Land Ownership Laws Restricting Certain Foreigners

[joshs]

I'm not quite sure how to frame this question, so work with me here: do you have an example of a restriction based on country of origin which is a "domestic" matter, particularly at the state level?

The easiest is the 20 some states with similar land acquisition laws. https://nationalaglawcenter.org/stat...landownership/

Some of these are only for foreign-controlled companies, but a number of them are similar to Florida in that they prohibit ownership by non-US persons from certain countries.

The 64 CRA generally only limits discrimination in federally funded programs or public accommodations. I'm admittedly not up to date on agricultural land law, but it doesn't look like one of the existing laws has been successfully challenged.

[Spartan1980]

Correct, in that restrictions on foreign nationals buying property is a new thing. There has not typically been a restriction on foreign nationals buying property.

The federal restriction on non-immigrants purchasing firearms is only on the basis of residency status as non-immigrants.

A given foreign national is not banned from buying guns based on their particular national origin.

So, that's kind of an apples and oranges comparison.

The U.S. government uses the term nonimmigrant to refer to foreign nationals who are admitted to the United States temporarily for a specific purpose. By contrast, the term immigrant refers to foreign nationals who wish to come to the United States permanently.

https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/201...immigrant-mean

I have zero issue with restricting land sales to non-immigrants. As a country I'm pretty sure we have the right to do just that. Immigrants are a whole different issue as long as they have the legal process started and underway and I'm assuming that their presence here indicates that has happened, but in these times, who the hell knows?

[TGS]

The easiest is the 20 some states with similar land acquisition laws. https://nationalaglawcenter.org/stat...landownership/

Some of these are only for foreign-controlled companies, but a number of them are similar to Florida in that they prohibit ownership by non-US persons from certain countries.

The 64 CRA generally only limits discrimination in federally funded programs or public accommodations. I'm admittedly not up to date on agricultural land law, but it doesn't look like one of the existing laws has been successfully challenged.

Sorry about not being clear, Josh. I stated upthread that commercial entity ownership of land doesn't seem to be the issue, so I'm looking for laws that restrict private individuals like SB264...which IIRC prevents you from buying a house on a 2.5 acre plot within 5 miles of critical infrastructure if you're from a certain country. That strikes me as similar to CCW restriction laws that basically make it impossible to carry outside the home due to the proximity of numerous restricted zones along a persons daily route/routine. My understanding is that most other laws really only touch on commercial entities, unlike SB264.

With that said, that's a pretty cool compilation that gives a bunch of good jumping off points, and will make it easier for me to find applicable laws and get a better idea...thanks for sharing that! The chart itself that they generate isn't terribly useful, as several of the initial laws I looked at for states listed with prohibition do not generally prohibit foreign nationals from ownership, and actually write them in as having the same rights as citizens. They get marked "yes" on prohibition because there seems to be some sort of exceptional condition which may apply in .001% of cases. For instance, Virginia is listed there with "Yes" for prohibition, but that's obviously not a great barometer since tons of foreign nationals own property as private individuals in Virginia and there's generally no prohibition on such; it seems to be marked "yes" due to a condition regarding the transfer of property and foreign reciprocity (which is interesting that Virginia went the extra mile on that).

The laws I've skimmed over in the last few minutes seem to not come anywhere close to the degree of restriction as Florida's new statute. I'll have to do more digging to see if there is one substantially similar.

As for 64 CRA, does that 64CRA doesn't prohibit discrimination with regards to protected categories and ownership of property? Or simply that the precedent hasn't been set as of yet? Afterall, AFAIK, Chen, Fatima, or Hugo typically haven't been told they can't buy a house in the past...so it was never really an issue (hence why I started this thread to ask the question).

[TGS]

I have zero issue with restricting land sales to non-immigrants. As a country I'm pretty sure we have the right to do just that. Immigrants are a whole different issue as long as they have the legal process started and underway and I'm assuming that their presence here indicates that has happened, but in these times, who the hell knows?

Just because this has popped up a few times:

I'm really looking less for opinions about how the world should be, and more for substantial information like Josh and jh9 shared.

