RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
At a time when U.S. companies are producing relatively few new jobs, some wealthy immigrants are especially welcome. In return for investing in an American enterprise that creates jobs, a well-off foreigner can get a green card. Vermont Public Radio's Charlotte Albright takes us to a ski resort that's cashing in on the arrangement.
CHARLOTTE ALBRIGHT: �This season, snow is plentiful, but working capital is always hard to come by in this hardscrabble corner of Vermont. Bill Stenger owns Jay Peak, a popular resort only two miles from Canada. He's found mountains of money overseas.
Mr. BILL STENGER (Owner, Jay Peak): We've raised almost $200 million of equity capital to transform Jay Peak from a winter-only ski resort to a true 52-week a year resort facility.
ALBRIGHT: In addition to about 80 well-groomed trails, there's a snazzy hotel, an ice arena, and a golf course.
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And construction has begun on a huge water park. The glass dome will keep it toasty in the winter and can be rolled back in the summer. Stenger proudly points to Caterpillar tractors, American-made machines employing about 50 local workers.
Mr. STENGER: They were all born and raised in this area, went to North Country high school, the career center, some to Vermont Tech and now they're working at Jay Peak building this facility.
ALBRIGHT: Some of that work is being paid for by investors like Anthony Korda. He's a British lawyer who followed the EB5 rules, investing the minimum $500,000 in Jay Peak and creating at least ten jobs. The feds took a few months to trace the source of that foreign money, and conducted background checks before issuing his green card. Now he's an immigration lawyer in Naples, Florida who connects other foreign investors to the EB5 program...
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ALBRIGHT: ...and he's building a stylish new house in his adopted home.
Mr. ANTHONY KORDA (Immigration Attorney): The EB5 program has given us a new life and yes, it's given me a new business to go into, and it's an interesting one, too.
ALBRIGHT: Interesting, because he helps clients from all over the world find the best, safest American projects to invest in. They can do that through one of about 80 regional EB5 centers nationwide.
Korda says the centers are popping up all over the place, now that equity capital isn't easy to get from American banks. But processing the visas can take months or even years, so investors are rushing to get in the pipeline before the scheduled sunset date in September 2012.
Mr. KORDA: Unless Congress does renew the program either permanently or again for a lengthy period, it starts to lose its appeal.
ALBRIGHT: To keep investors coming confidently into EB5, its many bipartisan supporters are already trying to drum up Congressional support for its renewal. They know if it gets attached to a controversial immigration bill, it could get bogged down and expire.
Only 10,000 visas are set aside for EB5, a small fraction of the yearly total allotment. That quota has never been met. But the investors who have climbed aboard have brought more than a billion dollars into American businesses, generating tens of thousands of jobs. That's a point EB5 cheerleaders will make, if they're faced with opposition from anti-immigration groups.
For NPR News, I'm Charlotte Albright, in northern Vermont.