EB-5 Requirements: Investment, Job Creation, and Conditional Status

To qualify for an EB-5 visa, you must invest at least $800,000 or $1,050,000 of lawfully obtained capital in a for-profit U.S. business, create full-time jobs for at least 10 qualifying American workers, and keep that money genuinely at risk of loss for the length of your conditional residency. Those are the core EB-5 visa requirements, and each one has to hold up under close review by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) both when you file your initial petition and again two years later when you ask the agency to make your green card permanent. Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 can immigrate with you if you qualify.¹

How Much You Have to Invest

Federal law sets two investment floors. The standard minimum is $1,050,000. If the project sits in a targeted employment area (TEA) or qualifies as an infrastructure project, the minimum drops to $800,000.¹ Both amounts come from the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022.

A TEA is either a rural area or a high-unemployment area. Rural means outside any metropolitan statistical area and beyond the boundary of any city or town with a population of 20,000 or more. High-unemployment means the weighted average unemployment across the relevant census tracts runs at least 150 percent of the national average.² The lower threshold is not the only reason investors gravitate toward TEA projects. The 2022 Act carved out 20 percent of annual EB-5 visas for rural projects, 10 percent for high-unemployment areas, and 2 percent for infrastructure. Investors in those set-aside categories often move through visa availability faster than investors in the unreserved category.

Where the Money Has to Go

Your capital must go into a “new commercial enterprise,” which is any for-profit business formed for the ongoing conduct of lawful activity. Corporations, limited partnerships, LLCs, joint ventures, and sole proprietorships all qualify. The business must have been established after November 29, 1990, unless you purchased and restructured an existing business or expanded it by at least 40 percent in net worth or number of employees.² Buying a personal residence does not count, no matter the price.

You have two structural choices. A standalone investment means you run your own project and count only jobs directly on the payroll. Pooling capital through a USCIS-designated regional center lets you invest alongside others and count indirect and induced jobs as well. The choice affects your petition form, your documentation burden, and how the job math is proved.

The At-Risk Requirement

USCIS insists that your capital face a real possibility of both gain and loss. This is where the agency looks hardest at deal structures. Guaranteed rates of return, promissory notes, convertible debt, mandatory redemption rights, and put options all disqualify the investment. Even a contingent buyback right that only triggers if the business has enough cash flow will sink your petition.³

Intent to invest is not enough. The money has to actually be deployed into the business, and it must stay invested for at least two years.¹ In practice, the capital needs to remain at risk for your whole conditional residency, because pulling it out early can defeat your petition to remove conditions. Some investors treat the program like a two-year deposit with a green card attached. It is not that.

Creating 10 Full-Time Jobs

The investment must generate full-time positions for at least 10 qualifying workers. Qualifying workers are U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and other immigrants authorized to work in the United States. You, your spouse, and your sons and daughters cannot be counted.¹ “Full-time” means at least 35 working hours per week for each job.²

How you prove those jobs depends on your project structure. Standalone investors have to show direct hires on the company payroll, documented with W-2s and employment verification. Regional center investors can also count indirect jobs (positions created at suppliers and service providers) and induced jobs (positions generated when project employees spend their wages locally). These figures come from accepted economic modeling, which is why regional center filings include thick economic impact reports.

The jobs generally need to appear within the two-year conditional residency period, though USCIS allows some flexibility when the business plan shows they will materialize within a reasonable time after that window. Falling short of 10 jobs is one of the most common reasons petitions to remove conditions are denied.

Proving Your Money Came From a Lawful Source

USCIS applies a “preponderance of the evidence” standard: you must show it is more likely than not that every dollar was lawfully obtained.⁴ In practice this means tracing the funds from their original source into the project account, with paper at every step.

