IN THIS GUIDE · A marketed capital-back-in-exactly-two-years promise, tested against the immigration rules and the actual contract
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Two different promises
First determine whether the schedule is a binding contractual obligation, a projection or a conditional right. Sustainment and the later removal of conditions are questions of immigration law applied to your filing dates and your facts. There is no universal rule that capital returns after two years, and no uniform sustainment timeline that a brochure can quote. Read the two side by side and identify whether they align or create a conflict.
At risk means the money can be lost
Capital must be genuinely at risk in the enterprise. A guaranteed return sitting alongside that requirement is a tension worth resolving on paper before you wire anything. Contractual refund or repayment rights can exist and are not automatically improper — but immigration status does not guarantee that you recover your money, and a spoken assurance from a salesperson is not the same instrument as a signed term.
Designation is not endorsement
If the offering is a regional center investment filed on Form I-526E, remember that a regional center's designation is not an endorsement of the project, an approval of the business, or a guarantee that the investment performs. A standalone investment is filed on Form I-526 instead. Neither form of filing, and neither its approval, is work or travel authorization.
The amount, and when to recheck it
The qualifying investment is US$1,050,000, or US$800,000 for a project in a targeted employment area or an infrastructure project. Statutory adjustments begin January 1, 2027, so confirm the figure that applies on your actual filing date rather than the one printed in a brochure. Lawful source and the full path of the funds must be documented, and prescribed historical tax records may be required.
The offering documents outrank the brochure
Every marketed statement has a governing document behind it, and the governing document is the one that decides. A private placement memorandum sets out risk factors and normally states plainly that projections are not guarantees; the subscription agreement records what the investor actually agreed to; the operating or partnership agreement contains the distribution provisions that determine who is paid and in what order. Where a sentence in a brochure cannot be traced to a clause in one of those, treat it as marketing. Ask the issuer to identify the clause by number. Reluctance to do so is itself an answer, and asking costs nothing before funds move, while afterwards it costs a great deal more.
Follow the money between the two entities
Capital rarely stays where it is subscribed. In a common structure the new commercial enterprise raises funds and lends or contributes them to a job-creating entity, and the terms of that transfer sit in a loan or contribution agreement rather than in anything the investor signed. Read it. Maturity, interest, security, subordination to a bank lender and any right to extend all bear on whether money could return on the marketed date even where everyone acts in good faith. A capitalisation table showing who else holds claims, and audited financial statements showing what has been drawn, complete the picture. Capital must remain at risk in the enterprise, and the paperwork describing where it went is what a later petition to remove conditions will be read against.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.