Investment Immigration Rises

In 1990 the U.S. Congress enacted the Immigration Act, permitting entry of more foreign workers with skills needed by U.S. employers. With this came a new category of visa, EB5 Visas, known as "Investment Visas." They were available to individuals who invest no less than US $1 million in the U.S and create or preserve at least 10 jobs for American workers. Over the last few years these criteria have been somewhat relaxed. The investment threshold has been lowered to US $500,000 in rural or high-unemployment areas, and the criteria for jobs that count towards the 10 job creation requirement has been widened to include jobs created indirectly as well as directly. The goal of U.S. immigration policy has expanded from attracting talent to attracting wealth. Each year, 10,000 investment immigrant visas are available in the U.S., bringing at least US $5 billion of investment into the country. Business immigrants' contributions gave a significant boost to the U.S. economy, and this was particularly true during the financial crisis.

  Influenced by U.S. immigration policy, greater numbers of Chinese people have moved to the U.S. using investment rather than skilled immigrant visas. Before 2000, 90 percent of Chinese immigrants went to U.S. as skilled immigrants but since then the figure has declined to 10 percent, and now 90 percent is business immigrants. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 75 percent of EB-5 visa applications in 2011 came from Chinese people, and China is currently the largest source of investment immigrants in the U.S.  

Han Ke runs a real estate company in Luoyang, Henan Province. When he moved to the U.S. in 2006, Han got the opportunity to expand his business into other fields, but the main reason he applied for immigration was to get a better education for his daughter. Han's daughter used to be ashamed of her unsatisfactory performance in school. "She was unlikely to pass China's fiercely competitive university entrance exams. In the U.S. she doesn't have to face the pressure of this kind of exam," Han Ke explains. Apart from a wider choice of colleges and better living conditions, Han emphasizes the new confidence that his daughter has found. "I didn't want to see her being depressed at such a young age," he says.

Coming Home

Although the number of investment immigrants is climbing, most immigrants consider it as a change of identity but still focus their career in China. Du and his family acquired green cards in 2009. But his company is in China and he spends most time there, while his wife and child live in the U.S. Du thinks it is a lot harder for him to develop his career in the U.S. since he is much more familiar with the Chinese market's rules and, what's more, operating costs in China are much lower.

Convenience prompted Du to obtain an investment immigrant visa. He is a supplier to a number of American companies that include Carrier and frequently travels between the two countries. Each time he made a visit, he would have to go through time-consuming and tedious procedures to apply for a visa, and he eventually decided that obtaining an investment immigrant visa would be a convenient long-term solution to this. 

  At present, the US economy is stagnating due to the financial crisis that arose in 2008. Many employers are slashing jobs or reducing benefits. In contrast, China's fast developing economy is producing considerable opportunities. Adding to the incentives to come to China, the government has implemented policies such as the Recruitment Program of Global Experts to attract leading scientists and executives who have been trained overseas, which have lured some former migrants back to develop their career.    

 Among these is Xu Yue, who developed a reagent that plays a crucial role in the detection of DNA. In 2007, he was invited to return home by his classmates and together they started their own business in Suzhou, researching and producing DNA test kits. Their work fills a gap that existed in China and has a promising future there, as before they established their business China's DNA tests had to rely on imported reagent.

Seeing China's prosperity and development, more and more overseas students are returning to their home country. Ma Chengcheng and every one of the 29 other Chinese students who graduated from her program at Clark University decided to return to China to find work. Han Xu graduated from University of Arizona in 2010, and he insisted on finding a job in China despite his parents' opposition. When asked what the biggest mistake he has ever made in his life, Han doesn't hesitate to give his answer. "My biggest mistake is that I gave up the chance to enter a first-class university in China and instead chose a second-class university in the U.S." Statistics from China's Ministry of Education reveal that the number of returned overseas students reached 100,000 in 2009, an increase of 56.2 percent on the previous year. In 2010, the figure rose to a new high of 134,800. Meanwhile, some figures show that the number of Chinese immigrants who obtained US green card is declining each year, from 87,307 in the peak in 2006 to 70,863 in 2010.  

Though the international flow of Chinese students and investors is subject to all sorts of forces and incentives, one thing remains consistent: no matter whether in China or in the U.S., those who follow their dreams and persist in striving to achieve them will fulfill their true potential.