The 55-year-old businessman is among 450 investors from India, China, Russia, South Africa, and dozens of other countries who obtained the green cards through their investments in Jay Peak Resort, part of a controversial national program that the Obama administration is increasingly promoting in hope of creating thousands of jobs across the United States.
“I chose the investor route because it was simple and much faster,’’ said Bhullar, now a mystic in New York offering seminars in life guidance. “I could see that it would be a waste of time - it would take very long - if I chose any other option other than Jay Peak.’’
The immigrant investor program, created in 1990 by Congress to compete with a similar initiative in Canada, helps foreigners slash through the red tape in the US immigration system while allowing businesses such as Jay Peak Resort to raise the money they need to expand.
With job creation now a top political issue and traditional sources of capital hard to find, the program is being aggressively marketed to businesses and potential foreign investors. It has incited critics who condemn it as a questionable business practice or as an immigration policy that effectively allows some foreigners to buy their way into the country.
But it has also created jobs in places like Jay, a tiny town 3 miles from the Canadian border in a county with one of the highest unemployment rates in Vermont. Every spring, the resort’s owner, Bill Stenger, would have to lay off workers. But through the program, he has raised $200 million in the past few years to transform a modest ski resort into a glitzy year-round attraction with an ice rink, golf course, two hotels, and an indoor water park.
Most important, he said, they plan to have 800 full-time, year-round jobs, up from just 150 five years ago.
“Everywhere you look there are people working,’’ Stenger said as he walked through the water park one recent day. He added, “I honestly don’t know that there would have been another way to do it, especially at the time we’re in now.’’
Some critics say they fear that immigrants will pay little attention to their investments because they are motivated by green cards.
