Your cash for Green Card in the US just costlier by Rs 5.4 crore

If you were planning to invest in the US and pay for a green card through cash, be ready to shell out Rs 12.2 crore. While earlier, the threshold limit was Rs 6.8 crore, ‘cash for visa’ has gone up by Rs 5.4 crore.

As per the norms of Cash for Visa, individuals can apply for lawful permanent residence in the US if they make the necessary investments and create at least 10 permanent full time jobs for US workers. They are granted conditional permanent residence for themselves, spouse and children below 21. After two years, they have to apply for lifting of the 'conditions'.

Presently the investors need to invest a reduced sum of $0.5 million for business operations in specified rural areas or those with higher unemployment limits. The amendments have been brought by US department of homeland security (DHS) a few days back.

"Bona fide investors generally possess in excess of the threshold required. The downside is that the increased funds required for investor visa will give them less operating capital that they originally anticipated for carrying on their business and innovative funding structures will need to be adopted. We notice that some of our clients are creating hospitality consulting firms and then entering into partnerships with other organisations to allow them to be able to have the capital that they need in order to do the intended investment," David H Nachman, managing attorney, NPZ Law Group told The Times of India.