IN THIS GUIDE · Ten jobs, and why a seasonal operation counts fewer of them than its owner expects
Ten is a minimum, and each of the ten has to be a particular kind of job
The requirement is that the investment create full-time employment for at least ten qualifying employees. Full-time means employment of at least thirty-five hours per week. A qualifying employee is a United States citizen, a lawful permanent resident, or another immigrant authorized to work in the United States, such as a person granted asylum or admitted as a refugee. The investor does not count, nor do the investor's spouse, sons or daughters, and neither does any person in a nonimmigrant classification. A payroll of fourteen therefore does not automatically produce ten qualifying jobs, and the composition of the workforce has to be examined name by name rather than totalled.
Seasonal and intermittent work is where a transload plan leaks
The positions have to be permanent rather than intermittent, temporary, seasonal or transient. A yard that hires twenty casual workers for the navigation season and keeps six through the winter is describing exactly the pattern the requirement excludes. Two clarifications matter. A job-sharing arrangement in which two employees share one permanent full-time position can be recognized where the hours meet the standard, but simply adding together two part-time roles does not create a full-time one. And a position that exists all year but is filled by a rotating series of short-term workers can still qualify if the position itself is permanent. Amrit's plan therefore needs to be rebuilt around permanent positions with year-round work, which usually means a different mix of services rather than a bigger seasonal peak.
The amounts, and the date on which they change
The qualifying investment is one million and fifty thousand United States dollars, reduced to eight hundred thousand where the enterprise is principally doing business in a targeted employment area or is an infrastructure project. Those figures were set by the Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, which also provides for statutory adjustment beginning on the first of January, 2027. Two consequences follow for planning. The applicable amount is the one in effect at the relevant time, so a project timetable that drifts across that date needs to be checked rather than assumed. And a claim that a location is a targeted employment area is a designation to be verified against current criteria, not a marketing description to be accepted from whoever is selling the project.
The money has to be traceable, and the investor has to be involved
Lawful source and path of funds is examined in detail: not only that the capital was lawfully earned, but that its movement from origin to the enterprise can be followed through documents. For Amrit that probably means corporate financial statements, tax filings, the sale documents for any asset liquidated, loan agreements and the bank records connecting each step. The capital must be placed at risk in the commercial sense, and he must engage in the enterprise through management or policy formulation rather than holding a purely passive interest. Residence granted on this basis is conditional for two years, and Form I-829, filed in the 90 days before the second anniversary, asks him to show that the investment was sustained and that the jobs required were created or will be created within a reasonable time.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.
- 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