IN THIS GUIDE · Explain job positions when individual employees change
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Separate positions from payroll names
Hypothetical example: several people successively occupy the same position. Their names should not automatically be counted as several simultaneous qualifying jobs. Explain actual positions, employment periods and the relevant evidence rather than presenting a cumulative list as the result.
Use the applicable job method
EB-5 generally requires at least ten qualifying full-time jobs per investor. Direct employment records and permissible regional-center methodologies require their own analysis. Existing payroll is not universally new job creation; a qualifying troubled-business preservation case has separate conditions and proof.
Keep worker eligibility and hours accurate
Qualifying workers exclude the investor, spouse, sons and daughters and nonimmigrants. Direct full-time employment generally concerns a position requiring at least 35 hours per week. Distinct part-time positions cannot simply be added together as one full-time job; genuine job sharing requires an appropriate position-based assessment.
Maintain the capital and residence analysis
Lawful source and path, capital at risk and management or policy participation remain necessary. Qualifying limited-partner policy rights may satisfy participation without universal daily operation. Petition approval is not residence; immigrant admission or adjustment approval begins conditional residence, followed by the applicable removal-of-conditions process.
Use the current capital, job and residence conditions
As checked September 7, 2026, the standard capital minimum is US$1,050,000, or US$800,000 for a qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure project. Statutory adjustments begin January 1, 2027; confirm the filing-date amount. At least ten qualifying permanent full-time jobs are required, with the applicable standalone or regional-center method assessed. The investor petition does not itself grant residence: the applicable immigrant-visa or adjustment process follows. Conditional residence then requires removal of conditions, with Form I-829 generally filed in the 90 days before its second 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, subject to the required sustainment and other conditions; it is not an investor’s repayment guarantee.
Understand engagement and job creation in a regional-center project
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. Where a regional center is used, indirect and induced jobs shown by an accepted economic methodology may count, which is the practical reason many investors choose that structure, but the requirement itself does not soften. A regional-center filing places capital into a sponsored project where permitted indirect job methods may apply and where other parties control construction, leasing and reporting. Reserved allocations exist for rural areas, high-unemployment targeted employment areas and infrastructure projects alongside the unreserved category, and visa availability can differ among them. A first review should match the investor’s capital trail and subscription documents to the project’s specific job-creation model, then identify the filing and residence milestones that follow. The conditions are removed by filing Form I-829 with evidence that the capital remained invested and that the jobs were created or will be created within a reasonable time. The investor must also be engaged in management or policy formulation rather than holding a passive stake, and that engagement should be reflected in the governing documents from the beginning. Compare the offering documents with the evidence needed later: job methodology, deployment terms, escrow release conditions, investor rights and exit language.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.