Additionally, you may want to consider that many "immigrants" are in fact here on a non-immigrant status. People who come over on work visas for unfilled, important positions in the U.S. labor market usually have the intent to immigrate in the U.S., as their visas are "dual-intent" which allow them to declare an intent to immigrate; their status is still considered non-immigrant, because they are not granted LPR status automatic to the visa, and it can literally take a decade+ to officially become an LPR. As long as they initiated the paperwork to adjust status as an LPR, they are entitled to automatic renewals of their lawful presence until their LPR status is adjudicated. They are very much immigrants in every functional way of the word, except for being somewhat capriciously classified as non-immigrant due to the general program they're under.

So, the issue might not be as clear cut on who it affects as you imagine. ETA: You're an engineer, right? So imagine if you had an H-1B engineer at work who came over 10 years ago. Due to delays in the processing times of his application to become an LPR, thus an "immigrant", he may still be in the "non-immigrant" category.....regardless of the fact he has declared his intent to immigrate and started the paperwork years ago, has owned two homes in that time, has almost zero connection to the country he came from, and fathered multiple kids and intends to raise his family here, and retire here. In any reasonable use of the word, people would refer to such a person colloquially as an immigrant. However his legal status would still be non-immigrant because of the capricious nature of the system.

[Caballoflaco]

@TGS Alabama just passed a similar law I haven’t had a chance to look through yet, but here’s a link to the text. It was heavily amended form the house bill that was passed that did proper to ban individuals of specific nationalities from purchasing/owning property.

https://www.legislature.state.al.us/...S/4GQNII-1.pdf

[TGS]

@TGS Alabama just passed a similar law I haven’t had a chance to look through yet, but here’s a link to the text. It was heavily amended form the house bill that was passed that did proper to ban individuals of specific nationalities from purchasing/owning property.

https://www.legislature.state.al.us/...S/4GQNII-1.pdf

Thanks for the reference, I'll check it out.

[DrkBlue]

I am familiar with some of the existing legal restrictions for land purchase from my day job.
In the end, the legal context usually ends up being compelling government interest, leavened with standing issues for particular litigants.

While I am not familiar with any model language for state legislatures, I assume that likely exists. Potentially ALEC or other similar resources.

My working assumption is recent legislation may also have been influenced by the Grand Forks, ND situation, which was a Chinese issue - https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/we...oves-halt-corn

According to USDA, Chinese investors own roughly 384,000 acres of U.S. farmland, or less than 1% of all foreign-held farmland. Chinese land ownership rose by about 31,000 acres from the end of 2020 to the end of 2021, according to the latest report by USDA.

USDA's report on foreign ownership of farmland reported about 40 million acres at the end of 2021, up about 2.4 million acres during the year.

In a larger context, there is the federal CFIUS. I have a superficial knowledge but it is an arcane process.

[rob_s]

part of what hurt Florida a lot in the Great Recession was foreign investors buying condo properties (often sight unseen) because the perception was that owning a physical asset was safer than tenor own banks.

Legitimate buyers/owners/residents were harmed by buildings they were trying to live in being largely unoccupied and (often) foreign owners not keeping current on their various dues and fees. When three floors of a building are empty, you don't find out about a water leak until three floors are flooded.

Ultimately all of this co tribute to the gross evaluation of these properties and the real estate collapse.

I was building a high-end condo on the beach at that time. When we started construction the smallest, non-ocean-facing, units were $900k pre-sale. By the time we're done they were $300k. I can't say how many, if any, of our buyers fell into the above group, but that behavior hurt our developer either way. When we went back for warranty claims during the recession the building (which had almost entirely sold)was largely empty. Granted, million dollar ckndoson the beach at typically a 2nd (or 3rd, or 10th) home for these people but NOBODY was ever there.

I'm not familiar with the law in question, but would imagine it's a reaction to that.

I would imagine that if German buyers were doing the same things, they'd be on the list too.

[rob_s]

Nvm what I wrote above. After reading this

https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/s...discrimination

I think the below is spot on.

I assume the Florida law was red meat they knew probably wouldn't survive challenge? Desantis is setting up a POTUS run.