IN THIS GUIDE · Explain the investor’s available capital after a jointly owned property is sold
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Reconcile ownership, settlement and the investor’s funds
Identify the owners, the amounts discharged at closing and where the remaining proceeds went. Explain any transfer from a co-owner to the investor with the actual legal arrangement. Do not relabel another person’s money as the investor’s savings or omit a liability simply because the sale price looks sufficient. Create a source-and-path schedule that begins with acquisition of the property and ends with the intended enterprise payment. For each movement, name the account holder, date, amount, purpose and supporting document. The decision is whether a co-owner’s share, a discharge of debt or a later gift needs separate proof before the amount is characterized as the investor’s capital.
Test the investment itself after tracing the source
Current general thresholds are US$1.05 million or US$800,000 for qualifying targeted-employment-area or infrastructure cases, with adjustments beginning January 1, 2027 tied to the relevant petition filing date. Lawful source and path, capital at risk, management or policymaking participation, and ten qualifying full-time jobs per investor remain necessary. The sale of a Canadian property does not itself create those U.S. jobs. Do not choose a project merely because its stated amount matches the net proceeds. Review the offering terms, business plan, job methodology, risk disclosures and the investor’s management or policy role. The record should show how ten qualifying full-time positions per investor are expected to arise, not simply that construction or spending is anticipated.
Keep settlement dates apart from residence
Money becoming available does not establish U.S. residence. For EB-5, admission on the immigrant visa or approval of adjustment starts conditional residence; petition approval alone does not. The I-829 petition is generally due in the 90 days before the second anniversary of conditional residence. Its filing is not automatic removal of conditions or a capital repayment date. Keep the immigration sequence distinct from private project milestones. Before relying on a repayment statement or an expected completion date, identify what it proves and what it does not. Conditional residence carries its own timing and I-829 process; investors should preserve enterprise and job records throughout the period instead of treating petition approval as the final evidentiary event.
Standalone counting differs from a regional center
Job creation under a regional center petition is credited when a permitted methodology is applied to defined inputs — construction expenditures, revenues, or similar measures. Designation makes an entity eligible to sponsor pooled investments; it is not an endorsement of any particular project, an approval of the offering, or any promise that capital will be returned. The investor should decide early whether the evidence supports direct hiring or the regional-center framework, because the job evidence differs.
Trace the provider’s source and the investor’s rights
The jobs must be attributable to that investor's own capital, which is why offerings model allocations so carefully and why an over-subscribed project can leave a later investor without jobs to claim. 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. Build the job-count model position by position: title, hours, start date, worker category, and evidence source.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.