IN THIS GUIDE · Identify the actual investor and eligible family case
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Assign the investment evidence accurately
Hypothetical example: a household includes an investor, spouse and an adult relative with separate plans. Identify the actual contribution, lawful source and path and capital at risk. A family relationship does not automatically make another adult an eligible derivative or an independent qualifying investor.
Keep capital and jobs connected to the real structure
Confirm the applicable threshold and project qualification at the filing date. EB-5 generally requires at least ten qualifying permanent full-time jobs under the applicable standalone or regional-center framework. Do not assume a shared project narrative establishes multiple independent investors’ requirements without the relevant analysis.
Assess eligible relationships and ages
An eligible spouse and unmarried child under 21 may have derivative options subject to applicable requirements and any case-specific age protection. CSPA requires actual dates and visa availability; filing does not automatically freeze age. An adult’s work or financial contribution does not itself create derivative eligibility.
Coordinate the residence stages accurately
A petition does not grant residence. Applicable immigrant admission or adjustment approval establishes conditional residence, with later removal-of-conditions requirements. The immigrant principal generally enters before or with derivatives. Keep each person’s actual process and documentation clear rather than relying on a single household move date.
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.
Decide between a regional-center project and a direct investment
An investor who runs the business plainly satisfies the requirement to be engaged in management or policy formulation, which is one genuine advantage of the direct route. A regional-center project counts indirect and induced jobs through an economic model; a direct investment counts only full-time positions of at least thirty-five hours a week filled by qualifying U.S. workers on the enterprise's own payroll. Ask for the project's targeted-employment-area designation and its basis, the job-creation methodology and how many jobs are allocated to each investor, the administrative fee beyond the investment amount, the redeployment policy if the loan is repaid before conditions are removed, and the exit terms. A location being rural or outside a major metropolitan area is not, on its own, what qualifies a project for the reduced investment amount. Qualifying workers are U.S. citizens and certain lawfully authorised residents; the investor, the investor's spouse and children, and certain nonimmigrant workers are excluded from the count. Ask which methodology the study uses, how sensitive its job count is to the project's actual performance, and what happens to the investor's case if the built project creates fewer jobs than projected. Independent contractors, nonimmigrants, and the investor, spouse, sons and daughters do not count as qualifying employees; apply permitted regional-center methods separately. A promised repayment, a redemption arrangement, or a side agreement that insulates the investor can undermine the case even if the transfer of funds is easy to prove.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.