Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Explain the real financial event
Provide relevant agreement, ownership, settlement and transfer records. Use the actual allocation and obligations; do not invent sole ownership or a gift to simplify the history. Obtain appropriate advice on the governing private terms.
Retain the EB-5 framework
Capital generally is US$1.05 million or US$800,000 for qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure cases, with adjustments from January 1, 2027. At least ten qualifying full-time jobs per investor, at-risk capital and management or policy-formulation participation remain required. Petition approval is not residence; I-829 generally follows in the 90 days before the second anniversary of conditional residence, without automatic removal or repayment. An eligible investor, spouse, and unmarried children under 21 receive two-year conditional permanent residence, with Form I-829 filed in the 90 days before the second anniversary.
Hypothetical example: a pharmacist’s buyout paid in instalments
Hypothetical example: a Saanich pharmacist sells her one-third share of the family pharmacy to her two brothers under a shareholders’ agreement that pays the price in six instalments over eighteen months. She wants to file an EB-5 petition after the second instalment, reasoning that the agreement guarantees the rest. It does not: capital must be invested, or actively in the process of being invested, when the petition is filed, and a signed promise from relatives is neither. Her brothers offer to lend her the balance now, to be set off against the later instalments. That can work, but only as what it is: a bona fide loan documented by a written agreement and a traced lawful source on the brothers’ side, or alternatively a documented gift with no expectation of repayment. What usually goes wrong is a family transfer described as her own proceeds because everyone knows it will come out the same in the end. The reviewer reads the agreement, the shareholders’ register and the bank statements, and the descriptions must match them.
Which document decides the entitlement
The shareholders’ agreement fixes what she was entitled to receive and when; the share-transfer instrument and the updated register prove the sale happened; the pharmacy’s financial statements and corporate tax filings support the price as a lawful return on a lawful business; the instalment receipts and her own account statements trace each payment into the funds she invests. A valuation prepared for the buyout is context, not proof of receipt. If borrowed money bridges the gap, add the loan agreement and the lender’s source. The EB-5 requirements are unchanged by the family setting: at-risk capital at the applicable level, ten full-time jobs for qualifying US workers per investor, and engagement in management or policy formulation.
Sequence the instalments, the loan and the filing
Decide first whether to wait for the instalments or to bridge with a documented loan or gift, because the choice changes the evidence set. Then complete the transfer into the enterprise or escrow, obtain the receipt, and file. Her spouse and unmarried children under twenty-one are derivatives on the same petition. Residence is conditional for two years; the petition to remove conditions is due in the ninety days before the second anniversary, and neither filing nor approval guarantees that the pharmacy proceeds, once invested, are repaid. A further point often missed in a family sale: the buyout price must be a real price. If the brothers paid her far less than the pharmacy’s valuation in exchange for later favours, or far more as a disguised gift, the tax and corporate records will not match the story, and the source-of-funds narrative unravels at the first comparison. Use the valuation the parties actually relied on, keep the correspondence that shows how the price was negotiated, and let the file reflect an ordinary commercial transaction between relatives.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.