IN THIS GUIDE · Establish access to trust-held funds before treating them as available EB-5 capital
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Read the beneficiary’s actual rights
Identify the relevant trust terms, decision-making authority and any conditions on access. A trustee’s ability to consider a distribution is not the same as the beneficiary already having unrestricted access to the full trust balance. Do not treat a family understanding as a substitute for the governing arrangement. Ask for the complete executed instrument and amendments, not just a balance statement or a summary from a family member. The first review should state who can demand a distribution, who may refuse it, and whether another person's consent is required. Those terms determine whether the assets are available to the investor for the claimed transaction.
Document the proposed use of funds
Explain whether the case relies on assets held in trust or an actual authorized distribution, and obtain the appropriate records of ownership, authority, lawful source and path. A restriction in one proposed route should be assessed on its facts; do not assume it means no future properly documented investment could ever qualify. Sequence the proof from the trust asset's lawful source, through the authorization and distribution, to the investor's transfer and the enterprise's receipt. The review should flag any gift, loan, escrow condition, or intermediary account rather than treating it as a clerical detail. A clean bank balance at the end does not by itself explain the lawful path.
Keep the broader EB-5 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. A large trust valuation does not establish the actual qualifying contribution. Test the selected investment structure against the jobs evidence before funds are characterized as available. EB-5 capital must be at risk, and the plan must support the required job creation under the applicable framework. A direct case and a regional-center case can use different job evidence, so the investor must decide which framework the actual records support instead of mixing their methods.
Coordinate authorization with the immigration plan
An expected trustee decision is not a completed investment or guaranteed funding date. Conditional residence starts with applicable immigrant admission or adjustment approval; I-829 is generally filed in the 90 days before its second anniversary. Neither creation of the trust nor approval of a distribution starts that residence period. Keep the immigration timeline distinct from the money timeline. EB-5 leads first to conditional permanent residence after the applicable immigrant process, rather than permanent residence immediately on wiring funds. The later filing must address removal of conditions and the qualifying investment and job requirements. A projected distribution date should never be described as the date conditional residence begins.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.