Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Explain who owns and supplied the funds
Identify the account holders and source of each material amount. If another person transfers ownership through a gift or loan, document that actual arrangement instead of assuming joint signing authority proves the applicant owns all funds. Reconcile the path into the investment. Make a contributor record for the material funds in the account: who supplied them, how they were acquired and on what terms the applicant may invest them. Distinguish authority to sign a bank instruction from ownership of the underlying money. If another holder gives or lends funds, identify the actual arrangement and the evidence supporting it instead of treating the account name as a complete explanation. Reconcile the contribution with the eventual outgoing transfer and explain any amount that belongs to someone else. This may reveal that the available account balance and the applicant’s proposed qualifying capital are different figures. Preserve that distinction before comparing the amount with the filing requirement.
Apply capital, jobs and participation requirements
Current EB-5 capital is US$1,050,000, or US$800,000 for a qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure project; statutory adjustments begin January 1, 2027, so use the amount for the filing. Establish lawful at-risk capital, at least ten qualifying permanent full-time jobs per investor under the applicable direct or regional-center method, and managerial or policy-formulation participation. Direct positions require at least 35 hours weekly; contractors, nonimmigrants and the investor, spouse, sons or daughters are excluded from qualifying employees.
Read the funding and enterprise rights
Gifted or borrowed capital needs lawful-source evidence and a good-faith arrangement that does not circumvent restrictions on permissible capital sources. Contractual repayment rights and guaranteed rates of return are excluded. An option exercisable solely at the enterprise’s discretion has a narrow exception: its exercise requires petition withdrawal unless sustainment and the other statutory requirements have been fulfilled. Petition approval or payment is not residence or present work permission. Conditional residence begins at immigrant admission or adjustment approval; I-829 is generally filed in the 90 days before its second anniversary.
Understand engagement and job creation in a regional-center project
A limited-partner interest with voting rights on policy matters is a recognized form of engagement in a regional-center structure; read the partnership agreement to confirm those rights exist. The qualifying capital is one million and fifty thousand United States dollars, reduced to eight hundred thousand where the new commercial enterprise is principally doing business in a qualifying targeted employment area or is an infrastructure project. An investment made through a designated regional centre may, subject to statutory limits and methodology requirements, count certain jobs that are not employees of the enterprise itself, which is why pooled projects in construction and development are common. The condition is removed by a later petition showing that the capital remained invested and that the jobs were created and sustained, which means quarterly wage filings, payroll registers and hours for every position counted. Where the money goes through a regional centre, indirect and induced jobs may be counted using reasonable economic methodologies, which is why so many investors choose that route. Note the date the capital was actually deployed into the business, because sustainment and job-creation questions are measured from real events rather than from the day a subscription agreement was signed. Read the offering documents for how jobs are attributed to each investor, what happens if the project creates fewer than projected, and whether capital is redeployed after the job-creation period. A project’s marketing description cannot supply missing proof about the investor’s own capital or the facts required at the later removal-of-conditions stage.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-08. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.