB-5 Visa Segment Airs “Buying Green Cards, or Investing in American Business?” | CNN

CNN aired a segment today from reporter Deb Feyerick, who asks whether EB-5 immigrant investors are “Buying green cards, or investing in American businesses?” The segment portrays the construction and development of the Jay Peak resort in Vermont, one of the projects under the umbrella of the VACCD. Bill Stenger, the co-owner, describes how just being a seasonal resort was a recipe for failure since “without sustained year round operations you can’t survive [and] you must be a 12 month a year operation”. When he approached the banks for a $250 million loan to expand his operation without the 30% equity that they required, they turned him down.

See more photos and story at EB-5 Info
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An American Montage

Statue Of Liberty — New York City
Click the image for a multimedia presentation An American Montage.

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Rules Stretched as Green Cards Go to Investors | New York Times

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times The International Gem Tower, under construction, in the diamond district.

By PATRICK McGEEHAN and KIRK SEMPLE Published: December 18, 2011

Affluent foreigners are rushing to take advantage of a federal immigration program that offers them the chance to obtain a green card in return for investing in construction projects in the United States. With credit tight, the program has unexpectedly turned into a mainstay for the financing of these projects in New York, California, Texas and other states.

The number of foreign applicants, each of whom must invest at least $500,000 in a project, has nearly quadrupled in the last two years, to more than 3,800 in the 2011 fiscal year, officials said. Demand has grown so fast that the Obama administration, which is championing the program, is seeking to streamline the application process.

Still, some critics of the program have described it as an improper use of the immigration system to spur economic development — a cash-for-visas scheme. And an examination of the program by The New York Times suggests that in New York, developers and state officials are stretching the rules to qualify projects for this foreign financing.

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Foreign nationals arrive in Southwest Florida for a price, creating jobs

By BEN WOLFORD Posted December 17, 2011 at 5:45 p.m.

Allen Heise, 50, is building an upscale marina along a Port Charlotte waterfront. His method of financing, a federal program that grants visas to foreign investors, has attracted greater attention in a down economy. Ben Wolford/Staff Fast facts The EB-5 investment visa program was created as an economy booster by Congress in 1990. Some who run regional centers that funnel investments into projects say the risk is too high for investors, who are left utterly without protection. Others attack the notion of selling green cards for $500,000.

PORT CHARLOTTE — Along a weedy, forgotten waterfront, Allen Heise is investing more than $40 million to build an upscale marina, complete with a rooftop heliport. Once built, it will be a glamorous and lonely centerpiece in an area he says is “gonna hit.”

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Grand ascent: Canyon’s slow rise from ‘horrid’ obstacle to national treasure | Arizona Republic

Grand Canyon Arizona USA

(Photo: Michael Quinn/National Park Service) The view into the abyss from Mather Point on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

by Ron Dungan – Dec. 16, 2011 03:06 PM The Arizona Republic

Word trickled out of canyon country. The Powell expedition had failed, and most of the explorers had drowned.

John Wesley Powell and his men pressed downstream, very much alive, as the rumors drifted east. They had lost a boat and some supplies before they had gotten very far. Food spoiled. Nerves frayed and tempers flared. They roped and portaged wooden boats around rumbling stretches of whitewater, climbed back in and rowed to the next rapid. They grew hungry and overheated, then cold and drenched with rain.

In August 1869, Powell and six members of the 10-man crew emerged from the Grand Canyon.

Powell’s journey “was one of the greatest events in the history of American exploration,” Donald Worster writes in “A River Running West.”

The Arizona Territory was one of the last places Americans settled. Although statehood was decades away, trappers, soldiers and prospectors had mapped the deserts and high country until one barrier remained: the vast, precarious canyon of the Colorado River. By the time Arizona became a state, the Grand Canyon had become a national treasure.

Today, the Canyon draws more than 4 million visitors a year from around the world. It is a source of pride and revenue for the state and a favorite destination for hikers and river runners. Sprawling, arid, stormy, serene, its landscapes sweeping from desert to pine forests, it captures the spirit of Arizona like few other places.

Read full article at The Arizona Republic…
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We Are in the Midst of the American Holiday Season | Video

This video provides some scenes from the American Holiday Season which may interest our Asian and Chinese readers. It is a fun music video for a great new holiday song; especially cool is the overlap of “real world” with “snow village world.” It combines both Jewish and Christian traditions. Perhaps this video could bring world peace?

