No. Payroll events and conditional residence have different triggers. Residence begins through the applicable immigrant admission or approved adjustment, not when names are added to payroll.
Maintain distinct business and immigration records
Track actual qualifying employment under the applicable rules while also tracking the investor’s case milestones. I-829 generally belongs in the 90-day period before conditional residence’s second anniversary. Do not infer work permission from hiring progress or an approved investor petition.
Useful markers include a completed source-of-funds file, signed enterprise documents, the petition receipt, current Visa Bulletin movement for the relevant category and chargeability, and the consular or adjustment stage. The years that follow the investment carry their own costs: the removal-of-conditions filing, continuing professional advice, monitoring the project, and the effect of leaving substantial capital committed and at risk for the whole conditional period. Check current USCIS processing time data for the relevant EB-5 petition type and the visa bulletin for the applicable category and country of chargeability, and revisit both periodically rather than relying on a one-time estimate, since both can change materially over a multi-year case.
- USCIS — EB-5 investor program
- USCIS — business and investment visa overview
- USCIS — Child Status Protection Act
- Department of State — Visa Bulletin
- USCIS — fee schedule
- EB-5 full-time positions, job sharing and qualifying employees — 8 CFR 204.6(e), not obsolete capital figures
- Current EB-5 capital statute — 8 USC 1153(b)(5)
- USCIS I-829 instructions