At least ten full-time positions for qualifying employees, which means at least thirty-five hours per week each and workers who are citizens, permanent residents or other work-authorized immigrants. The investor and immediate family do not count, and neither does anyone holding a nonimmigrant status.
Count the positions the requirement recognizes, not the ones on the payroll
The arithmetic looks simple and almost always produces a smaller number than an owner expects. Start with the intended workforce and remove three groups. Remove Amrit, his spouse and his children, because a qualifying employee excludes the investor and immediate family.
Remove anyone who would hold a nonimmigrant classification, since only citizens, permanent residents and certain other immigrants authorized to work are counted. Then remove every position that would run fewer than thirty-five hours a week. What remains is the real figure, and if it is eight rather than ten, the answer is to redesign the operation rather than to reinterpret the rule.
Note also that ten is a floor rather than a target; a plan producing exactly ten leaves nothing for the ordinary attrition that occurs between filing and the removal of conditions.
- USCIS: EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program
- 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5): employment creation immigrants
- eCFR: 8 CFR 204.6, Petitions for employment creation aliens
- USCIS: Form I-829, Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status
- USCIS: Child Status Protection Act
- Department of State: Visa Bulletin