The Bellingham Herald ( Bellingham , WA )

January 24, 2005 Monday, LOCAL; Pg. 3A

Investment plan could create jobs; ON THE BORDER

BYLINE: John Stark

            A wrinkle in U.S. immigration law, coupled with Whatcom County 's location on the Canadian border, could tap into a new source of investment dollars to finance private job creation here.

            The federal government must approve the plan.

            The Bellingham Whatcom Economic Development Council is applying to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to get the county designated as a regional center under the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program. If the designation is granted, federal law would allow a foreign investor to earn permanent resident status in the United States by investing as little as $500,000 in a Whatcom County business if the investment created at least 10 new jobs, directly or indirectly.

            The investor would get a temporary visa once a qualifying investment was made, and a permanent resident visa if the jobs were still here after two years.

            Rob Pochert, executive director of the development council, said the designation would be "another arrow in the quiver to attract investment dollars to Whatcom County ."

            If the designation is approved, the opportunity would be marketed to foreign investors in a number of ways.

            The development council and the Bellingham Whatcom Chamber of Commerce would market local investment opportunities to foreign investors who make inquiries.  Such investors would be recruited in Canada by the nonprofit Pacific Corridor Enterprise Council, and on a worldwide scale by IMS Immigration Services Ltd., a company that specializes in helping would-be immigrants get legal status in the United States and other countries.

            The company has offices in Canada , Korea , New Zealand and Australia .

            Pochert said he hopes federal officials will respond to the application within four months.

            If the feds approve the deal, immigration attorney Greg Boos said he doesn't think it will trigger a major rush of foreign capital into the county.  But it will give the county equal status with other communities such as Philadelphia , New Orleans and the state of Hawaii that already have acquired the regional center designation.

            Boos said the federal immigrant investor program has been around for years, but until recently it was cumbersome to use, and only about 1,000 investors per year took advantage of it. Now the program has been overhauled and should be more attractive to the people it was meant to attract, he said.

            The county's border location should make it a more attractive location for such investments than many other areas of the country, he added.

            Jim Pettinger, president of International Market Access Inc., said he doesn't

expect a big financial windfall for local companies, but the immigrant investor incentives could still have significant direct impact.

            Pettinger's company provides services to companies trading across the U.S.-Canada border, and he operates a foreign trade zone in the Port of Bellingham 's International Trade Building at 3873 Airport Way .

            He compared the immigrant investor designation to the foreign trade zone. As he described it, the zone doesn't provide a lot of direct economic benefits under the current state of trade law between the U.S. and Canada . But the existence of the zone helps attract business inquiries that sometimes lead to business relationships, even if the zone itself winds up not being a part of that relationship, Pettinger said.