00:00 — Welcome & Introduction
[00:00:05] PETE CALABRESE: Good morning, good evening, good afternoon. My name is Peter Calabrese. I’m CEO of CanAm Investor Services, and I have the pleasure of being joined today by our good friend Matt Galati, principal of The Galati Law Firm — a longtime friend and frequent contributor to our content who helps us educate our client base. Matt, welcome. How are you?
[00:00:30] MATT GALATI: It’s great to be back. Hosting Saturday Night Live five times is a big deal, and I think this is my second time on this particular series — so I’m hoping to get to five and join that prestigious club with you guys.
[00:00:45] PETE CALABRESE: We’ll send you the sport coat. I think it’s velour once you get to that point.
00:50 — Today’s Topic: Travel Planning for EB-5 Investors
[00:00:50] PETE CALABRESE: Our topic today is about helping people — we’re always trying to provide good educational content for people on their different pathways toward immigration. One thing we’ve been getting a lot of questions about lately is travel: for people who already have their green card as clients of ours, or who are on their pathway toward getting a green card, or who are on other immigration visas, questions come up about how they can best navigate travel and the logistical parts of their lives. So we wanted to bring on Matt, since we’re always looking to talk to experts in the field who can help our clients navigate these pathways.
[00:01:42] PETE CALABRESE: Matt, to kick things off — what tips would you give an investor? Maybe break it down by category: investors who have already begun their green card status, and those who are still on the pathway toward it, and how they can make their travels as comfortable and straightforward as possible.
02:13 — Two Types of Travelers: Non-Immigrant Visa Holders vs. Green Card Holders
[00:02:13] MATT GALATI: The vast majority, if not all, of our clients come to us already holding some kind of visa. Maybe it’s just a visitor visa — maybe they’re European or from East Asia and hold an ESTA, or maybe they’re Canadian and don’t need a visa at all, they simply show up at the border. But nearly everyone has some prior experience entering and exiting the United States, as well as going to a consulate to obtain a travel document.
[00:02:50] MATT GALATI: There has, of course, been a change in administrations, and the activity level of officers at the border is more aggressive than it was last year. That said, 99.999% of the people we’ve represented and come across haven’t noticed a major change over the past five months. I understand the concern, though, and I think this conversation is timely for non-immigrants.
[00:03:23] MATT GALATI: Very generally, there are two kinds of travelers we can talk about for this discussion: visitors, and people here on another kind of visa that lets them do something more concrete in the U.S.
03:29 — Visitor Visas, B-1 Investor Visas, and Pocket Letters
[00:03:46] MATT GALATI: If you’re using a visitor visa, it’s incredibly important that when you’re interacting with CBP officers — and none of this is legal advice; please consult a lawyer if you need it — you’re actually coming to visit. If you’re coming for vacation or to see a relative, that’s fine, but lying to someone at the border is never a good idea.
[00:04:12] MATT GALATI: There’s also a B-1 prospective investor visa that some of our clients have received in the past. CanAm’s in-house counsel has done a great job helping clients get these so they can actually visit a CanAm project and then decide whether to invest. With a visitor visa, you’re generally granted a 180-day stay, which can be extended if circumstances warrant — though usually they don’t. Representing yourself properly to the officer matters.
[00:04:45] MATT GALATI: You can also hire an attorney, not just to get the visa itself: attorneys often draft something called a “pocket letter,” which you keep in your carry-on bag. If you’re questioned thoroughly at the airport, you can hand that letter to the CBP officer to help address any concerns.
05:08 — H-1B Workers, Students, and Other Nonimmigrant Categories
[00:05:08] MATT GALATI: Everyone else is already in the U.S. with a job or studying. It’s no secret that for the past 10 years or so, the biggest growth in EB-5 has come from people on H-1B visas, most of them Indian nationals because of backlogs in other categories. Those individuals generally have more border-crossing experience since they’ve been here longer. To use the H-1B visa, they need to be returning to their employer — going home to visit family and coming back to work on Monday, for example. It helps to travel with documentation supporting the visa: approval notices showing duration, and sometimes payroll records showing continued employment.
[00:06:05] MATT GALATI: Students travel with their I-20s. We advise students occasionally, but their best resource is their Designated School Official, or DSO, who deals with these issues full time. For everyone else — people working for foreign governments, people working at Disney World, and everything in between — circumstances vary by visa category. For the most part, if you’ve been following the law and meeting the requirements of your category as a non-immigrant, we haven’t heard many stories of trouble at the border.
[00:06:56] PETE CALABRESE: And likewise — neither have we. But it’s always better to be prepared.
06:56 — Border Best Practices: Presenting Yourself as a Good Foreign National
[00:07:02] MATT GALATI: There are certain things that go without saying: be a good, upstanding foreign national while you’re here. It’s never advisable to break the law and assume things will just be fine regardless. In general, if you present yourself as a good actor and bring all your documentation with you, that’s always advisable. Get yourself a good, secure bag or folder to keep everything safe and organized.
