Immigrant investors on edge as EB-5 lapse enters eighth month

Roll Call ^ | Feb 16 | By Suzanne Monyak

[RandFan]

Dr. Chandra Ojha, a cardiologist in El Paso, Texas, is used to demanding work.

But lately, Ojha, who has waited more than three years for his green card through a since-expired government program, has been “feeling the stress.” It became so intense that a recent bout of chest pain spurred him to have a heart investigation done on himself.

Born in India and trained in London and the U.S., the 44-year-old Ojha filed his initial green card petition in 2018 based on a $500,000 investment in a California hotel under the EB-5 visa program. The program allows foreign investors who sink a certain amount of capital into a U.S. enterprise that creates American jobs to apply for permanent residency.

Investors may invest $500,000 in a project in an area of low employment, or $1 million elsewhere.

“Now a lot of us investors are in limbo. We don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s not just about money. Our immigration is at stake,” Ojha said.

Strict country caps on visas, especially affecting people from India, have created such a long backlog for permanent resident status that some immigrants turned to EB-5 visas as an alternative.

But the EB-5 regional center program has lapsed twice since Ojha filed his request, first for over a month during a government shutdown in December 2018 and again after Congress did not reauthorize the program last summer.

Ojha is one of roughly 80,000 foreign citizens, including investors and their families, affected by the expiration of the EB-5 visa regional center program, a lapse that has stretched more than seven months.

“I feel like we have been completely abandoned, despite it not being our fault,” Ojha said.

[fruser1]

“I feel like we have been completely abandoned, despite it not being our fault,”

And what do you say about the country you’re trying to leave?

[Liz]

Whiner.

Not your fault? Stupid YOU left a mile-long paper trail.

Get outta my country, foreigner.

[OftheOhio]

Boo-f’n-Hoo. The land of opportunity unless you’re an American, spit. I’m to go to the hospital today. As if there isn’t enough landmines in a hospital to worry about, we have to worry about incompetent and/or malicious imported replacements tending to the new untouchables. And we wonder why the death rate has skyrocketed in this country. I so dread this day.

[Liz]

EXCELLENT POINT As if there isn’t enough landmines in a hospital to worry about, we have to worry about incompetent and/or malicious imported replacements ...... the new “untouchables.” And we wonder why the death rate has skyrocketed.

THROW THE BUM OUT.

[Tagurit]

“Immigrant investors on edge”
What about Americans trying to keep a roof over their heads and feeding their families?
Have had enough of immigrants.

[Liz]

Amen.

[Gay State Conservative]

This *particular* case needs to be examined before any "get out" declaration is made. He's a physician,trained in Britain and the US. Assuming he's a skilled and dedicated physician he's of great value to us...regardless of how much,or how little,he's "invested" here.

Other "investors"? I suppose they could be of value in some cases.

When it comes to immigration our two top priorities should be 1) seal the southern border tight as a drum and 2) do away with automatic citizenship at birth like 99% of the world's other advanced,civilized nations have done (Ireland,Britain,Australia among many others).

Then we can consider whether $500,000 is a good enough reason to give someone a Green Card.

[Liz]

7K U.S. Doctors Sidelined Every Year by Foreigners Winning Taxpayer-Funded Residencies
Breitbart ^ | 15Feb | JBinder
Posted on 2/16/2022, 12:25:50 AM by qaz123

Every year, more than 7,000 American citizens and green card-holders lose out on United States taxpayer-funded residencies to foreign nationals despite having earned their degrees as medical graduate physicians, bombshell congressional testimony reveals.

Kevin Lynn with Doctors Without Jobs unveiled the data to the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship on Tuesday, sounding the alarm on “graduate medical education profiteers.”

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...

[Gay State Conservative]

Having worked for 25 years at one of the world's most famous hospitals I know a bit about American health care. Any man or woman who's licensed to practice medicine in this country...regardless of nationality or where he/she was trained...can get a job here. A good paying job!

[amihow]

Prayers for you. There are still good,true healers in the hospitals willing to buck the corporate protocols.

[Lurch Addams]

Yep. If he doesn’t like it here, he should go home. Plenty of American doctors are available for his job.

He’s a foreigner that came into the USA, and is drawing his paycheck from taxpayer-funded medical programs (Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare...).

His paperwork has been delayed by Covid, so he’s “demanding” citizenship? LOL.

[Adder]

So become a citizen.
Or leave. India needs drs.

[Liz]

This parasite is in NO position to demand anything.