Yes, in composition though not necessarily in total. A direct investment generally has no regional-center administrative fee, but it may involve its own acquisition, legal, accounting and business-operating costs that a packaged regional-center offering would otherwise bundle.
Budget for the business purchase, not only the investment threshold
Identify the acquisition price, due-diligence and legal costs, and any working-capital needs the business will require after the purchase, separately from the qualifying investment capital itself and from government filing and immigration legal fees. Confirm which of these costs count toward the qualifying investment amount and which are separate business expenses.
Build two budgets. For a standalone venture, include the qualifying investment, acquisition diligence, operating reserves, payroll creation, immigration advice, and official filing charges. For a stated regional-center alternative, list its offering expenses and use Form I-526E; a direct investor uses Form I-526. Keep nonqualifying expenses outside the capital total. The lower US$800,000 threshold applies to infrastructure projects or targeted employment areas, whether rural or high unemployment; otherwise, US$1,050,000 applies. Ten qualifying full-time U.S.-worker jobs are still required. The budgeting mistake is comparing only advertised investment figures while ignoring structure-specific expenses.
Hypothetical example: a Clarence-Rockland commercial-laundry operator compares buying an American laundry directly with subscribing to a regional-center project. She requests cost schedules for both, checks government charges at official sources, and asks which direct-purchase payments would be treated as capital rather than personal expenses. Her spreadsheet also reserves cash for wages without assuming every reserve dollar has already been invested. Offering documents, refund provisions, and administrative charges stay distinct from the statutory threshold, allowing the household to compare liquidity and risk instead of relying on a single headline total.
- USCIS — EB-5 investor program
- USCIS — business and investment visa overview
- USCIS — Child Status Protection Act
- Department of State — Visa Bulletin
- USCIS — fee schedule
- 8 CFR 204.6 — Petitions for employment creation immigrants
- 8 USC 1153 — capital, jobs and project determinations
- 8 CFR 204.6(e) — direct employee and hours definitions only
- USCIS — I-829 instructions
- Department of State — employment immigrant travel