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One Alarming Indicator From China | Business Insider

Business Insider
by Tim Staermose, Sovereign Man’s Chief Investment Strategist
December 9, 2011

For a few decades now, the Communist Party in China has had an implicit social and political contract with the Chinese populous for decades, which goes something like:

“We will deliver economic growth and improvements in your material living standards. You will meekly do as you are told, refrain from dissent, work hard, save a huge percentage of your money, and ignore obvious corruption.”

While nearly everyone in China has benefited to some degree under this current “system,” the wheels are definitely starting to come off. Official GDP numbers are now slowing, real estate prices are falling, and inflation is quickening.

Read full article at Business Insider
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Purple Rain Photos in Arizona USA | Arizona Highways

Roxy Young | Clarkdale (Arizona USA)

Photo by Roxy Young | Clarkdale (Arizona USA)

Click here for Purple Rain Photos in Arizona USA | Arizona Highways.

Enjoy these 54 wonderful images of Arizona USA landscapes and photos.
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More Americans Go Abroad for Economic Opportunities | CNBC

American ExpatriateDerek Capo was living the high life. He was in his early 20s, an analyst at hedge fund Everest Capital monitoring international equities, and soaking up the weather and nightlife of his hometown of Miami.

But looking ahead, as he’d been trained to do, Capo didn’t like what he saw. The housing bust was starting to strangle the Florida economy, the stock market was looking increasingly erratic and he didn’t want to pursue a pricey MBA in the middle of an economic crisis.

He also wanted to test his entrepreneurial muscles, by starting his own business, ideally in a locale that felt economically vibrant, with seemingly limitless possibilities. To do that, Capo left the U.S. in 2007.

He now lives in Beijing, having founded Next Step China. The firm offers Chinese-language immersion programs, and arranges opportunities for foreigners to teach, intern or volunteer in China.

“I wanted to take the next step in my life and career,” says Capo, now 29. “I connected the dots and decided that I should go somewhere different and learn something new, like Mandarin, to challenge myself. I picked China because it was growing so fast.”

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One in Four Starbucks Card Transactions Now Done Via Mobile

Chinese woman with smartphoneStarbucks customers apparently are finding buying via mobile as addictive as the company’s coffee.

Less than a year after Starbucks launched an app that allows mobile payments, it has hosted 26 million such transactions on iOS, BlackBerry and Android, according to the chain. One in four Starbucks card transactions is now executed via mobile.

The mobile-payments initiative has built momentum recently: In the nine weeks after it was released, there were 3 million transactions. But in the past nine weeks, there have been 6 million, says Adam Brotman, SVP and general manager of Starbucks. He adds that New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and San Jose, Calif., are the top cities by volume for mobile purchases

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Perspective During this Holiday Season

Old Chinese WomanI am a CPA and businessman in my American life and persona. I am living for a year or two deep in the interior of mainland China with my wife Yu Qi (Susie) and eight year old son Yang Yang. I am treated with respect as “laowai” or “ancient foreigner” in their country. My experience over the past six months living here is that for many reasons the Chinese love Americans. I am treated like a celebrity or rock star.

Here is a letter I shared with my parents age 84 today. Perhaps it may bring some perspective, especially during this holiday season, to those of us who are so blessed to call America home.

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Some Asians’ college strategy: Don’t check ‘Asian’

Asian Student

(AP) Lanya Olmstead was born in Florida to a mother who immigrated from Taiwan and an American father of Norwegian ancestry. Ethnically, she considers herself half Taiwanese and half Norwegian. But when applying to Harvard, Olmstead checked only one box for her race: white.

“I didn‘t want to put ’Asian’ down,” Olmstead says, “because my mom told me there’s discrimination against Asians in the application process.

For years, many Asian-Americans have been convinced that it‘s harder for them to gain admission to the nation’s top colleges.

Studies show that Asian-Americans meet these colleges’ admissions standards far out of proportion to their 6 percent representation in the U.S. population, and that they often need test scores hundreds of points higher than applicants from other ethnic groups to have an equal chance of admission. Critics say these numbers, along with the fact that some top colleges with race-blind admissions have double the Asian percentage of Ivy League schools, prove the existence of discrimination.

The way it works, the critics believe, is that Asian-Americans are evaluated not as individuals, but against the thousands of other ultra-achieving Asians who are stereotyped as boring academic robots.

