For immigrant-visa entry, the principal must arrive before or together with derivative family members. A convenient earlier booking does not change that sequence.
Coordinate the actual immigrant entries
Eligible derivatives need no separate principal investment merely to accompany. A qualifying spouse and unmarried child under 21 still need individual eligibility, including any applicable CSPA assessment. Do not assume every family member must receive a decision or travel on the same day.
A child who is nineteen when the plan begins may be older than the limit by the time it concludes, and the way age is calculated in immigrant categories is technical enough to warrant an early, specific answer rather than a general reassurance. What a family can control is sequencing and record-keeping: knowing every child's exact age at each stage, avoiding unnecessary delay in filing, and being ready to prepare an independent route for an older child rather than discovering the need late. Tuition instalments, a lease renewal and a child's approaching twenty-first birthday fall on fixed days that no project schedule will move, and the derivative rules include fact-specific age protection that turns on the case's own dates.
- USCIS — EB-5 investor program
- USCIS — business and investment visa overview
- USCIS — Child Status Protection Act
- Department of State — Visa Bulletin
- USCIS — fee schedule
- 8 USC 1153(b)(5) — investor capital and adjustment provisions
- USCIS — Form I-829
- USCIS Policy Manual — EB-5 eligibility
- Department of State — after the immigrant visa interview