Does buying an existing U.S. business automatically supply the required new jobs?

No. Existing positions must be evaluated under the applicable job-creation or permitted preservation rules. The enterprise’s eligibility is a separate question informed by its formation history and the transaction; neither a purchase agreement nor current payroll settles both.

Identify which regulatory path applies before counting jobs

Obtain the business formation records, acquisition documents and employment history. Ask which enterprise and job provisions the actual case relies on, including any claimed exception. Do not universally require a 40% expansion or treat a claimed troubled-business provision as satisfied merely because the buyer keeps existing workers.

Identify whether the acquisition is a standalone new commercial enterprise and which job-creation theory applies before counting anyone. EB-5 requires US$1,050,000, or US$800,000 in a targeted employment area—rural or high unemployment—or an infrastructure project, plus ten full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers. Capital must be at risk and invested or actively in the process of being invested, with lawful source and path documented. Existing payroll does not automatically become ten new jobs, and buying company shares does not by itself establish an exception. The common mistake is choosing a job theory after the transaction has already fixed the relevant facts.

Hypothetical example: a Clarence-Rockland precision-parts manufacturer proposes to buy an established American tool-and-die factory with twelve employees. Before closing, advisers examine formation history, payroll, financial condition, transaction structure, and the proposed hiring plan to determine what jobs may lawfully count. The investor does not advertise retention of all twelve workers as automatic compliance. A capital-flow schedule separately traces sale proceeds from Canadian assets into the enterprise, and the business plan distinguishes current positions from genuinely forecast additions.