EB-5 Visa: Investment, Job Creation, and Conditional Green Card

To qualify for an EB-5 investor green card, you need to invest at least $800,000 or $1,050,000 of lawfully earned capital in a U.S. business, keep that money genuinely at risk, and create at least 10 full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers. The EB-5 visa requirements are set by federal statute and administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and they apply at two stages: when you file your initial petition and again two years later when you ask USCIS to remove the conditions on your green card.¹

How Much You Have to Invest

The standard minimum is $1,050,000. It drops to $800,000 if you invest in a Targeted Employment Area (TEA), which covers rural locations and census tracts where unemployment runs at least 150 percent of the national average.² Most EB-5 projects are structured to qualify as TEA investments, so $800,000 is what most investors actually pay.

High-unemployment designations are made by the Secretary of Homeland Security using census-tract data. States and cities can no longer designate their own TEAs, a change from the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA). Rural areas qualify automatically without a separate designation.¹

The 10-Job Requirement

Your investment has to create at least 10 full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers. Full-time means a minimum of 35 hours per week. The workers must be U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or others authorized to work in the country. You and your family members don’t count toward the 10.³

The business plan you file has to show exactly how and when those jobs will appear. USCIS applies the standard from Matter of Ho: a comprehensive, detailed, and credible plan with market analysis, revenue forecasts, staffing schedules, and a realistic hiring timeline.⁴ A general statement that the business “will create jobs” is not enough, and weak business plans are the single most common reason petitions fail.

Direct Investment or Regional Center

There are two structures, and they change how you satisfy the job requirement.

A standalone (direct) investment means you put your capital into a business you manage or help run, and all 10 jobs must be employees on that company’s own payroll. You have more control over the enterprise and full responsibility for hiring.

A regional center investment means you pool capital with other investors into a USCIS-approved regional center that funds larger projects in a defined geographic area. Regional center investors can count indirect and induced jobs, meaning positions created in the broader economy by the project’s ripple effects rather than just direct payroll. There are limits: indirect jobs can satisfy at most 90 percent of the 10-job requirement, and if the project relies on construction lasting less than two years, the ceiling drops to 75 percent.⁵

Regional center investors file Form I-526E and pay an additional $1,000 RIA fee on top of the $3,675 base filing fee.⁶ Direct investors file Form I-526 without that extra charge.

Your Capital Has to Be Genuinely at Risk

The at-risk rule catches a lot of investors off guard. Your money has to be exposed to normal business conditions where you could lose some or all of it. USCIS denies petitions where the investment is structured to eliminate that risk. The following disqualify your capital, in whole or in part:⁷

Any promise of a specific rate of return. The guaranteed portion doesn’t count as capital at risk.
Debt arrangements between you and the business, including notes, bonds, or convertible debt.
Mandatory redemption agreements giving you the right to get your money back at a set time or on a specific event, even if repayment is contingent on the company having enough cash.
Promises of ownership or use of a specific asset like real estate. The present value of that asset is subtracted from your qualifying capital.

A buy-back option that only the company can exercise is permitted, but that exception is narrow. Under the RIA, your capital must remain invested for at least two years from the date it is placed at risk.¹ EB-5 is a real investment, not a deposit you will automatically get back.

Proving the Money Was Earned Lawfully

USCIS wants a documented trail showing exactly where your capital came from and how it reached the U.S. business. That means tracing the money from its original source through every transfer, conversion, and intermediary to the final deposit. Investors typically submit five years of personal and business tax returns to establish income history.

Supporting documentation depends on how you accumulated the money. Records of property sales, bank statements showing savings growth, and evidence of corporate earnings or distributions are common. Inherited funds require probate documents or the relevant will. Gifted funds require an affidavit from the donor plus proof that the donor earned the money legitimately. Wire transfer receipts, currency exchange records, and account statements for every bank or exchange service that touched the money all need to be in the file.

Gaps in this paper trail are the second most common reason petitions stall, after weak business plans. Build the documentation methodically before you file, because if USCIS can’t follow the money from origin to investment, the petition is denied.

The Petition and Conditional Green Card

You file Form I-526 (direct) or I-526E (regional center) to start the process. If a visa number is available and you’re lawfully in the U.S., you can file Form I-485 to adjust status at the same time, which is called concurrent filing and lets you work and travel while both applications are pending.⁸ If you’re outside the U.S., you go through consular processing with Form DS-260 and an interview at a U.S. embassy.⁹ Both paths require medical exams and biometrics.

Approval gets you a conditional green card valid for two years.¹⁰ Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 receive their own conditional cards as derivative beneficiaries.¹¹ During those two years, your capital must stay invested and the jobs must be created or be on track for creation as described in your petition.

Removing Conditions

The final requirement is Form I-829, filed during the 90-day window immediately before your conditional card expires. Missing this window can cost you your status and trigger removal proceedings.¹² The filing fee is $3,750.¹³

USCIS reviews the petition to confirm that your capital stayed invested for the required period and that the 10 jobs were created or will be created within a reasonable time. If approved, conditions come off and you receive a permanent green card valid for 10 years.

Visa Backlogs and the Reserved Categories

EB-5 visas are capped at 7.1 percent of the total employment-based immigrant visa allocation each fiscal year.¹ Within that pool, the RIA created reserved set-asides: 20 percent for rural investments, 10 percent for high-unemployment areas, and 2 percent for infrastructure projects. The remaining 68 percent goes to unreserved applicants.³

Investors from China and India have historically faced multi-year waits in the unreserved category. The reserved set-asides, particularly rural, have so far stayed current. This is the main practical reason many investors from backlogged countries choose rural TEA projects: it can cut years off the timeline.

Keeping Children Eligible

A child who was under 21 when you filed may turn 21 before a visa becomes available. The Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) provides a formula to prevent aging out: take the child’s age on the date a visa becomes available or the petition approval date (whichever is later), then subtract the number of days the petition was pending before approval.¹⁴ If the result is under 21 and the child is unmarried, they stay eligible as a derivative.

Tax Obligations Once You Have the Green Card

The moment you become a U.S. permanent resident, you owe U.S. income tax on your worldwide income, not just money earned in the United States. That covers foreign business profits, rental income from properties abroad, interest, dividends, and capital gains on assets anywhere in the world. If you have significant foreign holdings, talk to an international tax advisor before your green card is issued, not after.

Two foreign-asset reporting rules also apply. If your foreign financial accounts total more than $10,000 at any point during the year, you file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) through the BSA E-Filing System.¹⁵ Under FATCA, you file IRS Form 8938 if your specified foreign financial assets exceed $50,000 on the last day of the tax year or $75,000 at any point during the year, with those thresholds doubled for married couples filing jointly.¹⁶ Penalties for missing either filing are steep and apply even when no additional tax is owed.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
2
Legal Information Institute. 8 USC 1153(b)(5) – Employment Creation
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. About the EB-5 Visa Classification
4
United States Department of Justice. Interim Decision 3362 – In re Ho
5
Congress.gov. Overview of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1055 Fee Schedule
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 6 Part G Chapter 2 – Immigrant Petition Eligibility Requirements
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. EB-5 Questions and Answers
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Process
10
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Conditional Permanent Residence
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program
12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-829, Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Court Order on Partial Stay of DHS 2024 USCIS Fee Rule
14
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Child Status Protection Act (CSPA)
15
FinCEN.gov. Report Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts
16
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8938