The Chinese are coming.....but they have money!

Citizenship for sale: Foreign investors flock to U.S.

Good riddance, Eduardo.

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin drew public ire last month following the revelation that he had renounced his U.S. citizenship, a move widely seen as a tax dodge. But thousands of wealthy foreigners are lining up to replace him, making investments here and putting themselves on a path to citizenship in the process.

The State Department expects to issue over 6,000 "investor visas" in the current fiscal year, which would be an all-time record. Other countries, meanwhile, are following the U.S.'s lead, keen to spur growth in lean economic times.

"Our goal is certainly job creation, and that's what this program is all about," said Bill Wright, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. "At the same time, it's allowing somebody from a foreign country to come and invest in our nation."

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Under the government's EB-5 Immigrant Investor program, foreign investors can get conditional visas that allow them and their families to live, work and attend school in the U.S. To qualify for the visa, they must invest at least $1 million in a new or recently created business, or $500,000 for businesses in rural or high-unemployment areas.

The investment must be demonstrated to have created or preserved at least 10 full-time jobs for U.S. workers within two years. Assuming this condition is met, investors and their families graduate to permanent resident status, and can apply for full citizenship three years later.

While the EB-5 program has been around since 1990, demand has been surging as of late, fueled in large part by China's growing elite, who accounted for 70% of the roughly 3,500 investor visas issued last year. State Department officials expect the program's quota of 10,000 visas per year, which includes visas given to the spouses and children of investors, to be filled for the first time ever within the next year or two.

Some critics of the U.S. program question the fairness of letting wealthy immigrants pay for special treatment, while others say investments and job creation claims need stricter vetting. Immigrants who arrive via the program have no guarantee of recovering their investments, and may face deportation if they don't produce the required number of jobs.

Investing overseas: Find the right balance

Of the roughly 12,000 immigrants who've arrived on the EB-5 investor visa, just 39% have earned permanent residency, according to USCIS data.

There's also the lengthy application and approval process -- a 2005 study by the Government Accountability Office said the program's reputation for red tape had dampened interest among foreigners in the preceding years.

USCIS press secretary Christopher Bentley said in an email that the agency "continues to take steps to enhance [the EB-5 program's] efficiency and integrity." USCIS recently expanded the team of analysts responsible for evaluating EB-5 projects and proposals, he said.

Whatever the program's problems, interest has been growing in recent years, and meanwhile, the U.S. has faced increasing competition from other countries trying to woo well-heeled foreigners with the promise of residency or citizenship.

In January, Ireland announced a new residency program for immigrant investors, and Australia unveiled a similar program last month.

"Governments are reinvigorating their policy and their resources around this," said Eric Major, the CEO of Henley & Partners Ltd, an international consulting firm based on the European island of Jersey that specializes in immigration assistance for the wealthy.

Around 20 countries currently offer residency or citizenship by investment, Major said, a figure that may soon grow with economies struggling in much of the developed world. Major said he had met with five governments in the past eight months to discuss such programs.

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Demand shows no sign of slowing down, either. International travel, banking and communication have become increasingly easy, while Asia, in particular, is minting new millionaires at a rapid pace.

"At no time in human history have we ever been so mobile and has there been so great a wealth effect from China and India," Major said.

In the U.S., the immigrant investor program has been responsible for at least 46,810 jobs and more than $2.3 billion in investments since its inception in 1990, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

That's a small fraction of overall foreign investment in the U.S., but it comes at no cost to the government. Were the EB-5 program to meet its 10,000-visa quota, it would contribute more than $4.4 billion to GDP and create or preserve nearly 75,000 jobs annually, according to a 2010 report prepared for the government by consulting firm ICF International.

The EB-5 program is up for renewal in the fall, and while USCIS says it has "no indication" that the initiative will be allowed to expire, some supporters are more wary.

"We can't let our guard down," said David Andersson, an immigration attorney and president of the Association to Invest In the USA. "The deadline approaches and Congress just demonstrates a reluctance to get things done."

For foreign investors, Andersson said, the main appeal of immigration to the U.S. is access to good schools for their children or other family-related concerns.

5 projects financed by EB-5 investors

That was the case for Jordan Gagner, a Canadian investment manager who came with with his wife and three children to Arizona in 2009. His wife had come down with a serious case of rheumatoid arthritis, a condition exacerbated by Vancouver's cold, wet weather.

"We just thought, we've got to get down to a climate that's more conducive to this disease," Gagner said.

Gagner invested in an assisted-living complex being constructed in Washington. He and his family now have green cards giving them permanent resident status, and plan on applying for citizenship as soon as they're able.

"We're fiercely proud about Canada, but there's things we love about the U.S. that Canada just doesn't provide," Gagner said.

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How Much to Live in a Place With These Awesome Views?

How Much to Live in a Place With These Awesome Views?
By Suzan Haskins

A week ago, I shared a photo of Vilcabamba, as well as some reasons why it’s known as Ecuador's Valley of Longevity—where so many of the inhabitants live to be 100 and beyond—

Here’s today photo, which may give you some more insight into why people here live so long—

This is a place that’s pristine and natural. It just makes you want to slow down and enjoy life as long as you can.

