Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Identify the actual employment evidence
At least ten qualifying full-time jobs per investor are required under the applicable framework. Direct cases and regional-centre methods differ. A contractor invoice is not automatically direct payroll evidence, and nonimmigrant work authorization alone does not make someone a qualifying EB-5 employee.
Complete the other conditions
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. Lawful source/path, 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. Determine the applicable capital threshold by the petition filing date, rather than the date of a wire, invoice or later I-829 filing.
Decide between a regional-center project and a direct investment
In a direct EB-5 case the jobs must be full-time positions of at least thirty-five hours a week held by qualifying U.S. workers, employed directly by the new commercial enterprise and evidenced by payroll records and tax filings. Approval leads to two years of conditional permanent residence for the investor, spouse and unmarried children under twenty-one, followed by Form I-829 to remove conditions. The investor must be engaged in the management of the new commercial enterprise, either through day-to-day managerial control or through policy formulation, and holding the rights ordinarily accorded to a limited partner or equivalent member is generally accepted for this purpose. Under the 2022 legislation the qualifying amounts are one million fifty thousand dollars generally and eight hundred thousand dollars for a targeted employment area or infrastructure project; these are subject to adjustment and should be verified against current official sources before committing. Targeted employment area status depends on a designation tied to specific unemployment statistics for the relevant area, or on the project qualifying as an approved infrastructure project under the applicable rules, and that designation needs to be documented, not assumed from geography. For a regional-center investment, the method of allocating direct and indirect jobs must be understood from the offering and governing documents. An enterprise-only discretionary buyback option has a statutory exception: exercising it requires petition withdrawal unless applicable sustainment and other requirements have been fulfilled. Ask the regional center for its current designation, the project’s job-creation report and the exit terms, and check the fee the investor pays the center separately from the investment.
Understand engagement and job creation in a regional-center project
A limited-partner interest with voting rights on policy matters is a recognized form of engagement in a regional-center structure; read the partnership agreement to confirm those rights exist. Each investor must create at least ten full-time positions for qualifying United States workers, and the word full-time carries its own definition of a minimum weekly hours commitment rather than any combination of part-time work. 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. Identify the project’s economic model, the jobs claimed, the responsible parties, the deployment of capital, and the evidence expected at the I-829 stage. A regional-center designation or marketing estimate does not guarantee job compliance or financial performance. A revised forecast is not guaranteed liquidity, and an agreement promising the investor an enforceable repayment right raises a different issue from an uncertain projection. Keep the economic methodology, construction or operating evidence and communications identifying material changes together. A project can present a jobs model yet still leave a source-of-funds or deployment problem unanswered.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.