IN THIS GUIDE · Tracing sale proceeds through a lawyer’s trust account before an EB-5 contribution
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Start with the seller’s entitlement
Identify who sold the business interests and who is legally entitled to the proceeds. A lawyer may hold funds for several sellers, lenders or other beneficiaries. The overall trust balance is therefore not the investor’s available capital. Match the investor’s contractual entitlement with the closing adjustments and the lawyer’s client ledger before describing the amount as personal sale proceeds. Where several sellers share a single trust balance, ask the lawyer to confirm the investor’s allocation in writing before the disbursement is authorized. A ledger extract naming the client matter, the credit and the date does that work. Reconstructing an allocation from a bank statement months later rarely persuades anyone.
Document the direct transfer accurately
If the closing instructions permit a direct payment to the investment escrow, preserve that instruction and the receiving account confirmation. Show the sale, deposit into trust, allocation to the investor and onward payment as they actually occurred. An extra personal-account transfer is not a universal immigration requirement, and adding one would not repair an unexplained source or ownership problem.
Separate held money from committed investment
A closing ledger may include an indemnity holdback or an amount reserved for a dispute. Establish which sum was released and which remains subject to conditions. EB-5 requires qualifying capital invested or actively being invested under the applicable rules; a balance still awaiting a legal release cannot simply be reported as a completed contribution to the enterprise.
Review the investment beyond the closing
An accurate trust trail addresses funding evidence, not the whole immigration case. Confirm the qualifying enterprise, the investor’s management or policy role, the applicable US$1,050,000 or qualifying US$800,000 amount and at least ten qualifying full-time jobs. The project’s job methodology and the petition’s timing still require review after the lawyer reconciles the sale proceeds. Decide, as well, what happens after the enterprise is funded. Conditional permanent residence is followed by a petition to remove conditions, judged on what the enterprise did with the capital and whether the required jobs were created. Ask the sponsor now what reporting the investor will receive.
Decide what the investor will still control after the wire
Capital that has left the trust account is capital the investor no longer holds, and the documents signed at that moment determine what influence remains. Voting rights, information rights, the ability to replace a manager and the terms on which an interest may be sold are all set in the subscription and operating agreements. This category expects the investor to be engaged at least at the policy level, so those provisions are evidence as well as commercial terms. Hypothetical example: a seller of a livestock nutrition business directs closing proceeds to a project offering no member vote and no periodic reporting. Reading the operating agreement before the disbursement, rather than after, is what makes that a choice instead of a discovery.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.