IN THIS GUIDE · Use historical financial records without treating a prior project as this case
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Trace the actual lawful source and path
Hypothetical example: capital comes from proceeds accumulated after a prior property or business sale. Document the genuine source event and subsequent transactions. An old agreement is relevant to its own event but does not automatically explain every later transfer or current commitment.
Assess the present project and amount
Confirm the applicable capital threshold and the actual basis for any reduced category at the filing date. Capital must be at risk, and separate charges should not automatically count. EB-5 generally requires at least ten qualifying permanent full-time jobs under the applicable standalone or regional-center method; a different project’s job results do not establish this proposal.
Distinguish experience from assurances
Prior investment experience may inform commercial questions but does not guarantee repayment or immigration success. Review the actual agreements and evidence. Project forecasts, adviser summaries and historical outcomes should not be represented as completed current facts.
Follow the current individual residence process
A petition does not grant residence. Applicable immigrant admission or adjustment approval establishes conditional residence, with later removal-of-conditions requirements. Visa availability, admissibility and derivative eligibility need individual assessment, including any CSPA issue using actual dates. A prior family plan does not automatically fix current age eligibility.
Use the current capital, job and residence conditions
The current standard capital minimum is US$1,050,000, or US$800,000 for a qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure investment. Statutory adjustments begin January 1, 2027; use the petition filing date. At least ten qualifying full-time jobs per investor are required under the applicable standalone or regional-center method. Assess management or policy participation, including qualifying limited-partner rights. Conditional residence starts at immigrant-visa admission or adjustment approval; I-829 is generally filed in the 90 days before its second anniversary. Filing does not itself remove conditions or guarantee repayment.
Direct investment expects the investor to be engaged
Ask exactly how the specific project proposes to create the required jobs and what assumptions the job-creation methodology relies on. Direct jobs generally require at least 35 hours weekly; contractors, nonimmigrants, the investor, spouse and sons or daughters are excluded. Do not assume a liquidity condition makes an investor-controlled repayment right acceptable. The applicant must show the lawful source of the funds and the path they travelled, account by account, and must be engaged in the enterprise's management or policy formulation rather than holding a passive interest. Buying into an established distributor therefore raises the harder question first: is this a new commercial enterprise, has it been restructured or expanded such that new positions are created, or is it a troubled business where existing jobs may be preserved instead? Where several investors participate, the allocation method matters and should be understood before capital moves. Subscription documents, offering materials, business records and project budgets should be read together. Where the investment is made through a regional centre, certain indirect and induced jobs may be counted under statutory methodologies, and where it is a direct investment the ten positions generally have to exist on the enterprise's own payroll.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.