Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Preserve the complete investment framework
Capital generally is US$1.05 million or US$800,000 for qualifying TEA or infrastructure cases, with statutory adjustment from January 1, 2027. Lawful source/path, at-risk investment, ten qualifying full-time jobs per investor and management or policy-formulation participation remain required. The petition decision should not erase ongoing case obligations. A spouse and unmarried children under 21 may qualify as derivatives. Verify the current filing-date capital threshold before any money moves. Match each claimed dollar to the source document, transfer record and receiving account, and keep the project documents that explain how the capital remains at risk. Job evidence should be read by position, hours, worker eligibility and attribution to the investor; a headcount or a family member's help does not by itself establish ten qualifying full-time jobs. Direct and regional-center cases can require different job-creation evidence, so the business plan, economic analysis where applicable, payroll material and expenditure record should be kept together rather than substituted for one another.
Follow the real residence sequence
Review visa availability, admissibility and the actual immigrant admission or adjustment process. Conditional residence has its own start date. I-829 generally is filed in the 90 days before its second anniversary; filing does not automatically remove conditions or guarantee commercial repayment. Do not use the petition approval date as every later milestone. Build two calendars: one for immigration events and another for commercial milestones. The conditional-residence record, not an anticipated repayment date or an early petition decision, controls the ordinary I-829 filing window. Hypothetical example: A Highlands modular-home component manufacturer considers a direct EB-5 investment to add a US production line. Its initial plan lists twelve workers, but four are short-hour packaging staff and two are the investor's adult relatives. Before filing, the investor must decide whether the plan can document ten qualifying full-time positions for qualifying US workers or whether the project needs a different staffing structure. The payroll plan, job descriptions, shift schedule, corporate records and actual later payroll will settle that point; a promotional slide with a total headcount will not. Capital must remain at risk through the required period, and a favourable petition result still leads to conditional residence only after the applicable immigrant-visa or adjustment process. The investor should not make an irreversible relocation commitment until the residence sequence and family records are aligned.
Decide between a regional-center project and a direct investment
The investor must be engaged in the management of the enterprise, either through day-to-day managerial control or through policy formulation, and a purely passive holding does not satisfy the requirement. Determine whether the proposal is standalone or through a regional center and assess the appropriate job-creation method. An investment made through a designated regional centre may, subject to statutory limits and methodology requirements, count certain jobs that are not employees of the enterprise itself, which is why pooled projects in construction and development are common. 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. Contractual investor repayment rights and guaranteed rates of return are excluded; the enterprise’s sole-discretion buyback exception requires petition withdrawal unless sustainment and the other requirements have been fulfilled.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.