IN THIS GUIDE · Where the capital came from, how it travelled, and how many American jobs it will actually pay for
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Source is only half of the money question
Hypothetical example: Yvon sold a honey-packing operation outside Saint-Joachim-de-Shefford and also receives quarterly payments from a royalty interest in a gravel pit, and he expects the sale agreement to settle the funds question. It settles half of it. Source asks where the money lawfully came from, and a signed sale contract with matching tax filings answers that well. Path asks how it reached the enterprise, and that answer is built from bank statements showing each transfer between each account, with nothing unexplained in between. A deposit that sat in a family member's account for a month, a currency conversion routed through a third institution, or a transfer made by a spouse from a joint account all need a sentence and a document each. Gaps are not treated as innocent, and reconstructing statements from a closed account years afterwards is far harder than requesting them now.
Ten jobs is a floor with rules attached
The requirement is at least ten full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers per investor, and each of those words narrows it. Full-time means a minimum of thirty-five hours a week, and two part-time roles cannot be added together to make one, although a genuine job-sharing arrangement is treated differently. Qualifying workers are U.S. citizens and certain lawfully authorised residents; the investor, the investor's spouse and children, and certain nonimmigrant workers are excluded from the count. In a direct investment the positions have to be actual employees of the new commercial enterprise. In a regional-centre project, indirect and induced jobs may be counted under a reasonable methodology, which is why the economic report attached to that project matters as much as the offering documents.
Conditional residence is a two-year obligation
Approval does not end the process; it starts a period during which the investment must remain at risk and the jobs must appear. Form I-829 is filed within the ninety days immediately before the two-year conditional period expires, and it asks for proof that the enterprise was sustained and that the required employment was created or, in some circumstances, will be created within a reasonable time. Capital withdrawn early, a project that stalls, or an enterprise that never reaches its payroll projection all surface at that filing rather than being forgiven quietly. Plan for the whole span from the beginning: the money is committed for years, not months, and the family's residence during that period depends on how the project performs.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.