Now, an unknown number of students are responding to this concern by declining to identify themselves as Asian on their applications.

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USA Today
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Popularity of video calling set to explode, NPD says

Skype Multi-Person Video Call

Video calling has been extremely slow to catch on, but adoption is finally set to explode according to a recent forecast from NPD Group-owned market research firm In-Stat. According to the firm’s figures, 63 million people could be counted as active video calling users in 2010. In 2015, that number is expected to balloon to 380 million. “While the mobile arena is relatively nascent, it has fueled much of the growth in usage over the course of 2011,” In-Stat analyst Amy Cravens said in a statement. PCs will remain the most popular platform for video calling, but the technology’s expansion to smartphones, tablets and even televisions will also play a role in accelerating adoption. Connectivity is key on mobile devices though, and smartphone-based video calling experiences leave much to be desired due to shaky cellular connections. The rapid rollout of 4G LTE networks around the world should help to improve the mobile video calling experience dramatically, however. NPD In-Stat’s full press release follows below.

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Could a New Visa Law Affect the EB-5 Green Card Program?

Charles Schumer (D) New YorkThere’s a new visa bill before Congress, and some news organizations are already comparing it to the EB-5 program.

Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have introduced legislation that would institute a new visa category targeting high net worth foreign nationals. No, it’s not the startup visa everyone’s been talking about. In fact, the individuals it would attract probably have more in common with current EB-5 investors than with potential immigrant entrepreneurs.

The new bill would provide a tourist visa to any foreign national willing to buy a house for $500,000 in cash. In an environment where homeowners trying to sell can’t find buyers and scores of empty homes dot the landscape, lawmakers are hoping the bill will be a panacea for the depressed housing market.

And since buyers would be purchasing the homes without a mortgage, there would be no possibility of foreclosure.

If the bill becomes law, a foreign national who doesn’t want a $500,000 home may also opt to purchase a $250,000 home to serve as a primary residence and then buy additional properties to meet the $500,000 requirement. Canadian senior citizens would also be granted longer visa stays.

Warren Buffet likes the idea. He sees it as a way to solve the excess housing inventory problem “very quickly.” Of course, legislators would actually have to get around to passing the bill first.

Any effect on EB-5 visas? Read full article
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The End of Chinatown | The Atlantic

Chinatown San Francisco USA

The End of Chinatown
Does China’s rise mean the end of one of America’s most storied ethnic enclaves?

By BONNIE TSUI | The Atlantic

AS THE MANAGER of a Chinatown career center on Kearny Street in San Francisco, Winnie Yu has watched working-class clients come and go. Most of them, like Shen Ming Fa, have the makings of the quintessential Chinese American immigrant success story. Shen, who is 39, moved to San Francisco with his family last fall, an English-speaking future in mind for his 9-year-old daughter. His first stop was Chinatown, where he found an instant community and help with job and immigration problems.

But lately, Yu has been seeing a shift; rather than coming, her clients have been going—in pursuit of what might be called the Chinese Dream.

“Now the American Dream is broken,” Shen tells me one evening at the career center, his fingers drumming restlessly on the table; he speaks mostly in Mandarin, and Yu helps me translate. Shen has mostly been unemployed, picking up part-time work when he can find it. Back in China, he worked as a veterinarian and at a school of traditional Chinese culture. “In China, people live more comfortably: in a big house, with a good job. Life is definitely better there.” On his fingers, he counts out several people he knows who have gone back since he came to the United States. When I ask him if he thinks about returning to China, he glances at his daughter, who is sitting nearby, then looks me in the eye. “My daughter is thriving,” he says, carefully. “But I think about it every day.”

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China Telecom Plans to Offer Wireless Service in U.S. in 2012 | Bloomberg

China Telecom

Editor’s note: In our opinion, developments like this announced expansion by China Telecom into U.S. has positive implications for all parties. Certainly, these services provide additional, affordable infrastructure for new American immigrants to feel more at home and in touch with friends and family in Asia.

China Telecom Corp. plans to start selling a wireless service to U.S. consumers under its own brand early next year, seeking to sign up Chinese-Americans, students and tourists who travel often between the two countries.

China’s biggest fixed-line provider will offer users of the service handsets with two lines, one that will work in the U.S. and another in China, Donald Tan, president of China Telecom Americas, said in an interview. Tan declined to discuss pricing, though he said the cost would be “competitive.”

