IN THIS GUIDE · An investor quoted the lower tier for a project whose designation may not hold
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Two dated facts, checked on the day rather than at the start
Raphael should treat the tier and the designation as things to verify immediately before funds move, not when he first reads the offering. The reduction to the lower amount applies only where the investment genuinely qualifies as being in a targeted employment area or a qualifying infrastructure project, and a designation that was accurate when a project was launched may not be accurate two years later. The statutory adjustment beginning 1 January 2027 compounds this, because a plan built around a figure and a timetable can miss on both at once. The prudent version of his plan states the amount he will invest, names the basis on which the lower tier is claimed, and identifies who is responsible for confirming both immediately before the transfer.
Ten jobs, counted the way the requirement counts them
The investment must create at least ten full-time positions for qualifying employees, and full-time has a defined meaning of at least thirty-five hours a week. Two part-time roles do not combine into one qualifying job in the ordinary case, independent contractors are not employees of the enterprise, and the investor and their immediate family do not count. Projects sometimes present a headline number that includes seasonal peaks or construction contractors. The number that matters is the one attributable to Raphael's own investment and sustained through the conditional period, because it is what the Form I-829 petition will have to prove. Asking for the methodology behind a job figure, in writing, before subscribing, is the single most useful question an investor can put to a project.
Source and path are two separate evidentiary chains
Lawful source asks where the money came from: the sale of a business, accumulated salary, an inheritance, a property disposal, each supported by the documents that would prove it in any other context. Path asks how it travelled from there to the new commercial enterprise, account by account, including every intermediate holding, currency conversion and transfer. Files usually fail on path rather than source, because the money took a route nobody documented at the time. For Raphael the sale agreement, the closing statement, the tax filings that recognised the gain and the bank statements showing each subsequent movement together form the chain. Gaps are far easier to close now than after a request for evidence sets a deadline.
Conditional residence, and the petition that ends it
A successful investor and their derivative family are admitted to conditional permanent residence for two years. Within the ninety days before that period ends, a Form I-829 petition must be filed to remove the conditions, showing that the required capital was invested and sustained and that the jobs were created or will be created within a reasonable time. The investor must also have engaged in the management of the enterprise or in its policy formulation; a wholly passive holding does not satisfy the requirement, though the rights ordinarily attached to a limited partnership interest can. Derivative status covers a spouse and unmarried children under 21, and the same two-year condition applies to them, which makes the family's timetable and the project's timetable the same problem.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.
- USCIS: EB-5 immigrant investor program
- USCIS: EB-5 immigrant investor program, permanent workers
- USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6 Part G: investors
- 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5): employment creation, capital amounts and job requirement
- USCIS: Form I-829, petition by investor to remove conditions on permanent resident status
- Department of State: Visa Bulletin
- USCIS: Child Status Protection Act
- USCIS: Form G-1055, fee schedule