IN THIS GUIDE · Reconcile the source and path when funds move through several currencies
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Identify the original funds and account holders
Hypothetical example: savings move through more than one account and are converted before investment. Identify actual ownership, source and transfer records. Do not assume a conversion record proves how the original money was lawfully obtained.
Explain differences without inventing transactions
Reconcile dates, currencies and amounts with the genuine records. Explain fees or other differences where relevant rather than making unsupported adjustments to force totals to match. Account names and intermediaries may need accurate clarification.
Preserve the qualifying investment conditions
Capital must meet the applicable amount, remain at risk and support the relevant job framework, generally ten qualifying permanent full-time jobs per investor. Management or policy participation remains necessary; qualifying limited-partner rights may satisfy it without universal daily operation. For direct employment, qualifying full-time positions require at least 35 hours per week. Independent contractors, nonimmigrants, and the investor, spouse, sons and daughters do not count as qualifying employees; apply permitted regional-center methods separately.
Keep financial dates separate from residence
Current thresholds are US$1.05 million or US$800,000 for qualifying reduced-threshold cases, with statutory adjustment beginning January 1, 2027 tied to the relevant petition filing date. Conditional residence begins through immigrant admission or adjustment approval, not currency conversion or petition approval alone. The lower amount applies to qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure projects. After the applicable immigrant-visa or adjustment process starts conditional residence, track Form I-829 separately: its usual filing window is the 90 days before the second conditional-residence anniversary.
Read the capital rights before relying on the amount
Gifted or borrowed funds require lawful-source evidence and a good-faith arrangement that is not used to circumvent restrictions on permissible capital sources. Capital exchanged for a contractual right to repayment or a guaranteed rate of return is excluded. A purchase option exercisable solely at the enterprise’s discretion has a narrow statutory exception, exercising that option requires withdrawal of the petition unless the applicable sustainment and other requirements have been fulfilled. It is not an investor’s repayment guarantee.
Direct investment expects the investor to be engaged
A direct EB-5 investment must create at least ten full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers, meaning citizens, permanent residents and other authorized immigrants, employed by the new commercial enterprise itself for at least thirty-five hours per week. A regional-centre investment may rely on an economic methodology that includes indirect and induced jobs generated by the project's spending and revenue. Within the ninety days before that period ends, a Form I-829 petition must be filed to remove the conditions, showing that the required capital was invested and sustained and that the jobs were created or will be created within a reasonable time. 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. Targeted employment area status depends on a designation tied to specific unemployment statistics for the relevant area, or on the project qualifying as an approved infrastructure project under the applicable rules, and that designation needs to be documented, not assumed from geography. Read the offering and project documents for repayment, redemption, and allocation terms that may affect whether capital is genuinely at risk. A project update may matter to job creation and sustainment even when it does not answer whether an immigrant visa is currently available or whether the investor is admissible. 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 2026-09-07. 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
- 8 USC 1153 — current investor capital and restrictions
- 8 CFR 204.6 — employment definitions and participation; capital amounts superseded by statute