China Telecom, seeking to gain a toehold in the U.S. consumer market, is already in trials with several possible wholesale partners, and will soon choose one as the service’s network, Tan said. He declined to name the U.S. test partners. If the wireless service takes off, China Telecom may consider building or buying its own wireless network in the U.S., Tan said.

“If the service is growing fast, maybe we can set up our own infrastructure,” Tan said. “The money is no big problem for us.”

Read full article…China Telecom Plans to Offer Wireless Service in U.S. in 2012 – Bloomberg.
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Arizona adds millionaire households in 2011 | Phoenix Business Journal

Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport at sunset

Arizona adds millionaire households in 2011
Phoenix Business Journal
by Adam Kress, New Media Editor
Date: Friday, October 28, 2011, 10:20am MST

Arizona has more than 117,000 millionaire households.Arizona added about 750 millionaire households in 2011, and held its No. 21 ranking for its number of high-net worth residences.

The new report published by Phoenix Marketing International found that Arizona has 117,843 millionaire households — or about 5 percent of the total households in the state.

The New York-based research company’s Global Wealth Monitor defines a millionaire household as one in which members have $1 million or more in investable, liquid assets, excluding retirement plans and real estate.

Read full article… Arizona adds millionaire households in 2011 – Phoenix Business Journal.
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Half of China’s Millionaires Want to Leave

China Airport Departures Sign

Excerpts & Analysis from White Paper by the Bank of China & Hurun Research Institute

Despite the financial turmoil in the US and Europe, almost half of China’s rich are considering moving to the developed world to protect their wealth, educate their children and retire, signaling a lack of confidence in China\’s rapid economic growth.

About 14% of wealthy Chinese – those owning assets worth at least Rmb10 million ($1.57 million) – are applying to emigrate or have already done so, while 46% are considering moving to a rich country. Their favorite destinations are the US and Canada, according to a survey conducted by Bank of China\’s private banking unit and Hurun Research Institute.

The two firms interviewed high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) in 18 cities between May and September this year and received 980 valid questionnaires. The average age of the respondents was 42, with an average net worth of more than Rmb60 million.
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While Americans Indulge in Over-consumption, Chinese Move Up by Enduring Hardship | Forbes

While Americans Indulge in Over-consumption, Chinese Move Up by Enduring Hardship – Forbes.

When I read the story of a young American woman selling her ova for $7,000 in order to pay off her credit cards, I kept thinking about young women I met in China. They earned about $100 a month, yet saved 80 percent of their incomes to help pay for their siblings’ education. I felt a huge disconnection. Although many people are worried that the middle class in the West is shrinking, Americans still enjoy immense privilege compared to the vast majority of people in the world. To many Chinese rural migrants, enduring hardship is their way of life.

On a hot summer day, I was roaming randomly down Jianguomen Avenue in Beijing. I found myself drawn to a place called Liang Zi Fitness. As soon as I stepped in the front door, six young ladies dressed in the traditional Qipao (pronounced chi-pao), a tradition one-piece body-hugging Chinese dress for women, gently bowed and greeted me, “Welcome, distinguished guest.

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Photo Tour of America’s Wealthiest Zip Code 07620

Alpine is just a 20 minute drive from midtown manhattan making it a convenient haven for commuters. Was this Ferrari also headed to 07620?

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American Thinker: Tiger Mother, Burning Bright


American Thinker: Tiger Mother, Burning Bright.
By John Barnett

Americans have always been anxious about how their kids are turning out.  But at this moment in history — when that traditional source of anxiety has been joined by growing nervousness about the rise of China — any writer who hit upon the idea of connecting the two by arguing, essentially, that Chinese parentage is just better would have been guaranteed to strike a nerve.  Just ask Amy Chua, whose recent Wall Street Journal piece, provocatively entitled “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” became an overnight internet smash.

Indeed, “strike a nerve” is not really an adequate metaphor to describe the impact of Chua’s piece, which generated about one million page hits, 8,800 comments on the original page (at last count), a staggering 100,000-plus comments on Facebook, and countless responses around the web and in print.  Besides the Penguin Press book that the original piece was drawn from, a movie deal is said to be in the works, and Chua’s book tour is drawing crowds.  Most recently, Chua started a website and appeared with her husband at the New York Public Library.

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Arizona’s Asian population now fastest-growing in state

Arizona’s Asian population now fastest-growing in state.