[00:08:04] PETE CALABRESE: How do you advise clients on how long they should plan to be outside the country, given that a lot of immigrants still have business or family obligations back home?
08:04 — How Long Can You Stay Outside the U.S.? A Visa-by-Visa Breakdown
[00:08:32] MATT GALATI: For non-green-card visas, none of them technically limit how much time you need to spend inside the U.S. Some, like E and L visas, have special provisions built to allow frequent travel without ever really acquiring a domicile in the U.S. — which might otherwise subject you to U.S. taxation. Those visas can be quite flexible. And a visitor visa has essentially no requirement to be in the U.S. at all.
[00:09:05] MATT GALATI: The category that really tends to create issues is student and exchange visitor visas, since those individuals are here for an academic or vocational program. If you’re planning something like study abroad, you need to talk with your DSO to structure it properly so your SEVIS record isn’t terminated. If you miss too many days of class, the SEVIS record can be canceled — and without a valid SEVIS record, you can’t use your F visa to re-enter.
[00:09:45] MATT GALATI: If you’re facing an extended absence — say a parent falls ill and you need to go home to care for them — that needs to be very carefully planned with the DSO, potentially placing you on a leave of absence in SEVIS and reactivating your record once you’re ready to return.
10:12 — The 1996 Law Behind Green Card Residency Rules
[00:10:12] PETE CALABRESE: And for your clients who are EB-5 green card holders, or hold other kinds of green cards, how do you answer that question?
[00:10:27] MATT GALATI: Green card rules are a lot clearer, so we can be more precise here.
Matt shares that, in preparing for this episode, he dug up the first article he ever wrote as an immigration lawyer — published October 21, 2011 in The Legal Intelligencer, titled “Don’t Lose the Holy Grail: Avoiding Abandonment of Permanent Resident Status.”
[00:12:03] MATT GALATI: The core idea is that people pursue investment-based migration — whether to the U.S. or elsewhere — because they want greater mobility. In the U.S., green card status is, by definition, about residency, and under immigration law you can really only maintain one country of residence. Border officers, consular agents, and USCIS generally want to see more ties to — and more time spent in — the U.S. than in any other country.
[00:12:43] MATT GALATI: For a long time the law was unclear on this. Then in 1996, Congress passed IIRIRA, which established that if you hold a green card and are outside the U.S. for six months or longer, you’re considered to be seeking admission when you try to re-enter, and you have to prove your admissibility. A lot of people — including some within the government — misinterpreted this to mean you could keep your green card indefinitely as long as you touched down in the U.S. at least once every six months. That’s not accurate. It’s very subjective, and an officer can question your travel purposes and residency regardless of exactly how long you’ve been away.
[00:14:03] MATT GALATI: Very generally, we tell clients: aim to spend at least 183 of the 365 days in the year inside the U.S. If you’re out of the U.S. for a full 365 days, your actual green card is invalidated for travel purposes — a serious problem that requires either “revetting” with CBP on the way back in, or obtaining a returning resident visa at a consulate, which is near-impossible to get. So, definitely don’t be gone longer than a year. Being gone longer than six months is likely to create problems, and being gone for more than roughly half the year in aggregate is also likely to raise issues.
[00:15:02] MATT GALATI: Everyone knows someone who hasn’t left their home country in years and hasn’t had any trouble — but every time you do that, you’re gambling, and the odds eventually catch up. Most immigrants and immigration attorneys prefer boring, low-risk fact patterns; that’s when there aren’t problems.
15:57 — Preparation 101: Documents, Rights, and Readiness
[00:15:57] PETE CALABRESE: This is all really helpful — bring your documents, keep these timeframes in mind as you plan travel. If you have urgent business back home, say a stretch of time in India, keep in mind that could create complications. I think it’s also important, because our clients are doing extensive due diligence on their investment, that some of these baseline travel and category requirements don’t get glossed over.
[00:17:00] PETE CALABRESE: Everyone knows the goal is the green card — the right to work and travel, and eventually their funds returned through the investment — but understanding your rights under your visa category, or your green card, makes those border interactions much easier because you can confidently answer the questions being asked.
[00:17:59] MATT GALATI: It’s not completely inflexible, either. We tell clients that being gone longer than six months is a problem, and longer than a year certainly is — but there’s a solution.
17:59 — Reentry Permits Explained: How They Work and When to Get One
[00:18:11] MATT GALATI: U.S. immigration allows green card holders to apply for a reentry permit. They look a bit like little passports, with your photo printed on passport-quality material. With a valid reentry permit in hand, you’re able to be outside the United States for the entire duration of the permit — up to two years — without risking your green card simply because you’re outside the U.S. (Of course, you can still lose your green card for other reasons, such as certain crimes.)
