Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Document the commitment at the actual case stage
An investor may be in the process of investing under the applicable requirements, but a bare unpaid promise is not sufficient capital evidence. Read the binding terms, actual transfers and conditions rather than declaring every future installment already invested.
Apply the threshold and job rules
The standard capital minimum is US$1,050,000, reduced to US$800,000 for qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure projects, with statutory adjustments beginning January 1, 2027. At least ten qualifying full-time jobs per investor are required using the applicable direct or regional-centre method. For direct employment, full-time generally means at least 35 hours weekly; contractors, nonimmigrants, the investor, spouse and sons or daughters are not qualifying direct employees.
Keep participation and residence separate
The investor must participate in management or policy formulation, including qualifying limited-partner rights where applicable. Petition approval alone is not residence; the applicable admission or adjustment stage follows. I-829 generally belongs in the 90 days before the second anniversary of conditional residence, and filing does not itself remove conditions or guarantee capital repayment.
Preserve the investment’s legal conditions
Qualifying capital must be lawfully sourced and at risk, with investor participation in management or policy formulation. Gifted or borrowed funds must be provided in good faith and not to circumvent permissible-capital restrictions. Contractual investor repayment rights and guaranteed rates of return are excluded; an enterprise’s sole-discretion buyback exception remains subject to sustainment and other requirements.
Decide between a regional-center project and a direct investment
In a direct EB-5 case there is no economic methodology for indirect jobs; the ten positions must appear on the enterprise's payroll records, Form I-9 files and quarterly wage reports. The capital must create at least ten full-time positions for qualifying United States workers, and the word full-time carries a defined meaning of at least thirty-five hours a week; two part-time roles cannot be added together to make one. A regional-center filing places capital into a sponsored project where permitted indirect job methods may apply and where other parties control construction, leasing and reporting. The documents that matter are the private placement memorandum, the subscription agreement, the escrow agreement, the job-creation methodology and the regional center's designation and compliance status. The family should ask for the project's TEA evidence, which under current rules is determined by USCIS against census-tract data, rather than accept a marketing statement that the project is rural or high-unemployment. A first review should identify whether the project relies on direct, indirect, or induced employment methodology and then trace every claimed position to the appropriate supporting record. Where the investment is made through a designated regional center, jobs created indirectly may be counted using accepted economic methodologies, which is why regional center offerings often satisfy the requirement more easily on paper. Read the offering documents for how jobs are attributed to each investor, what happens if the project creates fewer than projected, and whether capital is redeployed after the job-creation period.
Engagement in management or policy formulation is still required
The investor, the investor's spouse, their children and non-immigrant workers do not count toward the ten, and neither do positions held by people without authorization to work. The statute requires engagement in the management of the enterprise, whether through day-to-day managerial control or through policy formulation, and the usual vehicle is a limited partnership interest or a limited liability company membership carrying rights that satisfy that test. Do not transfer a regional-centre economic model into a standalone business as though both use identical proof.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.
- USCIS — EB-5 investor program
- USCIS — business and investment visa overview
- USCIS — Child Status Protection Act
- Department of State — Visa Bulletin
- USCIS — fee schedule
- U.S. Code — INA203(b)(5) investment requirements
- 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