IN THIS GUIDE · Planning an EB-5 investment from Deux-Montagnes while a different U.S. immigration case is already pending
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Two open files, one consistent record
USCIS forms ask about earlier petitions and applications, and an EB-5 filing does not erase them. A pending case does not automatically disqualify you, and no rule says the earlier file must be withdrawn before an I-526 or I-526E is submitted. Withdrawal is a decision with consequences for both matters, so counsel handling each case should coordinate before anything is signed. Consistency is a duty that falls on whoever signs, and across two files that may be two different signatories. Ask each counsel, in writing, to review the other's statement of your history before either is filed. Where the earlier petitioner is an employer, it controls what its file says; you control only what yours says, and your obligation is that yours is accurate.
The investment decision behind the second file
EB-5 currently requires US$1,050,000, or US$800,000 for a qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure project, with statutory adjustments beginning January 1, 2027 — confirm the figure that applies when you actually file. The capital must be at risk and must create at least ten qualifying full-time jobs. Permitted counting methods differ between a standalone I-526 and a regional center I-526E. Decide who is actually responsible for the job creation you will later have to prove. In a standalone petition that responsibility sits with the enterprise you control; in a regional center project it sits with a sponsor whose reporting you rely on but do not direct. Before committing capital, ask who prepares the evidence USCIS will read at the removal-of-conditions stage, and what you receive from them if the project underperforms.
What neither file authorizes on its own
Filing an EB-5 petition, and even approving one, is not work authorization or travel permission. If you already hold independent work authorization from another basis, that document — not the pending case — is what permits work. Adjustment of status inside the United States requires genuine eligibility and an available visa number; a concurrent filing may be possible for an eligible EB-5 applicant. Work permission has an issuer, and a pending petition is not it. Whatever document authorises you to work today was granted by a specific agency on a specific basis, and it continues or expires on its own terms regardless of the EB-5 filing. Hypothetical example: a landscape contractor holding an existing employment authorization keeps working under that document alone, and files the EB-5 petition without treating the receipt notice as permission to do anything.
Reading the paper the first case produced
Receipt notices, decisions, requests for evidence and status records from the earlier matter describe the route you actually took, and an EB-5 file should match them. Government notices sometimes contain errors. When a notice conflicts with what you know happened, investigate the discrepancy and document it rather than repeating incorrect information in a petition that will be read alongside the older file. When a notice is wrong, the correction has to be sought from the office that issued it; no amount of restating your own version in a second petition repairs the first. Establish who in the earlier matter is responsible for raising the discrepancy, often the employer's counsel rather than you, and put the request in writing so that the date of the request is itself on record.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.