Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Connect the jobs to the investor’s case
EB-5 generally requires at least ten qualifying permanent full-time jobs per investor. A pooled project total does not itself explain which jobs support a particular petition or whether they are being counted appropriately. Distinguish direct-employment evidence from a permitted regional-center methodology rather than using their rules interchangeably. Do not assume any preserved existing position qualifies as ordinary new job creation.
Use the correct capital threshold and evidence
Current general amounts are US$1,050,000 or US$800,000 for a qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure project, with statutory adjustments beginning January 1, 2027. The filing date and actual qualifying basis matter. Show lawfully sourced capital invested or actively in the process of being invested at risk; a project’s aggregate fundraising total is not the applicant’s own contribution. For gifted or borrowed capital, establish lawful source and a good-faith arrangement that does not circumvent restrictions on permissible capital sources.
Read the investor’s rights and financial terms
The investor must engage through managerial control or policy formulation; genuine qualifying participation rights can matter without requiring every investor to manage day-to-day operations. Review the governing agreement and actual role. Contractual repayment rights and guaranteed returns raise statutory capital issues; do not describe an assured return of funds as equivalent to a qualifying at-risk investment. Capital exchanged for a contractual repayment right or a guaranteed rate of return is excluded. An option exercisable solely at the new commercial enterprise’s discretion has a narrow exception: exercising it requires petition withdrawal unless the applicable sustainment period and other requirements have been fulfilled.
Plan the immigration and later evidence stages
Petition approval does not itself grant permanent residence or work authorization. Conditional residence follows the applicable admission or adjustment process. Form I-829 is generally filed during the 90 days before the second anniversary of conditional residence. Keep job evidence and relevant project records accessible for the later showing; a financial distribution does not automatically remove immigration conditions.
Decide between a regional-center project and a direct investment
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. The subscription creates rights and obligations between investor and issuer — capital call mechanics, a distribution waterfall, transfer restrictions, reporting undertakings — and the offering documents govern all of it. A regional-center project can count jobs created elsewhere in the local economy through recognized methodologies; a family building its own greenhouse cannot. In a regional centre investment the count may include jobs calculated under an economic methodology, which is one of the principal practical differences between the two structures. Avoid importing an indirect-job methodology into a direct-investment case, or treating jobs described in a marketing deck as already created. Independent contractors, nonimmigrants, the investor, spouse and sons or daughters do not count as qualifying employees; the family exclusion is not limited to minor children. Check the regional centre's designation and the project's approved documentation before relying on its job-creation claims. Investors must also be engaged in the management or policy formulation of the enterprise, which a limited partnership interest carrying the rights ordinarily accorded to limited partners can satisfy.
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
- Current EB-5 capital and eligibility statute — 8 USC 1153(b)(5)
- USCIS — I-829 instructions
- Direct qualifying employees and full-time positions