A US VISA programme which offers a green card in exchange for an investment of €390,000 in a ski resort in Vermont was launched in Dublin last night by US senator Pat Leahy.
The Democratic Party senator, on a trade mission to Ireland, said the programme was good for Ireland and good for Vermont.
Under the EB-5 visa programme, initiated in 1992, an investment of $500,000 in Jay Peak Resort in north Vermont will provide a green card for the investor, a spouse and any children under 21 years of age.
The card entitles the holder to lawful permanent residence in the US. Under the rapid visa programme there are no age, employment or education restrictions and after five years investors and their families are entitled to apply for US citizenship. The scheme also applies in other projects in the US, but can be up to $1 million.
The resort, a 90-minute drive from Montreal, sits on 4,000 acres and boasts a 4,000-foot high peak and a championship golf course. The developers have 100 foreign investors for phase two of their project and are looking for a further 50. Next year, phase three will require another 150 investors.
Mr Leahy, whose grandfather was Irish, said the programme is a great opportunity to create jobs in Vermont and to allow Irish people to live in the US. "We are a small state - there are only 650,000 people in Vermont. Our business people and Irish business people understand each other..."
Bill Stenger, president of the resort, said the company would offer an exit strategy to investors at the end of six years. "We can't offer that before the fifth or sixth year because of the federal requirements about the length of the investment."
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