IN THIS GUIDE · Trace employee share awards through ownership and sale before describing EB-5 cash proceeds
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Identify the actual compensation instrument
Read the plan and transaction records to establish what the applicant received and when. An option, share award and cash payment are not interchangeable descriptions. Explain the relevant conditions and ownership history rather than assuming the employer’s valuation is the amount available to transfer.
Connect the employment source to the proceeds
Keep appropriate award, acquisition, brokerage and payment records showing the real sequence. Reconcile relevant deductions or amounts used to acquire shares with the net proceeds relied upon. A sale receipt shows one event; the earlier records explain why the asset belonged to the applicant and how it was obtained.
Apply the qualifying-capital requirements
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. Establish lawful source and path, at-risk capital, ten qualifying full-time jobs per investor and management or policy participation. This example concerns proposed sale proceeds; any proposed noncash contribution requires its own qualification and valuation analysis.
Separate plan dates from immigration readiness
Vesting, exercise or a scheduled sale does not guarantee funds will be available on the assumed date. Conditional residence begins with applicable immigrant admission or adjustment approval; I-829 is generally filed in the 90 days before its second anniversary. A compensation milestone is not the start of that status. Capital must be placed at risk, and the commercial enterprise must support ten qualifying full-time jobs per investor; conditional residence does not replace those conditions. Hypothetical example: a violin-bow workshop owner sells a privately held stake after a buyout closes, but the closing statement directs part of the price to repay a personal loan. The first review reconciles the share register, purchase agreement, loan payoff, and receiving-account statement. The decision is how much lawful net capital is actually available and what record explains its path. Keep evidence of the investment and the employment plan because the removal-of-conditions stage tests sustained eligibility.
Ten jobs, counted the way the requirement counts them
Full-time normally means at least 35 hours weekly, and investor, spouse and children are excluded as qualifying workers. At least ten qualifying permanent full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers are required, with the applicable standalone or regional-center method assessed. In a regional-center project, indirect and induced jobs may count under an economic model; in a direct investment, only the enterprise's own payroll counts. Where the investment is made through a designated regional center, jobs created indirectly may be counted using accepted economic methodologies, which is why regional center offerings often satisfy the requirement more easily on paper. Read the subscription and offering documents for allocation, repayment terms, fees, risks, and investor rights. A high-unemployment-area designation that expires after the qualifying investment does not by itself require the investor to increase the investment; confirm that the reduced threshold applied at the legally relevant time.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.