The number of foreigners willing to invest $500,000 to $ 1 million in a U.S. business in exchange for a visa roughly tripled in the past fiscal year as dozens of cash-strapped enterprises

and local governments scrambled to attract wealthy foreign backers, the Washington Post reported Monday.

Under the EB-5 visa program, most immigrant investors prefer to invest in “regional centers”—public or private enterprises that are certified by the U.S. government to receive funds from EB-5 investors and that can count jobs indirectly created by the investment toward the 10 required. And immigrants can reduce the mandated minimum outlay from $ 1 million to $ 500,000.

The number of immigrants(including investors and their immediate family members) who obtained EB-5 visas jumped from 1443 in fiscal 2008 to 4218 in fiscal 2009, according to the State Department. Nearly 70% of immigrants granted investor visas in fiscal 2009 were from South Korea or China, countries whose nationals face decade-long waits for family-unification visa or employment-based visa because of annual quotas.

In a matter of months more than 50 private and public enterprises were certified as regional centers, increasing the total from 23 to 74.

A program participant Eric Forgues from France said it is unlikely that he will get more than 1% return by the five-year point at which he will be allowed to withdraw his money. That will barely cover the roughly $ 50,000 in administrative costs of his investment. But Mr. Forgues said he has no regrets. “I knew conditions going in, and it was worth it to me,” he said. “More than anything else, we really wanted our two children to be raised in the U.S. educational system,” Forgues added.

In Washington, there is a strong bipartisan support for EB-5 program. In a rare bipartisan convergence on an immigration issue, Sens. Patrick Leahy(D-VT), chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Jeff Sessions(R-Ala.), ranking member, recently joined forces in an effort to make the regional centers permanent.