EB - 5 visa program is at risk for fraud says GAO

In a latest report by the US GAO (Government Accountability Office), founds EB -5 Visa program is always at the risk for a fraud and the economical benefits that is supposed to be created is not being provided.

The EB-5 program that allows foreign nationals to get green cards with the condition of investing at least $50,000 in the US businesses was planned to boost international investment in country’s economy and to help creating the jobs. If this program is not renewed by the Congress, then its going to get expired on 30th September 2015.

The report of GAO questioned the USCIS figures that EB -5 job visa program has created a minimum of 73,300 jobs, and an excess of $11 billion have been added to the economy of the US from the year 1990 till the last year. The GAO also said that the USCIS method of calculating economic benefits of the program was not valid and it might overstated the program’s economic benefits.

According to the report, it was found that EB-5 program is fraud vulnerable since it heavily rely on manual documentations based on the paper with limited data on the applicants available in electronic database. Its identification is difficult if the immigrant investors funds coming from any illegal sources like drug trade.

DHS and USCIS both told in a statement given jointly that they “remain committed to preventing fraud and ensuring the integrity of the EB-5 Program.” “Already taken steps to enhance fraud risk management, including the establishment of a specialized unit to provide additional oversight and conduct fraud, national security, and intelligence assessments.” USCIS also claims in the statement.