NY Wheel reels in Chinese investors with visa promise

The promise of a green card has seen foreign investors, the vast majority from China, invest $150 million in the New York Wheel, an observation Ferris wheel - the tallest in the world - planned for Staten Island.

The 630-foot-wheel project has attracted 300 Chinese investors, at least 90 percent of the foreign investors involved, through the EB-5 visa program, which gives foreign investors a temporary visa to the US, said Richard Marin, president and CEO of New York Wheel LLC.

"We go where the money is," said Marin. "There are a larger number of entrepreneurs with that kind of wealth in China than anywhere else. By far the largest single source of supply - those who seem to find value in investment like this in exchange for a green card and where money is available - is from China."