Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Identify the real obligation to the donor
Read the bank transfer, gift document and any side agreement together. Determine who expects repayment, under what terms and from which funds, without inventing a conclusion from the family relationship. A gift and a loan need accurate treatment; relabelling one as the other does not make the records consistent or establish permissible capital.
Follow the source beyond the receiving account
Identify how the donor or lender acquired the money and preserve the records explaining the transfer to the investor. A large incoming balance proves receipt, not the entire lawful history. Note missing third-party records and obtain appropriate advice about the actual evidence; a notarized relationship statement is not a substitute for the source trail.
Apply the investment conditions
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. 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.
Keep the residence clock separate
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. A promised family repayment date does not set the I-829 window or guarantee that funds may be withdrawn.
From petition to conditional residence to removal of conditions
A regional-center project may count indirect and induced jobs shown by an accepted economic methodology, which is why passive investors favour it. The requirement is at least ten full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers, attributable to each individual investor, created within the required period. An EB-5 comparison is incomplete without the later steps: petition adjudication, waiting for visa availability by chargeability, immigrant visa processing or eligible adjustment, two years of conditional residence, and a petition to remove conditions ordinarily filed in the ninety days before the second anniversary. The investor must be engaged in management or policy formulation rather than holding a wholly passive stake, and that role should appear in the governing documents from the outset. The initial petition relies on a credible plan and methodology; removal of conditions relies on operating evidence supporting actual creation or the permitted reasonable expectation. Evaluate the project documents on their own terms: subscription provisions, risk disclosures, deployment mechanics, and the stated job-creation methodology. Where the investment is made directly in a new commercial enterprise, the jobs must be created by that enterprise; through a designated regional centre, methodologies for counting indirect jobs may apply, and the methodology is part of what should be examined before committing. A high-unemployment-area designation that expires after the qualifying investment does not by itself require the investor to increase the investment; confirm that the reduced threshold applied at the legally relevant time.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-08. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.