FROM the 36th floor of a downtown Miami office tower, Ronald Fieldstone has a 360-degree view of the construction boom that he has had a hand in fostering.

There is the high-speed rail line that will connect the city to Orlando, home of Disney World. To the west is the newly renovated Langford Hotel and to the north is the building site of the Paramount Miami Worldcenter, a 60-storey condominium and retail complex, where construction crews are digging the foundations.

All of those projects are funded, in part, via an investor visa programme known as EB-5 that gives investors a path to US citizenship. For a $500,000 investment in a project that creates at least 10 jobs in a high-unemployment area, a foreign national can eventually receive a green card that allows him or her to live and work permanently in the US.

Miami, already a magnet for wealthy families from Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina, is using the EB-5 programme as a tool to attract cash from China. Officials hope to transform Miami into an international banking centre with close ties to China, which they hope to cement by persuading Chinese airlines to begin nonstop flights from the mainland.

Miami’s embrace of the EB-5 is not without controversy. Critics say it is rife with fraud and used to launder money. Canada ditched a similar programme while Australia tightened its requirements after finding there was little economic benefit.

Hoping to spur development, Miami is the latest US city to embrace a programme that grants visas to wealthy investors. Congress is debating whether to renew the scheme amid criticism it is rife with fraud

Some US lawmakers say it sends a bad signal - trading visas for cash from the wealthy while much of the money has gone to well-off areas, not the distressed regions the programme was designed to help.

Congress will vote later this month on whether to renew the programme. Even supporters like Mr Fieldstone say it needs more regulatory oversight to limit fraud and protect the national security interests of the US.

The EB-5 programme was created in 1990 as part of the Immigration Act to spur the US economy and promote job growth. Since then it has brought in $15.5bn in investments and created 84,400 jobs, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the programme.

Applicants need to lend $1m to a job-creating business or $500,000 if the project is in an economically depressed area. After roughly five years the investor receives a green card and, if they are lucky, their money back with a profit.

The US programme sputtered along largely unused until the 2008 global financial crisis made it harder for real estate developers to obtain financing. Canada’s 2014 decision to close its programme, which had been extremely popular with wealthy Chinese, also gave the US version a boost.

The US scheme is capped at 10,000 visas annually, which it hit for the first time in 2014. Chinese investors are by far the biggest users, accounting for 86pc of the visas issued last year. That has created a backlog for Chinese applicants entering the programme, which is now up to 18 months. Some fear they will choose other countries given the delays.

Shutdown threat: The programme’s fast growth has exposed vulnerabilities in the system. There have been criminal cases alleging investor money was stolen. A Chicago man was charged with stealing $160m from investors that he purported to use to build a convention centre. He pleaded guilty earlier this year.

Congress is divided over whether to improve the programme or simply end it, as Canada did. One lawmaker, Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California who is the vice-chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence, says it should be shut down.

Hotting up: In Miami, the view is that the influx of capital will raise the city’s profile internationally and attract more business. Developers have been on the ground in China promoting the city as the best place to park their cash.

Regulation: Offshore marketing raises concerns on oversight. The EB-5 investor visa programme that attracts thousands of Chinese millionaires a year, eager for a foothold on the path to a green card, is now luring Chinese developers to the US.

After the 2008 housing crisis, traditional loans for large real estate developers dried up. Since investments under EB-5 are less expensive than bank loans they have become a normal part of financing for large developers.

But the programme has been criticised by government watchdog groups for lack of integrity.

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, September 19th, 2016