Taxpayer-Funded Benefits for Foreign Millionaires?

Children of EB-5 investor-visa holders get tuition breaks at many public universities

By David North on May 15, 2023

Let’s see, what incoming alien population least needs state-funded financial benefits?

How about a group that is being admitted not for their skills, or for their need to seek refuge in the States, or for their family ties with the U.S.? How about a relatively small group that has been admitted by the federal government because they are related to rich people.

EB-5 (immigrant investor) aliens, usually children of the investors, can apply in 20-some states for lower in-state tuition rates at public universities, rather than paying the full freight of out-of-state tuition normally imposed on alien students. Can you think of a needier population? Since Daddy is a millionaire, the teenager gets a huge tuition break at many public universities.

Instead of keeping this bit of information secret to avoid still more controversy about the already controversial EB-5 program, a totally irony-free industry website has publicized this dubious benefit as a reason why one should enter the EB-5 program.

EB-5 Investors explains:

Out-of-state tuition typically costs more than in-state tuition and can often be double or triple the price. For example, annual in-state tuition for the University of California, Los Angeles, is $14,478. But for international students the annual tuition at UCLA is $47,052.

The website suggests concurrent filings of the I-526E and I-485 forms to secure the benefit.