1:25pm | A group of Chinese investors is set to tour the city of Long Beach Thursday as they consider relocating here by participating in an immigration program that would grant them permanent residency in exchange for their investment in American businesses, according to the Long Beach-Qingdao Association.
Eleven “wealthy” investors from Long Beach sister city Qingdao, China, will spend the entire day tomorrow visiting various points of interest throughout the city as they mull over participating in the EB-5 Immigrant Investor program, which, according to the U.S. Department of Citizenship and Immigration Programs, requires an immigrant to invest in a new commercial enterprise or an existing but troubled business in exchange for being granted permanent residency in the United States.
The eight men and three women on the tour are visiting under the auspices of the U.S. Employment Development Lending Center, a recently formed company located in the Long Beach World Trade Center that is taking advantage of federal investment and immigration laws to administer the EB-5 program.
EB-5 immigrants “invest” by paying at least $500,000 to approved EB-5 lending centers such as Long Beach’s USEDLC, which put the money into pools from which they then issue business loans. USEDLC caters solely to California small businesses, to which it makes a variety of small business loans such as Small Business Administration 504 loans.
The sister city association said that the visitors are mostly middle-aged entrepreneurs whose wealth has been generated through their own efforts in a wide range of industries following economic liberalization in China. Such visitors often, though not always, are interested in moving to America to aid their children in enrolling in U.S. colleges and universities.
The association, which arranged the tour by facilitating meetings to acquaint the investors with local businesses and economic development organizations, expects that additional groups of investors will visit on similar tours over the next few years.
A rough schedule of the tour has the investors visiting the law firm of Keesal, Young & Logan at 7:30 a.m. for an economic briefing, during which they are expected to present an original painting to Vice-Mayor Suja Lowenthal on behalf of the city. Two hours later, they will attend a briefing at the Port of Long Beach before heading over to the Queen Mary for a tour of the ship and lunch.
Following lunch, the group will tour real estate and housing options by bus. They will then attend a 3:15 p.m. economic briefing at Long Beach City Hall, which is to be followed by a reception at the Long Beach Museum of Art. The day will be rounded out with a 7 p.m. dinner at the Long Beach Yacht Club.