Sanjiv Patel has plowed over $1 million into his peanut company Holy Cow. Last year, he had over $300,000 in sales, his product was in roughly 600 stores, and he had two full-time employees. But if he doesn't hire another eight people in the next 12 months, he could get kicked out of the country.
Patel is here on an investor immigrant visa -- a controversial program that gives a green card to any foreigner who invests at least $500,000 and creates 10 jobs in the United States.
Next March, he'll have to go before immigration officials and prove he's created the 10 positions or he risks losing the temporary green card he was granted last year.
"The worst-case scenario is I leave," said Patel, 40, who's based in Dallas but originally from the UK. "I guess I could always sell the company."
The investor immigrant visa (officially known as EB-5) has been around since 1990 but has expanded rapidly in the last few years. Over 6,600 visas were issued under it in 2012, according to a recent Brookings Institution report. That's up from just 800 in 2007.
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