IN THIS GUIDE · Interrogate the project before the capital leaves your account
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Ask which amount applies and why
The statutory investment is one million and fifty thousand dollars, reduced to eight hundred thousand where the investment is in a targeted employment area or an infrastructure project under the 2022 reform legislation. Where a project claims the reduced amount, ask on what basis and ask to see the designation evidence rather than accepting the claim. Both the amounts and the designation criteria have been changed by legislation before, so confirm the current figures against the official program materials at the time of the decision rather than relying on any earlier understanding. Obtain the project’s written basis for the applicable amount and have it checked against current official rules. A location label in marketing material is not proof. The decisive record may be the project location, the relevant designation, and the governing category at the time of filing.
Ask how the ten jobs are counted
The requirement is at least ten full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers, and this is where a project's optimism is most easily tested. Ask which specific positions are counted, whether they are construction or operational, over what period they are filled and sustained, and what the methodology assumes. Ask what happens to the count if the development is delayed or scaled back. The job evidence matters most at the later stage, when conditions on residence are removed, so a plan that satisfies nobody on close reading now will not improve by then. Ask which jobs are direct, which rely on an accepted methodology, and when each is expected to exist. Payroll records, business-plan assumptions, and economic reports answer different questions. Confusing contractors, part-time work, or already-existing positions with qualifying jobs is a common modelling failure.
Ask what the source-of-funds work will require
The capital must be lawfully obtained and traceable from its origin through every account to the enterprise. For a household whose funds come from professional salaries, a property sale and perhaps a family gift, that means tax filings across years, sale documents and closing statements, statements for every account involved, and independent documentation of any giver's or lender's own source. Ask a professional adviser at the outset how long that assembly usually takes for a comparable file, because it routinely exceeds every other element and determines when the investment can proceed. Start a transfer map before capital moves. It should connect the original source, each account, every intermediary, and the final subscription or enterprise payment. Unexplained deposits or missing account periods tend to widen the review and are harder to reconstruct after records expire.
Ask what happens after conditional residence
A successful investor and qualifying family members receive two-year conditional permanent residence, and the conditions are removed only through a later Form I-829 petition showing the investment was sustained and the required jobs created. Ask the project what reporting it provides for that stage and what its record is. Ask also about visa availability for the applicant's country of chargeability, published monthly, since that can lengthen the timeline independently of the file's quality. Derivatives are the spouse and unmarried children under twenty-one, with the published statutory age protections applied. Keep a calendar for the conditional-residence stage and the later removal filing. The investor must be able to show sustained qualifying investment and the required job outcome or permitted evidence at that stage. A project update is useful only if its underlying records can support that proof.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.