Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Identify the evidence for this proposal
Review the actual offering, project information and claims being made. Do not assume a general organizational designation establishes every project fact or the investor’s personal eligibility. Ask what each document actually supports.
Apply the investor and project conditions
Capital generally is US$1.05 million or US$800,000 for a qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure project, with statutory adjustments beginning January 1, 2027. At least ten qualifying full-time jobs per investor are required under the applicable methodology. A regional-centre label does not automatically establish the lower capital threshold. Determine the applicable capital threshold by the petition filing date, rather than the date of a wire, invoice or later I-829 filing.
Preserve the remaining requirements and stages
Qualifying at-risk funds need lawful source and path, and management or policy-formulation participation remains required, including qualifying limited-partner rights. Petition approval is not residence or work authorization. I-829 generally follows within the 90 days before the second anniversary of conditional residence; filing does not guarantee removal or repayment.
Direct investment expects the investor to be engaged
A regional-center designation identifies a sponsor approved to participate in the program. A direct investment counts only full-time positions on the new commercial enterprise's payroll, held by U.S. citizens, permanent residents or other authorized workers, and the investor and family do not count. For direct jobs, full time generally means at least 35 hours weekly; independent contractors, nonimmigrants, the investor, spouse and sons or daughters do not qualify. Alongside the money sits the requirement for at least ten qualifying full-time jobs, counted by methods that differ depending on whether the structure is standalone or regional-center. The permitted methods of counting jobs are not identical between the two, so a model borrowed from a regional center offering may not support a direct operating company. 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. For a direct enterprise, that may mean preserving hiring records, payroll, hours, and the position chart; a regional-center case can require different economic and allocation evidence. The investor must also be engaged in the enterprise’s management or policy formulation rather than holding a purely passive interest, and the governing documents should show which of those roles applies.
Decide between a regional-center project and a direct investment
A credible EB-5 offering should include a formal targeted employment area designation letter or equivalent supporting documentation tied to the specific project location and the underlying unemployment data or infrastructure approval relied upon. Indirect and induced jobs modelled by economists are available only to regional-center investors. Avoid importing an indirect-job methodology into a direct-investment case, or treating jobs described in a marketing deck as already created. The designation attaches to where the jobs will be created and is determined under the rules in force, on evidence such as census-based unemployment data for the relevant area. Whether a project qualifies for the reduced amount is a fact about the project and its location, evidenced in its documentation, not a characterization the investor can supply. If a designation letter, a marketing deck and the amended economic report describe the categories differently, treat the conflict as something to investigate with counsel, not to repeat. A project milestone cannot start the residence clock: immigrant admission or adjustment approval begins the two-year conditional period. EB-5 capital must remain exposed to business risk and the route leads first to conditional residence; job creation is later tested when conditions are removed.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.