Dianna Bui finished paying at the checkout counter and headed for the exit of Lee Lee Oriental Supermarket, a sprawling 50,000-foot grocery store in Peoria.

Her cart was filled with products from Vietnam. A bottle of nuoc mam nhi, fermented fish sauce. A package of taro cake, a type of root vegetable. Some frozen blue mackerel. All foods to remind her of home.

Bui, a native of Vietnam, is among the 85,000 new Asians in Arizona since 2000, according to data from the 2010 census.

The census counted 176,695 Asians in 2010. That is nearly twice as many as the 92,236 counted by the census a decade earlier. No other minority group grew at a faster rate.

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Languages Needed, but No Plans to Learn

Languages Needed, but No Plans to Learn
By Joe Light

Demand for U.S. workers who speak foreign languages—especially Spanish and Chinese—should continue to grow over the next decade, but very few workers plan to study them.

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Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

By Amy Chua, Wall Street Journal

Can a regimen of no playdates, no TV, no computer games, and hours of music practice create happy kids? And what happens when they fight back? A Wall Street Journal excerpt from Amy Chua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.”


A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it’s like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I’ve done it. Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:

  • attend a sleepover
  • have a playdate
  • be in a school play
  • complain about not being in a school play
  • watch TV or play computer games
  • choose their own extracurricular activities
  • get any grade less than an A
  • not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
  • play any instrument other than the piano or violin
  • not play the piano or violin.

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For Some Immigrants, The Ticket To A Visa Is A Check : NPR

For Some Immigrants, The Ticket To A Visa Is A Check
by Rob Schmitz
March 5, 2010 from KQED

You’ve got half a million dollars. You crave the American dream. May I interest you in a green card?

This may sound like a back-alley deal, but this is the arrangement thousands of wealthy foreigners have made with the U.S. government. The EB-5 visa offers a path to citizenship in exchange for investing in an American business. The numbers of these types of visas issued in the past two years have tripled, and around half of the visas are being snatched up by wealthy Chinese.

via For Some Immigrants, The Ticket To A Visa Is A Check : NPR.
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Recession Fuels Spike In Foreign Investor Visas : NPR

Recession Fuels Spike In Foreign Investor Visas
by Jennifer Ludden
December 31, 2009

News of job creation programs has been widely reported lately, but there\’s one program that many people have never heard about: Under U.S. immigration law, foreigners can invest in an American business and, in exchange, receive a green card.

This has long been a small, obscure program, but as domestic sources of financing have dried up, the number of EB-5 visas issued this way has tripled in the past year.

For investor Brian Thompson and his wife, the motivation was to leave England for a place with better weather. A few years ago they put $500,000 into the redevelopment of a Seattle warehouse that is being turned into a hotel. Once it opens, Thompson hopes to make his money back and then some. But the immigrant investor program requires a certain degree of risk, and if the business venture falls through, so do the green cards.

via Recession Fuels Spike In Foreign Investor Visas : NPR.
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The American dream of the Chinese rich

The American dream of the Chinese rich

For many of China’s wealthy, investing $500,000 in a US government program is the best way to obtain a green card – for them or their children. Duan Yan reports from Beijing.

Yvonne Liu, 22, wanted to stay in the United States after her university studies, and her mother, a 46-year-old wealthy Chinese businesswoman, figured out a way to make that happen.

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China-USA Education Services LLC

Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish 
Esta Usted interesado en el Sueno Americano, Educacion Americana, Negocios en los Estados Unidos, Residencia Permanente para usted y su familia ? Nosotros tenemos conecciones en Estados Unidos que le facilitaremos. Contacte con nosotros en team@cnusa.co.

Italian 
Siete interessati nel Sogno Americano, educazione nel America, cominciare un ‘impresa nel America ed ottenere la Carta Verde per voi e vostra famiglia? Noi conosciamo le persone giuste che possono aiutare. Contatteci al team@cnusa.co.

Croatian
Jeste li zainteresirani za americki san, americku edukaciju, americki posao i zelenu kartu za Vas i Vasu familiju? Mi Vam mozemo pomoci. Imamo veze i rado cemo vam pomoci. Kontaktirate nas na team@cnusa.co.

Vietnamese

English 
Are you interested in American Dream, American Education, American Business and U.S. Green Cards for you and your Family? We have U.S. connections. Will facilitate. Contact team@cnusa.co.
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