Some scientists believe the clean, mineral-rich water that flows from mountain streams and springs is akin to the fountain of youth. Or maybe the pure air itself keeps hearts beating and lungs breathing longer. Certainly, the climate has something to do with it. Just shy of the equator in southern Ecuador and at an elevation of 5,000 feet, temperatures average between 65 and 81 degrees, day in and day out. No weather-related stress here.

Truth is, it’s probably because of all these ingredients and more—and because it wasn’t that long ago (in the 1960s) that “civilization” came here in the form of a reliably drivable road that connected Vilcabamba with the outside world. It was even only more recently that the telephone, television, and the Internet forced their versions of stress into this valley.

It was also in the 1960s that one of the first foreign residents—Johnny Lovewisdom— found his way to the Vilcabama Valley. An eccentric spiritual seeker, he was looking for his own version of Nirvana, a place with a near-perfect climate where food could be grown unsullied by chemicals or the threat of nuclear fallout that was then top-of-mind in the post-World-War-II world. He brought an eclectic mix of alternative lifestyle pursuits, including some out-of-the-ordinary (at least for back then) dietary and religious beliefs.

This tendency to attract the more interesting and offbeat among us continues to this day.

But while it’s no doubt that some foreigners who come to Vilcabamba are somewhat eccentric—or that they’re searching for spiritual enlightenment or to live an intrusion-free alternative lifestyle of one kind or another—most are merely yearning for a simpler way of life—a place where they can own enough land to grow their own food, have horses, some chickens, maybe a few goats—

In Vilcabamba, this is an affordable possibility. Just outside town, a two-story traditional Ecuadorian house of 1,600 square feet is for sale. On a fourth-of-an-acre of land, it’s bordered by a creek and has lots of mature trees and plants, including avocado, fig, bananas, coffee, and more. The house needs work, but it’s offered for just $39,000.

Go farther afield to nearby valleys to find even more bargains. In Malacatos, for instance, you can buy 74 acres of land—with beautiful views, a natural spring, a small stream—even a waterfall—for $198,000.

At the top of a crest with a jaw-dropping 360-degree view of the valleys and village of Malacatos below, a two-acre parcel—with all utilities—is selling for $49,000.

One baby, two moms equals controversy in Ecuador

QUITO (AFP) - Ecuador's constitution extols "families of diverse types," but this conservative, Catholic society is struggling to figure out how children raised by parents of the same sex fit that lofty ideal.

A British lesbian couple have sparked controversy at a time when attitudes about same-sex couples are changing in other countries, including nearby Argentina, the first Latin American country to legalize gay marriage.

Ecuadorians have been closely following the case of Nicola Rothon and Helen Bicknell, each of whom is claiming the right to call herself the mother of their newborn.

After their daughter Satya Amani was born in December of last year, the longtime couple tried to register their joint maternity with local authorities, but were denied.

The women, both 34, then filed a claim alleging discrimination and demanding that state prosecutors protect their constitutional rights, but were turned down.

"The constitution protects us, but there is a loophole and that needs to be fixed. It will not be easy," Rothon told reporters recently.

"It's always the case that when you're the first ones, you've got to fight to change the laws," added Bicknell who, with her partner, makes a living teaching English and raising organic produce on the outskirts of Quito.

Rothon said she worries that if she were to die, the government might keep her daughter, since her partner has no biological tie to the infant.

"If something happens to me, does she go to an orphanage?" she said.

The women were considering taking the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an arm of the Organization of American States (OAS).

They met met 16 years ago in Kenya, where they worked as volunteers. They entered into a civil union in Britain in 2010 and tied the knot at a ceremony in Ecuador the following year.

Their baby was conceived with semen donated by a mutual friend, but although parenthood was entered into as a joint endeavor only Rothon, who carried the child to term, is seen as the child's parent.

The case has sparked controversy in Ecuador, an avowedly secular country with an 80 percent Catholic population.

The Catholic Church here has kept a low profile in the dispute, but is emphatic in embracing only heterosexual marriage.

"There is only one mother," said Antonio Arregui, president of the conference of bishops.

The view of most Ecuadorians, he said, is that "a normal family is father, mother and children."

Isabel Salazar, 42, a member of a group that rejects gay marriage and abortion, disputes Bicknell and Rothon's claims to parenthood.

"We respect gays and lesbians, but they are a marginal group," she told AFP.

She added that child raising is a task that required the "complementarity of a male and female parent."

But the couple also has supporters, including Sarahi Maldonado, 20, who is an activist with a group defending the rights of Ecuador's "sexual minorities," including gays and lesbians.

Maldonado said the state promotes homophobia and archaic ideas about family.

"It is outrageous to believe that you can't have a family in which no man is present," she said.

"In daily life we see so many cases of men who do not acknowledge paternity, and nobody talks about the impact of abortions or broken families," she said, decrying what she said was a "clear double standard."

Bicknell said she agreed with the conventional view here that two parents are better than one, but rejected the idea that the couple has to be of two sexes.
"For any child, it's best if two people love him and want to give him the best," she said.