Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Trace the asset and the cash movement
Lawful source and path need an account of the genuine ownership, acquisition and liquidation of the assets used. Use available brokerage, tax and transfer records to explain the real history; a cash balance alone may not answer the source question. Legitimate joint ownership is not automatically disqualified, but actual entitlement and the flow of money need explanation. Hypothetical example: a theatre-lighting designer sells a catalogue of licensing rights and plans to subscribe to an EB-5 project. The licence agreements, invoices, royalty statements, tax returns, sale contract and wire records establish both how the rights were acquired and how their proceeds reached the investment account. If an adult sibling first advanced money against the sale, the investor must decide whether that amount is documented as a genuine loan or excluded until its source and terms are proved. A brokerage statement showing the final balance is not a substitute for the contracts that generated it. The file should identify the investor’s own capital rather than present family money as unexplained personal savings.
Apply the independent programme requirements
Capital is generally US$1,050,000 or US$800,000 for qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure cases as of September 7, 2026, with statutory adjustment from January 1, 2027 and actual filing-date rules. The investment must be at risk with applicable sustainment, create at least ten qualifying permanent full-time jobs per investor, and involve management or policy participation, including qualifying limited-partner rights. Full-time generally means 35 hours weekly; investor, spouse and children are excluded as qualifying workers. Direct and regional-center job methods differ. Petition approval is not residence or work permission; visa availability and admissibility apply to residence. I-829 falls within the 90 days before the second conditional-residence anniversary. After the money trail is coherent, test the investment independently: the required capital must remain exposed to loss for the required period, the enterprise must create the required jobs, and residence begins conditionally only after the applicable immigrant-visa admission or adjustment. The business plan, economic report where applicable, subscription documents and job-creation methodology are therefore decision records, not sales materials. An investor must decide whether the project’s direct or regional-centre structure supplies a supportable job method for that investor. Petition approval alone does not confer residence, and it does not eliminate visa-availability or admissibility review.
Track conditional residence from the actual immigration event
The jobs must be attributable to that investor's own capital, which is why offerings model allocations so carefully and why an over-subscribed project can leave a later investor without jobs to claim. Full-time means at least thirty-five hours a week; job-sharing arrangements can qualify where the statute permits, but simply adding several part-time roles together does not. A loan repayment obligation or a refund provision must be examined under its actual terms; an investor’s guaranteed redemption right can undermine eligibility — but immigration approval never guarantees you get the money back. The EB-5 statute distinguishes an investor’s contractual repayment right from a buyback option exercisable solely at the enterprise’s discretion; that distinction requires the actual agreement, not a reassuring summary. Conditional residence lasts two years, after which the investor petitions to remove conditions by proving the investment was sustained and the jobs were created. Ask for the record that permits the job claim to be tested: budget assumptions, construction or operating timetable, payroll model, third-party agreements and the method used to count qualifying positions.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.