USAcitizenships.com Provides Information on New Incentives for Overseas Property Investors Including Purchasing a Home with the Required Visa

(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 22, 2011 ) Los Angeles, CA The property market is still in the doldrums. Two Senators have submitted proposed legislation to get the market rolling again. The legislation would allow residence visas to foreigners that invest at least half a million dollars in the property market in the United States.

The authors of the bill are Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Mike Lee of Utah. Schumer, a Democrat and Lee, a Republican both aims to entice foreign investors to sink their money into the American property investment market.

Current market indices show that investors have been purchasing homes in South Florida, Southern California, Arizona and other depressed markets. The nationalities of these investors range from China to Canada. They have been capitalizing on the depressed market values in the US as well as the shrinking American investment market. Lately, an added bonus is the favorable foreign exchange rates between their home currency and the US greenback.

The proposed legislation would have a provision offering visas to foreigners making a cash investment in the minimum amount of $500,000 in residential real estate. This includes a single family home, condominium or townhouse. These investors can put all their investment in one home or spend as little as $250,000 on a home and put others in other commercial residential real estate investments.

This investment for visa mechanism is designed to complement current visa programs that allow foreigners entry into the country. One such business visa allows visas for business investments that create jobs. The sponsors and their supporters believe the legislation would help remove the current oversupply of homes since many American have opted to hold on to their money as job security as well as depressed values of current homes have hit hard.

In an interview, Sen. Schumer said This is a way to create more demand without costing the federal government a nickel.

For the current year ending in March, foreign buyers have purchased around $82 billion in real estate sales. In the previous year, this sector of the market had only $66 billion according to the National Association of Realtors. In Miami, foreign investors had a market share of 5.5% of all home sales while in Phoenix, this same group accounted for 4.3% for the month of July.

The limitations for this real estate investment visa would be the need for a regular work visa should the investor seek employment in the country. As a benefit, the investors visa would allow a spouse and any underage children to be brought along as dependents. Once the property invested in has been sold to another party, this visa automatically lapses, requiring the visa holder to leave the country with their dependents.

Another provision in this proposed legislation is the creation of a new visa category so as not to affect anyone else currently undergoing the visa application process. Finally, there is no recommended cap as to the number of visas that would be issued under this investment program.

The greatest number of foreign property investors have come from Canada, roughly added up to a quarter of the total number. Another quarter is comprised of citizens from China, Mexico, United Kingdom and India. This small number is reflective of how the current restrictive immigration process has become a deterrent to foreign investments.

About USAcitizenships.com:

USAcitizenships.com is a webservice provided by the Law Offices of David A. Lluis. USAcitizenships.com is one of three websites provided by this law office for the purpose of immigration services.


David Lluis
(888)-940-0044
info@usacitizenships.com

Source: EmailWire.Com
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