IN THIS GUIDE · Four investors in one new enterprise: allocating jobs and proving policy involvement
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
The job requirement multiplies with the investors
Each investor must show at least ten full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers created as a result of the investment. Four investors in one new commercial enterprise therefore need at least forty such positions between them, and each investor's petition must identify the ten allocated to him. Allocation should be agreed in the operating agreement and recorded in the enterprise's business plan before anyone files, because a later dispute about whose jobs are whose is difficult to fix. Full-time means at least thirty-five hours a week; the workers must be qualifying U.S. workers; and the investor's own family members are not counted.
Minority membership and the policy-formulation requirement
An investor must be engaged in the management of the enterprise, either through day-to-day managerial control or through policy formulation. A passive holder of a membership interest does not qualify. What satisfies the second route is a set of rights equivalent to those a limited partner holds under the Uniform Limited Partnership Act: voting on the admission of members, on the sale of substantially all assets, on the dissolution of the enterprise and on amendments to the operating agreement. Those rights should be written into the agreement, and the file should show they are real, with meeting minutes and votes rather than a recital.
Capital, lawful source and the path from a business wind-up
Qualifying capital is currently one million fifty thousand dollars, or eight hundred thousand where the enterprise is principally doing business in a targeted employment area or in an infrastructure project, under the 2022 Reform and Integrity Act; the current figures and any adjustment should be confirmed on the official program pages before funds move. For a contractor winding up, the source documents are the equipment bills of sale, the assignment of the timber contracts, the corporate resolutions authorising the wind-up, tax filings covering the gain, loan payouts to the equipment lenders, and bank records tracing the net proceeds to the enterprise's account. Every intermediate account has to appear.
Two conditional years and the removal of conditions
A successful investor and his derivative family members are admitted as conditional permanent residents for two years. The capital must be invested and remain at risk for the period the current rules require, and the jobs must be created and, where applicable, maintained; the applicable sustainment period should be read from the official guidance rather than assumed. The petition to remove conditions, Form I-829, is filed in the ninety days before the two-year period ends, and it is judged on what actually happened at the mill: payroll records, tax filings, financial statements and evidence the enterprise continued to operate. Derivatives are the spouse and unmarried children under twenty-one.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.