IN THIS GUIDE · Reconcile the amount sent, the amount received and the EB-5 capital credited
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Follow each transfer to its destination
Record the currency and amount sent, relevant conversion information, charges and the amount received. Obtain the appropriate acknowledgment of the capital credited under the actual arrangement. A debit from the investor’s account is not, by itself, the complete record of the enterprise’s qualifying capital. Ask each institution in the chain for its own record while the transfer is recent, since intermediary banks discard detail on a schedule of their own and the correspondent leg is the one that most often cannot be reconstructed a year later. What settles a disputed amount is usually the payment message itself rather than a customer-facing statement, and the sending bank may be able to supply it on request.
Distinguish capital from charges
Identify whether a charge was paid separately, deducted in transit or handled under the project’s terms. Do not assume every difference automatically creates a shortfall, or that every fee can be counted as investment capital. Have the actual contribution and any necessary correction assessed with supporting records. Hypothetical example: the investment is destined for a new commercial enterprise distributing replacement parts for heavy equipment, and the administrator issues a receipt for the sum that reached the account rather than the sum the investor sent. Establish which document the project treats as the record of capital contributed, and what it says about charges withheld along the way, before concluding that a shortfall exists.
Confirm the applicable EB-5 conditions
Current general capital thresholds are US$1.05 million or US$800,000 for a qualifying targeted-employment-area or infrastructure case, with statutory adjustments beginning January 1, 2027 under applicable filing-date rules. The investor must establish lawful source and path, at-risk capital, ten qualifying full-time jobs per investor and participation in management or policy formulation. A reconciled transfer alone does not prove the project satisfies those conditions. Order these conditions by which one, if unmet, would end the matter, and check that one first. Source and path of funds can usually be documented with effort; whether the project’s structure supports the job creation and the participation requirement is not something the investor can cure by producing one more record. Ask which of the conditions the project itself supplies the evidence for, and which rest on the investor.
Separate payment completion from residence
Petition approval or a receipt for funds does not establish conditional residence. Applicable immigrant admission or adjustment approval begins that status, subject to the relevant process, visa availability and admissibility. I-829 is generally filed in the 90 days before the second anniversary of conditional residence; filing does not automatically remove conditions or repay the investment. Keep one dated list of the milestones that actually change status, and check every household decision against it. The wire date, the receipt, the petition filing and an approval are all events worth recording, but none of them begins conditional residence; that follows the applicable immigrant admission or adjustment approval. A plan that counts forward from the wire date will place the later deadlines, including the I-829 window, in the wrong place.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.