Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Identify what was actually decided
Review the relevant notice and the investor’s actual case status. A project announcement does not by itself establish the applicant’s lawful source/path, contribution, admissibility or completed immigrant process. Do not describe another decision as the investor’s personal approval. Read any approval notice beside the offering documents and the investor’s records. The key question is whether it concerns a project component, a regional-center matter or the investor’s petition; the answer changes the next step. Marketing language cannot replace bank, tax, sale, gift or loan evidence tracing the applicant’s capital from its lawful source through its path of transfer.
Maintain the capital, employment and residence requirements
Capital generally is US$1,050,000 or US$800,000 for qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure cases, with statutory adjustment from January 1, 2027. At-risk capital, ten qualifying full-time jobs per investor and management or policy-formulation participation remain required. Petition approval alone is not residence. EB-5 residence is conditional for two years, and Form I-829 is generally filed during the 90 days before the second anniversary; filing alone neither removes the conditions nor guarantees repayment. The investor should confirm how the chosen investment is expected to support the required jobs and retain proof that the capital remains at risk. Conditional permanent residence follows an approved immigrant process; it is not the end of the analysis, because removal of conditions requires its own timely filing and evidence. Hypothetical example: a Canton de Hatley founder sells shares in her commercial drone-imaging company and plans to place the proceeds in a regional-center offering. The advertisement celebrates approval of a project filing, but it does not document her sale proceeds or allocate ten qualifying full-time jobs to her investment. Before subscribing, she must decide whether the share-sale agreement, corporate records, tax reporting and bank transfers make a complete lawful source-and-path record. She must also read the offering’s job methodology and repayment terms to understand how capital remains exposed to risk. Treating the project announcement as residence approval could lead her to overlook the individual petition, conditional-residence stage and later I-829 evidence.
Account for qualifying capital rather than total deal cost
A regional-center project counts direct, indirect and induced jobs through an economic model; a standalone enterprise counts direct employees on its own payroll. 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. Full-time normally means at least 35 hours weekly, and investor, spouse and children are excluded as qualifying workers. 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. Ask which specific positions the project intends to claim, then ask for the underlying hours for those positions across the relevant period, rather than accepting a summary total. The investor must also be engaged in the enterprise, which for a limited-partner investor is satisfied by the policy-making rights the partnership agreement gives limited partners. Read how jobs are allocated among investors, what happens if the project falls short, whether capital may be redeployed, and how the two-year sustainment period is measured. Source and path of funds can usually be documented with effort; whether the project’s structure supports the job creation and the participation requirement is not something the investor can cure by producing one more record.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.