Separate the qualifying investment capital from the regional center's administrative fee, any loan-related fees if the investment is partly financed, government filing fees, legal work and later immigration-stage costs, and confirm which fees are refundable if the petition is denied or the project does not proceed.
Read the subscription agreement's fee schedule line by line
Identify every fee the regional center charges beyond the investment amount, including administrative, syndication or exit fees, and ask what happens to each fee, and to the investment itself, in a denial or project-failure scenario. Keep independent legal and financial advice on the offering separate from the immigration budget, and confirm current government fees before finalizing a total cost estimate.
Separate required capital from ancillary charges. EB-5 calls for US$1,050,000; US$800,000 applies to infrastructure projects or qualifying targeted areas that are rural or have high unemployment. Capital must face loss and may already be invested or currently moving into the enterprise. Regional-center administration, syndication, legal, diligence, translation, travel, and government charges are distinct unless governing documents establish otherwise. Ask whether each noncapital payment is refundable, when earned, and what denial or project failure changes. The common mistake is adding all outlays and calling the total qualifying capital without tracing each dollar.
Hypothetical example: an Ottawa commercial-refrigeration distributor examines a regional-center cold-storage complex charging administration plus possible financing and disposition amounts. Its comparison sheet should quote subscription provisions beside each payment, recipient, due date, and refund condition. Independent securities and tax review belongs outside the immigration capital total. Before subscribing, the investor should confirm that the claimed reduced threshold, ten-job method, and Form I-526E structure match the offering rather than relying on a salesperson’s bundled price.
- 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