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OKA · EB-5 FIELD GUIDE

Does declining the capital call put my EB-5 petition at risk?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

It depends on facts, not on a general rule. Your petition rests on your own qualifying investment remaining at risk and on the job creation attributable to you. Declining may carry contractual consequences such as dilution; whether it affects eligibility depends on what changes in the enterprise and the model.

Separate the contract consequence from the eligibility consequence

Ask two questions in parallel. Commercially: what does the agreement say happens to a non-contributing member's interest? For immigration: does your position still represent the qualifying amount, still at risk, with the required jobs still attributable to it? If a hypothetical Georgia fund reduces your units, ask whether your capital contribution itself is being returned or merely revalued — those are very different answers.

Identify the relevant enterprise, capital and applicable job methodology together. Establish the enterprise, qualifying capital, lawful source and path, job requirements and participation. The requirement can be met through qualifying management or policy participation rather than a universal daily-management rule. Meeting a capital amount or reporting a large payroll total does not automatically satisfy the separate job requirement. Only the enterprise's own employees count, and the investor must be engaged in management.