America’s Next Industrial Policy Could Be Hiding in EB-5

America is rebuilding its industrial base, and I believe the EB-5 industry needs to catch up. Its future hinges on one pivotal question: Is EB-5’s capital reaching the industries America needs to build?

I have spent more than three decades in finance and more than 15 years in EB-5. I have watched the US economy change dramatically while many EB-5 investment patterns have remained remarkably familiar. Hotels, apartments, mixed-use developments, and other commercial real estate projects became the natural habitat of EB-5 capital. There were good reasons for that. Real estate projects were understandable, financeable, and capable of producing the employment required by the program.

But America’s economic priorities have moved.

The country is talking about semiconductor fabs, domestic production, critical minerals, energy capacity, automotive supply chains, and advanced manufacturing. Supply-chain disruptions exposed the cost of depending too heavily on distant production. Geopolitical tensions have turned economic resilience into a national-security concern. Industrial capacity isn’t just an economic statistic; it is part of the country’s strategic infrastructure.

The capital is following that shift. According to research, foreign direct investment expenditures in the United States reached $232.2 billion in 2025, up nearly 50 percent from 2024. Manufacturing accounted for $121.8 billion, or 52.5 percent, of that new investment, the largest industry share.

That is a remarkable signal. Foreign investors are already betting heavily on American productive capacity. EB-5 should be asking how it can participate.

The US government is sending an equally unmistakable message. In January, the Commerce Department announced a US-Taiwan agreement involving at least $250 billion in new Taiwanese investment in American semiconductor and artificial-intelligence production. In March, the United States and Japan announced additional strategic projects spanning manufacturing, energy, and advanced nuclear technology.

This is the economic landscape EB-5 now inhabits.

Yet too much of the industry still thinks like it is 2015.

I do not mean that commercial real estate has suddenly become irrelevant. It has not. Real estate can create jobs, support communities, and provide legitimate EB-5 opportunities. The issue is one of proportion and imagination. If America’s most pressing economic needs are increasingly tied to productive industries, why should EB-5 remain disproportionately oriented toward the development cycle of buildings?

A manufacturing facility operates differently.

A factory can require construction workers to build it, engineers to design and maintain its systems, technicians to operate equipment, managers to run production, and suppliers to feed an ongoing industrial ecosystem. The employment does not necessarily end when the ribbon is cut. The business can continue hiring, producing, selling, and expanding.

That distinction matters.

EB-5 was created in 1990 to stimulate the US economy through foreign investment and job creation. Today, USCIS requires qualifying investors to make an investment in a commercial enterprise and plan to create or preserve at least 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers.

If we take that purpose seriously, industrial projects deserve a much larger place in the conversation.

The industry should stop asking only, “Can this project qualify for EB-5?” We should also be asking, “Does this project strengthen the American economy?”

That is a different standard. It forces regional centers to understand operating businesses, manufacturing processes, customer contracts, equipment requirements, labor needs, and long-term revenue models. It demands deeper due diligence. It also demands expertise that some regional centers have not traditionally needed.

I see that as an opportunity, not an obstacle.

Manufacturing projects are sometimes dismissed as complicated or too distant from major metropolitan centers. Yet many of the industries America most urgently wants to expand are emerging in rural and secondary markets, where land, labor, and operating costs can make projects viable and where new employers can have an outsized effect on local economies.

Investors should look at these opportunities with the same discipline they apply to any investment. Immigration benefits matter, but they are not a substitute for understanding the business. Where will revenue come from? Who are the customers? How will jobs actually be created? What protects the capital? What is the repayment strategy? Who is managing the project? Those questions become especially important as EB-5 moves into more operational industries.

The payoff, however, can be broader than an individual investment. A successful industrial project can create jobs, support suppliers, strengthen a regional workforce, and establish domestic production in a sector that might otherwise depend on foreign sources. The economic effect can continue long after the initial construction period.

That is precisely why I believe we should stop viewing EB-5 as merely an immigration program or a convenient financing mechanism for real estate. It can be an economic-development instrument.

America is already deciding what it wants its next industrial era to look like. Manufacturing, semiconductors, energy, critical minerals, infrastructure, and advanced technology are attracting enormous amounts of capital because they address real economic and strategic needs. Data shows that manufacturing alone accounted for more than half of new foreign direct investment expenditures in the United States in 2025.

EB-5 does not require imitation of that capital. It needs to understand the direction of travel. Right now, America’s economic development is taking place on factory floors, inside fabrication plants, and along supply chains that used to run through other countries. If EB-5 is serious about creating American jobs through productive investment, its capital should be showing up where American production is showing up.

The country is indeed building again. I believe EB-5 should help build what comes next.

About the Author:

Moses Choi is an experienced investment banker and the Managing Member of the Southeast Regional Center (SRC). With over three decades of financial expertise, including a background at JP Morgan Securities Inc., he has structured and managed numerous EB-5 visa investment projects since 2010. Choi specializes in loan underwriting and navigating complex international investments, helping foreign investors secure U.S. residency while driving domestic economic development through regional center programs.