The investor’s spouse and sons or daughters are excluded from qualifying employees for direct EB-5 job counting. Do not count the relationship away merely because the relative appears on payroll.
Separate job exclusions from derivative eligibility
For immigration as dependents, a qualifying spouse and unmarried children under 21 may seek derivative status subject to their own requirements and applicable age rules. That under-21 condition does not narrow the separate direct-job exclusion for the investor’s sons or daughters.
Identify the proposed principal investor and independently assess eligible family members, including individual admissibility and any child-age protection. The family’s actual immigrant process and eligible derivative cases still need to be completed. EB-5 generally requires ten full-time jobs; overtime added to an existing role does not become another position, and the investor or derivative family members cannot be counted. The investor is the person named on the petition, so where the spouse's funds are used, a gift letter between spouses and the spouse's own source evidence may be required. A child’s age is assessed under the Child Status Protection Act, which may freeze it while the petition is pending, but a married child or one over the protected age needs a separate basis.