IN THIS GUIDE · Separate a project reserve from proof of your own EB-5 contribution
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Identify whose money appears in the balance
Separate the applicant’s contribution from other investors’ funds, operating revenue, loans and reserves. A combined balance may be relevant to the business plan, but it does not establish each investor’s lawful source, path or actual qualifying capital. Hypothetical example: a project building a groundwater treatment facility reports a strong consolidated balance that includes a construction loan, a municipal contribution and subscriptions from investors who have not yet closed. None of those belong to the applicant. Ask for a breakdown of the balance by source and date, and note which portions are restricted, borrowed or contingent. A project that cannot produce that breakdown has told the applicant something useful about how its records are kept.
Connect the investor ledger to supporting records
Reconcile the contribution shown for the applicant with the governing investment documents and relevant transaction evidence. If a ledger credits an amount before the supporting transfer or other contribution is documented, investigate the explanation rather than treating the accounting entry as conclusive. Reconcile in one direction and then the other: from each of the investor's outgoing transfers to the entry that records it, and from each entry back to a transfer. An entry that cannot be traced both ways is unfinished, whatever the total says. Ask who prepares the ledger, how often it is reconciled and whether an independent accountant reviews it, and keep the answer in writing. Where an entry was recorded on a subscription date rather than a payment date, note the difference instead of letting it pass as a detail of timing.
Test the complete investment case
Current general 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 investment must meet the lawful-source, at-risk capital, ten qualifying full-time jobs per investor and management or policy-participation requirements. Neither a reserve nor a ledger replaces those elements. Each of those elements is proved with different material and none substitutes for another: the lawful-source narrative with earnings, sale or gift records and the tax filings that accompany them; the path with transfer confirmations at every step; the at-risk requirement with the actual investment instruments; job creation with the project's methodology and the records supporting it; and participation with the governing documents defining the investor's rights. Ask which of the five is weakest today and what would strengthen it, since that is where preparation time is best spent.
Ask what the reserve can actually support
Assess liquidity statements against the actual business plan and obligations without treating a reserve as a guaranteed repayment fund. Petition approval alone does not establish residence. Conditional residence starts with applicable immigrant admission or adjustment approval; I-829 is generally filed in the 90 days before its second anniversary, independently of a reserve release date. Read the distribution and redemption provisions with counsel rather than relying on a summary in marketing material, since a right that looks like a guaranteed exit can be the very term that puts the at-risk requirement in question. Ask what obligations the reserve is actually pledged against, whether debt service, construction contingency or operating shortfalls, and what would have to happen before any part of it reached investors. Then ask what the household would do if none of it did.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.