[00:19:02] MATT GALATI: We’ve had clients — especially back before the RIA, when processing times were unpredictable — apply for a reentry permit while inside the U.S. (you must be in the U.S. to apply), then have the permit delivered to their U.S. attorney or picked up at a consulate abroad. From there, the worry about being gone too long largely fades — you just need to come back and apply for another permit before the current one expires. You certainly don’t want to be stuck outside without a valid reentry permit.
[00:19:55] MATT GALATI: For the most part, our clients haven’t had too much trouble getting these, as long as they give the government a valid reason. The time abroad doesn’t need to terminate on a specific date — it can terminate upon an event: selling a business, completing a scholarship program abroad, or a family member becoming well enough to take care of themselves again. We’ve used all of those kinds of reasons to get clients reentry permits, and for the most part, they haven’t had trouble traveling.
[00:20:29] PETE CALABRESE: That’s a huge piece of advice, because prior planning matters across every part of an EB-5 investment — tax consequences, transitioning a business, moving children’s schooling. This is no different: don’t let a legitimate need to be abroad longer become a source of anxiety. A reentry permit, valid for up to two years, is a significant benefit.
20:29 — Prior Planning: Choosing the Right Family Member as Investor
[00:21:29] MATT GALATI: On the subject of pre-planning: for families who’ve already invested and filed their petition, that planning has already happened, hopefully well. But for those still deciding how to move forward, one of the most important early decisions is who in the family should be the investor — because the investor is the one who must get the green card and live in the U.S.; the spouse doesn’t necessarily have to.
[00:22:33] MATT GALATI: For example: if mom is CEO of a successful company abroad and needs to keep running it, while dad is more available and the kids are ready to start school in the U.S., it may make more sense for dad to be the investor. He and the kids can come in and start school — public, private, or university — while the family’s U.S. residency timeline hinges on dad’s plans rather than mom’s, since she isn’t ready to commit yet.
[00:23:24] MATT GALATI: We’ve had this conversation with plenty of clients who realize partway through that they don’t want to be locked into a five-year timeline before the “wrong” spouse can move — and the fix is often simply making the other spouse the petitioner.
22:33 — Following-to-Join Petitions and Spousal Immigration Options
[00:23:38] MATT GALATI: This also opens up additional pathways later. In the scenario above, once mom wraps up her business abroad, she can come in later as an EB-5 derivative under something called following to join. That’s simply a filing with USCIS notifying the embassy of an additional applicant on the petition; she then goes through her own interview, gets her own EB-5 visa, and joins the rest of the family wherever they are in the process — she doesn’t have to wait for a new I-526 approval and can step directly into a pending I-829, for example.
[00:24:46] MATT GALATI: She still needs to be disclosed on the original petition — the form asks about everyone in the family — but she doesn’t need to take the benefit at the same time as everyone else. The investor is the only person who absolutely must take the benefit at the time of filing (aside from watching for children potentially aging out).
[00:24:59] MATT GALATI: As long as the marriage existed before the investor received the green card, a spouse can join essentially at any time. And sometimes the spouse ends up naturalizing independently and doesn’t need to go through EB-5 at all — they can simply come in as the spouse of a U.S. citizen.
25:18 — The Real Value of Working with an Immigration Attorney
[00:25:18] PETE CALABRESE: That’s hugely helpful. There are things that are controllable and things that aren’t — trying to prepare for every outlier scenario just leads to undue anxiety, but there are realistic things worth being prepared for. You don’t want to be fumbling for a photo of your visa on your phone at the border.
[00:25:59] PETE CALABRESE: Have these things ready from the very start of considering an EB-5 investment — including whether you’ve chosen the right family member to be the investor — because it simplifies family planning around travel and the visas you’ll need along the way. If you’re concerned ahead of time, check with your immigration attorney, and consider getting a pocket letter like Matt described.
[00:27:09] MATT GALATI: AI and tools like ChatGPT will eventually change parts of my job, but not in the foreseeable future. There’s a growing movement — some of it warranted, from trust and estate planning to immigration — toward trying to handle things yourself, since so much information is now available online.
[00:27:35] MATT GALATI: But one of the real values of hiring an immigration attorney is the range of services beyond simply helping source a large deposit into your investment account. An attorney can help with pocket letters, and can provide a Form G-28 in case there are questions at the border, so the officer can contact the attorney directly. Officers don’t always do that, but without a G-28 on file, they can’t.
[00:28:00] MATT GALATI: An attorney can also prepare you for questions about past issues — for example, we have clients who’ve unfortunately had DUIs in the past. That doesn’t automatically disqualify someone from a green card, but it’s fair game for an officer to ask about at the border, so you need to be prepared to answer truthfully in a way that doesn’t create additional problems.
