Retirement Visa

[christina]

Does anyone think there will ever be a retirement visa for Florida ? Australia has a retirement visa program but that is changing in June this year in an effort to cut back on the number of people moving to Oz. We would love to retire to Florida, don't want to buy a business, had enough of working. Any ideas ?[sporty][msncool]

[musictech]

I wonder whether the much talked about and long awaited retirement visa is actually the recently amended EB-5? Apparently, the rules changed in December 2004 after Bush signed into law an amendment for a five year $500 000 investment programme (into an approved 'Regional Centre'), which directly qualifies applicants for Green Card status. If my understanding is correct, twenty UK couples have so far retired to the US under this scheme, which clearly also allows the applicant to work or start a business if preferred.

I've not done any real research on this subject, so there may be other issues of which I'm unaware, but at current exchange rates it's got to be worth checking out.

Paul

[Snapper]

I'm quite interested to see what happens to the Oz retirement visa Christina as I have a bit of a vested interest in it.

My personal answer to your question is that I would like to think that eventually the US will wise up and introduce a retirement visa. As Paul mentions, they already do if you have sufficient funds, but under a different guise. It's just a case of rationalising the quantity of funds required.

When you think about it, a retirement visa is a real gimme for the country concerned. You take your life savings into that country, and then even without working you contribute to their economy with every item you buy and every service you consume. As long as you aren't working you aren't taking a job off a US citizen, so the government are getting all the tax without having to let you work; always with the proviso that if your money runs out they boot you out.

[chrizzy100]

The cost of healthcare would put me off retiring here.....we have been thinking of retiring outside the US.....if I had my way and the money I would retire to Cornwall........

[Snapper]

Nice place Chrizzy, but I think I'd prefer somewhere that speaks English.

[kokomo]

Hi, very interest in this amended EB -5 investment scheme for retirement to obtain a Green Card. Can anyone else shed any light onto this subject, it would be very much appreciated.[msnsmile2]

Janice

[chrizzy100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Snapper
Nice place Chrizzy, but I think I'd prefer somewhere that speaks English.
[/quote]

I spent all my summers there until I was 20......then I went back because a friend of ours owns a lot of Cornwall and we stay on his land in the summer with other biker friends.....I just love the place.....nowhere else like it.......

[esprit]

An attempt was made about 5 years ago to introduce a true retirees visa, but it never got through, basically it had a lot of support from Florida, California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico which are the main states that would benefit and no-one anywhere else was interested. It has now been shelved and the person who introduced it is no longer in congress.

EB5 green card used for retirement?? Up to now EB5 has been very hard to get. Only 126 issued last year. The guy in the immigration news article below, which I found on the web when researching this for another forum, has set up a scheme to try and package this visa as a retirement visa. I know a few people are currently looking into this but personally know nothing more about this at all, whether it works, or what the risk element is. Hope this helps.

The article is cut and pasted below.

"EB5 Visas allow retirement

First UK couples secure US 'retirement' visas

For those looking for freedom to work in whichever way best suits them - or even to retire to the US, the EB-5 job-creation investor visa is once again the immigration route of choice, writes visa advisor Richard Robinson in Going USA - January/February 2005
The first UK applicants for US visas under new rules which effectively enable people to retire to America have been approved. They will be the first people to emigrate to the US for investment related retirement since the aspect of the EB-5 visa that enables this, was withdrawn in 1998.
First introduced in 1996 before its withdrawel two years later, the 'indirect employment' aspect of the EB-5 was re-introduced as a five year programme in December 2003 when President George W Bush signed off the new legislation.
This rule change has made it easier, not just to secure any visa, but to apply directly for a Green Card, which provides a lifetime's Legal Permanent Residency for the applicant, his or her spouse and any offspring under the age of 21. They do so without the usual requirement of having family connections, securing a job or running an actively traded business - making it an ideal route to retirement The 'freeing-up' of the EB-5, an investment visa for the purposes of job creation, no longer insists on the direct employment of ten people but qualifies you if the investment 'indirectly' stimulates employment.
This allows investors to make a more passive type of investment into commercial real estate, rather than managing an actively trading business.
To comply with the law, a minimum investment of $500,000 is required (approximately £270,000 at the current rate of exchange). Furthermore, the investment must be in a 'Regional Centre' - an area which has been approved for immigrant investor capital by the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS).But what sort of investment can be made and how does the investor prove the employment will be indirectly created?
It is theoretically possible to find your own investment and to comply with the rules, but in practice it has proved extremely difficult. I have had many conversations with experienced business executives but have yet to find any one of them who has achieved it. In the end they have opted for a structured immigrant investor programme which has a proven model and which has already been accepted by the USCIS.