The 2022 Act pushed this requirement further. You may have to provide up to seven years of personal tax returns from every jurisdiction where you filed, along with business and corporate tax returns. You must disclose any pending civil or criminal actions, government administrative proceedings, and monetary judgments against you, and identify anyone transferring funds into the United States on your behalf. Every fee paid to a regional center, migration agent, attorney, or consultant must also trace back to a lawful source. Any undocumented portion of the total financial commitment can sink the petition.³

Acceptable sources include business profits, salary, real estate sales, and the sale of other assets. Gifts and inheritances qualify, but the donor has to independently prove the lawful origin of the funds. Gifted money typically requires a signed letter identifying donor and recipient, the amount, the date of the gift, and a statement that no repayment is expected, along with bank transfer records and proof of the family relationship.

Filing the Petition

Standalone investors file Form I-526. Regional center investors file Form I-526E.⁵ Both forms carry a heavy documentation load: passports and birth certificates for you and each qualifying family member, employment and residence history, multiple years of tax returns and bank records, escrow agreements and investment contracts, a detailed business plan with a job creation timeline, and (for regional center filings) an economic impact analysis. TEA projects also require evidence of the TEA designation.

USCIS charges a filing fee for both petition types, and regional center investors pay an additional $1,000 integrity fund fee on top of the filing fee. Processing times vary widely. Some rural projects have been approved in under six months; some urban projects have taken well over two years.

Concurrent Filing if You’re Already in the U.S.

If you are living in the United States on a valid visa and a visa number is immediately available when your petition is approved, you can file Form I-485 (adjustment of status) at the same time as your I-526 or I-526E.⁶ Concurrent filing opens two doors. You can apply for an Employment Authorization Document (Form I-765) to work legally while the case is pending, and Advance Parole (Form I-131) to travel without abandoning the application. For investors on expiring work visas, this can be the difference between staying put and having to leave the country mid-process.

Conditional Green Card and Removing Conditions

Approval leads to a conditional green card valid for two years. You have full rights to live and work anywhere in the country during those two years, but the card can be revoked if the requirements are not met.

To lock in permanent status, you must file Form I-829 during the 90-day window immediately before your conditional residency expires. The expiration date on the card is the deadline. Miss it and USCIS treats your conditional status as terminated, which makes you removable. Late filings are considered only on a showing of good cause and extenuating circumstances.⁷

The I-829 asks you to prove three things: the investment was made and sustained through the conditional period, the required jobs were created (or are on track within a reasonable timeframe), and the capital stayed at risk. Supporting evidence typically includes audited financials, bank records, tax returns, payroll records, and business licenses showing the enterprise remained operational. Investors who keep thorough records from the first day of the project have a much easier I-829 than those reconstructing two years of financial history at the end.

Keeping Children Eligible

Because petitions take years, a child who was 18 at filing can turn 21 before a visa is available, and turning 21 normally ends derivative eligibility. The Child Status Protection Act blocks that outcome with a formula: take the child’s age on the date a visa becomes available and subtract the days the petition was pending before approval. If the result is under 21 and the child is unmarried, they still qualify.⁸ A child who was 21 years and 8 months old when the visa became available, on a petition that was pending for 14 months, would have a CSPA age of about 20 years and 6 months and would remain eligible. The child has to stay unmarried throughout the process.

The 2027 Inflation Adjustment

The current $1,050,000 and $800,000 thresholds apply to petitions filed through December 31, 2026. Starting January 1, 2027, both figures will adjust based on the cumulative change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers since January 1, 2022, rounded down to the nearest $50,000. After that first adjustment, the TEA amount will always equal 75 percent of the standard amount.¹ The Department of Homeland Security will publish the new figures in a Federal Register notice before they take effect, and the cycle repeats every five years. If you are planning to file in late 2026 or early 2027, the calendar matters. Filing one day after the adjustment date locks in the higher amount.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. About the EB-5 Visa Classification
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 6 Part G Chapter 2 – Immigrant Petition Eligibility Requirements
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 1 Part E Chapter 4 – Burden and Standards of Proof
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-526, Immigrant Petition by Standalone Investor
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. EB-5 Questions and Answers
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-829, Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Child Status Protection Act (CSPA)