28:38 — Final Thoughts: Why EB-5 Remains a Strong Path to U.S. Residency
[00:29:01] MATT GALATI: One of the simpler truths in life: there are things you can do on your own, and things you shouldn’t. I don’t want to do my own electrical or plumbing work. I can do a fine job picking most investments, but in times of extreme volatility, I like having a financial advisor to run things by. That’s why you work with an expert in immigration, like CanAm, and an expert in immigration law. These are times with a bit of volatility, and you want a great resource to ask.
[00:29:54] PETE CALABRESE: I’d want to make sure all my preparation was done ahead of time, so travel doesn’t add extra stress. Matt, your guidance is still very relevant — you’re helping a lot of people navigate these things.
[00:30:41] MATT GALATI: We try hard.
[00:30:49] PETE CALABRESE: Anything else you’d like to share in closing that would be helpful for people?
[00:30:59] MATT GALATI: We were motivated to do this episode by what we’ve been seeing in the news, but I still think, for the vast majority of people, EB-5 remains a great option if they want to live in the U.S. It’s also far more stable, at least from an expectations standpoint, than it was four years ago.
[00:31:18] MATT GALATI: With proper planning, I’d say 90% of our clients can generally still do what they want to do abroad. There might be extra steps involved — appearing for biometrics more than once, or not breezing through Global Entry — but at the end of the day, if achieving U.S. residency is the goal, EB-5 is still extremely viable.
[00:31:47] PETE CALABRESE: I agree — for most people we talk to, it’s still the best pathway to their ultimate immigration goals, and a great opportunity for those it’s achievable for.
[00:32:12] PETE CALABRESE: The advice for EB-5 investors specifically, and largely across the board: plan ahead, make smart decisions beforehand, and do everything you can to make the process go as smoothly as possible. Working with a good regional center and a good lawyer generally gets you there. I hope this is helpful for everyone as they make travel plans and take the right steps.
[00:32:51] PETE CALABRESE: Thank you, Matt — it’s a pleasure as always, and we look forward to being here.
[00:32:57] MATT GALATI: Hopefully I can come back for three, four, and five, and you can give me that jacket you promised.
[00:33:04] PETE CALABRESE: Exactly, we’ll get on that.
[00:33:07] MATT GALATI: Sounds good. Take care.
Episode Chapters with Timestamps
00:00 Welcome & Introduction
00:50 Today’s Topic: Travel Planning for EB-5 Investors
02:13 Two Types of Travelers: Non-Immigrant Visa Holders vs. Green Card Holders
03:29 Visitor Visas, B-1 Investor Visas, and Pocket Letters
05:08 H-1B Workers, Students, and Other Nonimmigrant Categories
06:56 Border Best Practices: Presenting Yourself as a Good Foreign National
08:04 How Long Can You Stay Outside the U.S.? A Visa-by-Visa Breakdown
10:12 The 1996 Law Behind Green Card Residency Rules
15:57 Preparation 101: Documents, Rights, and Readiness
17:59 Reentry Permits Explained: How They Work and When to Get One
20:29 Prior Planning: Choosing the Right Family Member as Investor
22:33 Following-to-Join Petitions and Spousal Immigration Options
25:18 The Real Value of Working with an Immigration Attorney
28:38 Final Thoughts: Why EB-5 Remains a Strong Path to U.S. Residency
Speaker Bios
Pete Calabrese
Pete Calabrese is Chief Executive Officer of CanAm Investor Services, LLC, the FINRA-registered broker-dealer affiliate of CanAm Enterprises. He leads the firm’s U.S. division, overseeing the sale of private placement funds to foreign investors participating in the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. Calabrese first joined CanAm Investor Services in 2015, holding roles including Chief Compliance Officer before being named CEO in 2021. Before CanAm, he spent more than 15 years in institutional sales and trading, focusing on equity derivatives and volatility products, with firms including ICAP and WallachBeth Capital. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics from Brown University and is licensed with FINRA Series 7, 24, 63, and 66.
Matthew Galati
Matthew T. Galati is the Principal of The Galati Law Firm, LLC, an immigration law practice he founded in 2020 in the Philadelphia area. He focuses his practice on EB-5 and E-2 investor visas, employment-based nonimmigrant and immigrant visas (including H-1B, L-1, E, and O-1 classifications), and complex immigration litigation, having prepared hundreds of Form I-526/I-526E and I-829 petitions. Galati has been named a Top 25 EB-5 Immigration Attorney by EB-5 Investors Magazine and a SuperLawyers Rising Star in business immigration each year since 2016. In 2022, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) recognized him with its Joseph Minsky Young Lawyer Award, and he continues to serve on AILA’s national EB-5 Committee. Galati earned his J.D. with honors from The George Washington University Law School and his B.A. in Politics and History from the University of Virginia.