There are numerous obstacles. The chances of a regional centre being near enough to where you want to live is unlikely, and finding a suitable investment without it requiring a level of investment that is under the minimum or over the maximum is also a challenge. Most people want a business they understand and, since the EB-5 doesn't require that the investor employ people directly, the whole DIY process rather defeats the object.
There are currently four structured immigrant investor programmes formed specifically for EB-5 visa applicants. The companies concerned are offering either commercial properties or managed farm investments.
It is up to each visa applicant to select a programme, although professional investment advice can be sought. However, to dat

[steph_goodrum]

"I spent all my summers there until I was 20......then I went back because a friend of ours owns a lot of Cornwall"

Come clean Chrizzy .... his name wouldn't be Charles and he's not on his honeymoon is he by any chance?:D:D:D

[SunLover]

Thanks for that Julie... it makes very interesting reading :)

[Snapper]

Thanks Julie, very interesting indeed; especially as it sounds like you only need to hold the investment for 3 years (ish).

[chrizzy100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by steph_goodrum
"I spent all my summers there until I was 20......then I went back because a friend of ours owns a lot of Cornwall"

Come clean Chrizzy .... his name wouldn't be Charles and he's not on his honeymoon is he by any chance?:D:D:D
[/quote]

No his name is Perry.....or Lord Perry Elliott.....he owns St Germans.....[msnsmile2]

[christina]

Yes, cheers Julie very intersting.

[esprit]

I spend a lot of my time now engaged in immigration issues, particularly researching how to get a green card from E2, the search for which has become my Holy Grail. While I have life and breath in my body, I will end up with a green card. I am living the dream and a firm believer that you can achieve what you want by wishing it enough, otherwise I would not be here. Unfortunately I cannot try out this EB5 route for you, not having the odd $500,000 to spare, wish I had!

[Snapper]

Is it within the rules of the scheme to borrow the $500k do you know?

[esprit]

I doubt it, you can only borrow s small percentage of your investment for E2 and that is usually a lot lower. Another article I read on EB5 stated that one of the reasons that the take up of EB5 is currently so low is that there is a necessity to show provenance of the funds and some of the people who would otherwise use this are unable to do so. Like all other visas, provenance of investment is needed to show that it isnt a question of money laundering, the proceeds of crime or dare I saw borrowed money.

[kokomo]

Hi Julie,

Thanks very much for the information requested. I am sure you will get your Green Card eventually.[msnwink]

[musictech]

Further to the EB-5 thread above, there's an advert/article (advertorial?) on the subject in the April/May edition of 'A Place In The Sun: Everything America' magazine.

[musictech]

I have many friends in Cornwall and I love to visit when I can, but the ambience of the place is best summed up for me by a conversation I had with a shop-keeper in a grocery store near Looe:

Me: "Excuse me, do you take Switch or Visa?"
Shopkeeper: "What's that then? Is that them caaaards? No, we don't take them cards round 'ere..."

Priceless - I love the place! Cornwall's definitely third choice for relocation behind our first choice Florida.

[Ray9]

Regarding EB-5 ... tread with extreme caution ....Sharks fill the waters.

[kokomo]

Hi Ray,

What is your experience of a EB-5 and have you applied for one or know of someone who has?[msnsmile2]