IN THIS GUIDE · Documenting the sale of a jointly inherited property, co-owned with a sibling, as EB-5 capital from Lorraine
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Your share, not the sale price
A house that sold for a headline figure does not give you that figure. What matters is your legal entitlement under the estate, reduced by the sibling's share, mortgage discharge, agent and notary costs, and any taxes actually paid from those proceeds. EB-5 evidence should show the amount that lawfully reached you, traced from the closing statement through the actual disbursement to the investment. Begin with a chronology rather than a stack of statements. Put the underlying acquisition, inheritance, sale, distribution, tax payment, currency conversion and wire transfer in date order. Each step should have a primary record. Where the date or amount is uncertain, mark it as a question to resolve, not as a fact to smooth over.
The estate chain, document by document
Lawful source and lawful path are both required. For inherited property that means the death record, the will or succession declaration, the probate or estate settlement showing how the property was allocated, the title history, the sale deed, and the closing statement. Prescribed historical tax records may also be requested; do not assume such records are never relevant to an inheritance. Hypothetical example: an owner of a specialty climbing-rope testing facility sells shares over three instalments and plans to use only the first cleared payment. The sale agreement, share register, bank deposit, tax record and outbound wire should agree on that amount. The decision is whether the cleared instalment is independently traceable, not whether the headline sale price sounds sufficient.
Dates are evidence
Use the dated estate accounts, bank records and notarial disbursements to establish when the funds moved. A later certified copy or explanatory statement can be useful if it accurately reports an earlier event and is corroborated. Distinguish a document obtained now from a transaction claimed to have occurred now; never backdate an account or invent an earlier distribution. Read the project documents as evidence of defined obligations, not as a promise that an immigration result follows. Identify the new commercial enterprise, the investment terms, the job-creation methodology and the conditions governing release or redeployment. Keep administrative fees, professional costs and qualifying capital in separate columns.
Turning proceeds into a qualifying investment
The qualifying amount is US$1,050,000, or US$800,000 for a targeted employment area or infrastructure project, with statutory adjustments beginning January 1, 2027; confirm the figure at filing. Capital must be at risk, and being actively in the process of investing can qualify — full payment before filing is not universally required. Read any escrow terms closely, including release and refund conditions. Plan the later conditional-residence stage while the original records are available. Preserve notices, project reports and the evidence used to establish the source and transfer path. If a material event changes the investment or employment projection, record its date and explanation early; reconstructing it years later is harder and less reliable.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.