花50萬美元買美國房可得居留簽證？
The reeling housing market has come to this: To shore it up, two Senators are preparing to introduce a bipartisan bill Thursday that would give residence visas to Foreigners who spend at least $500,000 to buy houses in the U.S。
The provision is part of a larger package of immigration measures, co-authored by Sens. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y。) and Mike Lee (R., Utah)， designed to spur more foreign investment in the U.S。
Foreigners have accounted for a growing share of home purchases in South Florida, Southern California, Arizona and other hard-hit markets. Chinese and Canadian buyers, among others, are taking advantage not only of big declines in U.S. home prices and reduced competition from Americans but also of favorable foreign exchange rates。
To fuel this demand, the proposed measure would offer visas to any foreigner making a cash investment of at least $500,000 on residential real-estate—a single-family house, condo or townhouse. Applicants can spend the entire amount on one house or spend as little as $250,000 on a residence and invest the rest in other residential real estate, which can be rented out。
"This is a way to create more demand without costing the federal government a nickel," Sen. Schumer said in an interview。
Foreigners immigrating to the U.S. with the new visa wouldn't be able to work here unless they obtained a regular work visa through the normal process. They'd be allowed to bring a spouse and any children under the age of 18 but they wouldn't be able to stay in the country legally on the new visa once they sold their properties。
The provision would create visas that are separate from current programs so as to not displace anyone waiting for other visas. There would be no cap on the home-buyer visa program。
Over the past year, Canadians accounted for one quarter of foreign home buyers, and buyers from China, Mexico, Great Britain, and India accounted for another quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors。
The idea has some high-profile supporters, including Warren Buffett, who this summer floated the idea of encouraging more "rich immigrants" to buy homes。美國兩名參議員本週四準備提起一項跨黨派議案，爲在美國購買總價50萬美元以上住房的外國人發放居留簽證，以提振美國萎靡不振的住房市場。
上述規定是一系列移民措施的一部分，由紐約民主黨人查爾斯•舒默和猶他州共和黨人邁克•李共同起草，旨在鼓勵外國投資。
在南佛羅里達州、南加利福尼亞州、亞利桑那州、以及其他房產重災區的購房者中，外國買家所佔比例越來越大。由於美國房價跌幅較深，國內購房者減少，以及有利的匯率，中國和加拿大等國的購房者極佔優勢。
爲鼓勵上述需求，議案提議向使用現金投資購買50萬美元以上住宅房產的外國人發放居留簽證，包括獨戶住房、單元公寓屋、和聯排別墅。申請人既可把全部50萬美元用於購買一套住宅，也可先花25萬美元購買一套，然後用剩下的錢再買一套用於出租。
舒默在採訪中說：“這樣一來，聯邦政府不花一個子兒，就能刺激更多需求。”
持此類新簽證進入美國的外國人，除非通過正常程序獲得常規工作簽證，否則不能在美國就業。申請人可帶一名配偶和年齡低於18歲的孩子赴美，但如果賣掉在美國的房產，就無法在美國繼續合法居留。
新的居留簽證將獨立於現行美國簽證項目，不會影響到等待其他簽證的申請人，同時也沒有人數限制。
據全美房地產經紀人協會統計，過去一年間，加拿大買家佔外國購房者的四分之一，來自中國、墨西哥、英國和印度的買家總共也佔到四分之一。
該設想已贏得一些著名人士的支持，包括沃倫•巴菲特。巴菲特今年夏天曾呼籲鼓勵更多“富裕移民”來美國買房。
