About the American Immigrant Investor Alliance
History of AIIA
The American Immigrant Investors Alliance (AIIA) is a Washington, D.C. based 501(c)(4) non-profit advocating for the interests of EB-5 investors from around the world. In April of 2021, anticipating the EB-5 Regional Center program lapse, four immigrant-investors met in online EB-5 investor forums, where they realized there was no advocacy organization dedicated to representing immigrant investors in the U.S. government. Where investment issuers and developers were able to lobby hundreds of thousands of dollars towards making EB-5 work for them, investors were cast aside and left to worry about how the lapse would impact their immigration process. Out of this need for a united, investor-facing advocacy organization, AIIA was born.
Following the lapse of the program, AIIA’s founders built up a small yet powerful community to lobby for their ‘grandfathering’ proposal, also known as the Foreign Investor Fairness Protection Act (FIFPA). This proposed bill text would ensure that any investor who filed an immigrant petition with USCIS before the program lapse would be able to complete the full immigration process. With the dedicated support of hundreds of EB-5 investors and some industry stakeholders, AIIA raised enough funds to hire a lobbyist, travel to Washington D.C., and meet with Senators on both sides of the aisle to advocate for the nearly 80,000 people impacted by the lapse. In March 2022, we succeeded and our legislative language was included in the Omnibus bill and signed into law by President Joe Biden thus ensuring that all existing and future EB-5 Regional Center investors would be grandfathered into the renewed program. This law allows for grandfathered investors to have their petitions processed and Green Cards issued even if the program lapses in the future.
Without AIIA, investors would have never had a platform to voice their concerns to a larger government authority, nor unite amongst themselves to counter exploitative parties within the EB-5 industry. We are the only organization made up of actual investors in the EB-5 program, a program Congress enacted to create jobs for Americans. Without the investors, there’s no program – and no American jobs would be created. If we could pass legislation to protect our community as an infant organization with a small but mighty base of support, imagine what we, as a united front of immigrant investors, will be able to do in the future.
Our Mission
AIIA is dedicated to informing, educating, and advocating on behalf of all EB-5 investors from across the globe. Our main goal is to give immigrant investors a real voice in U.S. politics by advocating for a more equitable and transparent immigration program. As one of the only EB-5 focused organizations whose sole focus is on investors, AIIA strives to be an authoritative, investor-focused advocacy organization representing interests of all EB-5 investors regardless of their country of birth, adjudication status, or prior residency in the United States. When the EB-5 program works for investors first, we all benefit from a more diverse and well-adjusted immigrant population, to a more expansive and supported American labor force. Together, we build up the American economy. With this in mind, politicians, government agencies like USCIS, and all EB-5 stakeholders should be helping the people at the core of the EB-5 program: the immigrant investors.
Our Community
AIIA’s foundation is built by EB-5 investors who have believed in our mission since the EB-5 program lapsed in Summer of 2021. Since the lapse, our community has grown exponentially, and features investors from every corner of the world with a variety of different languages. Now, our incredibly supportive body of immigrant investors regularly assist each other throughout their EB-5 journey. AIIA has expanded to providing immigration and investment resources to its members through education and referrals to vetted industry professionals. For those looking to join our online communities, please refer to the membership page here.
Our Team
AIIA is run by a group of immigrant-investors and an advisory board of skilled EB-5 professionals with the goal of providing a voice and representation to all investors in the EB-5 program. Our team is from a variety of different countries and walks of life but are unified in working together to advocate for the immigrant investor community. By working together and uniting our voices against injustice and lack of oversight in the EB-5 world, the team believes we can all benefit from immigrating to the United States and reforming the EB-5 program for the better. You can read more about the people behind AIIA here.
Our Strategy
The American Immigrant Investor Alliance is an EB-5 investor run organization. We are a group of immigrant investors who are trying hard to lobby in Congress for fair treatment of the immigration process. We rely on donations to make the positive change our community deserves. Our donors include individual EB-5 investors, their family members, and industry stakeholders. Your donation helps us achieve the following objectives:
- Retaining a dedicated lobbyist. Using a lobbyist is the most important investment AIIA makes when shaping the immigration outcomes of thousands of EB-5 investors.
- Professional Services expenses associated with drafting legislative text, proposals, and providing support, updates, and knowledge to EB-5 investors.
- Legal expenses to defend investor interests in precedent-building EB-5 legal arguments.
- Administrative expenses to carry out 501 (c) (4) activities including direct access to the U.S. Congress, building our media presence, and funding marketing campaigns.
- Website and other overhead expenses.
Our strategy is determined by our overarching legislative and administrative goals, which drive us to expand our network and continue advocating for investors. If you are interested in seeing what these goals look like, check out AIIA’s Legislative and Administrative Priorities.