IN THIS GUIDE · Explain the investor’s funds when a genuine gift arrives through several transfers
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Trace the lawful gift and actual capital commitment
September 2026 capital levels are US$1,050,000 ordinarily or US$800,000 for a qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure investment, with statutory adjustments beginning January 1, 2027 under filing-date rules. Funds must be lawfully sourced and committed at risk. Gifts and loans must be in good faith and not used to circumvent capital requirements. Explain the real parties and transactions rather than relying only on the last transfer.
Read the investment rights separately from the gift
Contractual repayment rights and guaranteed rates of return are excluded from qualifying capital. A statutory exception concerns an enterprise-only discretionary buyback; exercise requires petition withdrawal unless applicable sustainment and other requirements have been fulfilled. A gift’s source explanation does not cure excluded rights in the investment agreement.
Establish qualifying jobs and investor participation
At least ten qualifying permanent full-time jobs per investor are required under the applicable standalone or regional-centre framework. Direct jobs generally mean at least 35 hours weekly; contractors, nonimmigrants, the investor, spouse and sons or daughters are excluded. The investor must participate in management or policy formulation; qualifying limited-partner rights may satisfy that without daily operation. The donor’s involvement does not automatically establish the investor’s own rights.
Keep the family and residence chronology accurate
Conditional residence begins at immigrant admission or adjustment approval. I-829 ordinarily is filed in the 90 days before the second anniversary; filing alone does not remove conditions or trigger repayment. Eligible accompanying derivatives require no extra principal investment merely to join, but their eligibility, any CSPA protection and visa availability need individual analysis. A gift date is not an automatic residence or age-protection event.
Decide between a regional-center project and a direct investment
Identify the project location, the rural or high-unemployment basis claimed, the relevant USCIS designation or project approval and its applicable dates. At least ten full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers must be created, or the I-829 record must establish that they can be expected to be created within a reasonable time. The condition is removed by filing Form I-829 with evidence that the capital remained invested and that the required jobs were created and sustained. 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. Avoid importing an indirect-job methodology into a direct-investment case, or treating jobs described in a marketing deck as already created. Under the 2022 legislation the qualifying amounts are one million fifty thousand dollars generally and eight hundred thousand dollars for a targeted employment area or infrastructure project; these are subject to adjustment and should be verified against current official sources before committing. Review the enterprise structure, offering documents, planned use of capital, fees, project timetable, job-creation assumptions, conflicts, and exit risks with advisers qualified for those questions.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-08. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.