IN THIS GUIDE · Trace sale proceeds into the investment without confusing a contract with available funds
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Identify the actual proceeds and filing-date threshold
September 2026 amounts are US$1,050,000 ordinarily or US$800,000 for a qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure case, with statutory adjustments beginning January 1, 2027 under filing-date rules. Show lawful source and path and capital genuinely committed at risk. Gifts and loans must be in good faith and not circumvent the capital rules. An asset valuation alone does not establish received proceeds.
Read the investment’s capital rights separately
Contractual repayment rights and guaranteed rates of return are excluded from qualifying capital. An enterprise-only discretionary buyback has a limited statutory exception; exercise requires petition withdrawal unless applicable sustainment and other requirements are fulfilled. A sale that supplies lawful funds cannot cure excluded rights in the later investment agreement.
Keep jobs and participation conditions complete
At least ten qualifying permanent full-time jobs per investor are required under the applicable standalone or regional-centre method. Direct jobs generally mean at least 35 hours weekly and exclude contractors, nonimmigrants, the investor, spouse and sons or daughters. The investor must participate in management or policy formulation; qualifying limited-partner rights may satisfy this without daily operation. Financial readiness does not establish those separate conditions.
Use actual immigration events for residence planning
Conditional residence starts at immigrant admission or adjustment approval, not sale closing or petition filing. I-829 ordinarily is filed in the 90 days before its second anniversary; filing does not itself remove conditions or trigger repayment. Eligible accompanying derivatives need no extra principal investment merely to join. Their eligibility, CSPA protection and visa availability need individual assessment rather than a date chosen for the asset sale.
Decide between a regional-center project and a direct investment
At least ten full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers must be created, full-time meaning a minimum of thirty-five hours a week. Whether a particular rural or high-unemployment location qualifies as a targeted employment area is a factual determination supported by evidence, not a description the investor chooses. The regional center, not the investor, documents the TEA designation, but the investor should read it, because a project marketed as TEA that does not qualify leaves the investor short of the standard amount. In a regional-center project, indirect and induced jobs shown by an accepted economic methodology can count, which is the main practical reason investors choose that structure over a direct investment. The initial petition relies on a credible plan and methodology; removal of conditions relies on operating evidence supporting actual creation or the permitted reasonable expectation. A rental portfolio or a development company might be examined on its own facts, including entity structure, capital deployment and the permitted job-counting method, which differs between standalone and regional centre structures. Where the investment is made through a designated regional center, jobs created indirectly may be counted using accepted economic methodologies, which is why regional center offerings often satisfy the requirement more easily on paper. Read the offering documents for how jobs are attributed to each investor, what happens if the project creates fewer than projected, and whether capital is redeployed after the job-creation period.
Qualifying capital and the targeted employment area
The qualifying capital is one million and fifty thousand United States dollars, reduced to eight hundred thousand where the new commercial enterprise is principally doing business in a qualifying targeted employment area or is an infrastructure project. If construction spending supports a regional-center job analysis, ask how the financing plan affects the expenditures assumed. Where the property was held jointly, through a partnership or in an estate, each holder's entitlement has to be shown and the distribution to the investor traced. Do not stop at ten jobs appearing in a projection; check whether the project’s model, expenditure plan, and investor allocation use consistent assumptions.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-08. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.