IN THIS GUIDE · Distinguish petition approval from the start of conditional residence
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Identify what the notice actually decides
Hypothetical example: a household calls a petition approval its green-card date. Keep the complete notice and distinguish the petition stage from immigrant-visa admission or adjustment approval. The latter relevant event starts conditional residence. Hypothetical example: A laundry-services business owner transfers sale proceeds through a lawyer's trust account before subscribing to a project. The review should follow the amount from sale agreement through trust ledger to the investment account, then decide whether the records fully explain the source and path instead of relying on a single wire confirmation.
Preserve the investment requirements
Current capital is US$1,050,000 or US$800,000 for qualifying targeted-employment-area or infrastructure cases, with statutory adjustments from January 1, 2027 under petition-filing-date rules. Lawful source and path, risk, qualifying jobs and management or policy participation remain necessary. Capital has to remain at risk in the new commercial enterprise and the required job creation analysis must fit the selected framework. Before filing, compare the signed documents with the claimed filing-date amount and identify whether the evidence supports the asserted targeted-employment-area, infrastructure, direct or regional-center basis.
Keep people and employment distinct
At least ten qualifying permanent full-time jobs per investor are required under the applicable framework. Investor, spouse, sons and daughters and nonimmigrant workers are excluded from qualifying worker counts. Eligible derivatives are not separate principal investors merely because they accompany the case. The business plan should say which workers count, when they are expected to become permanent full-time positions and which records will later substantiate them. A projected payroll total does not settle the issue if it includes excluded people, temporary work or jobs attributed to a different investor.
Track the actual conditional-residence anniversary
I-829 is generally filed in the 90 days before the second anniversary of conditional residence. Petition approval, visa issuance alone and investment payment are not interchangeable with the admission or adjustment event. Filing I-829 does not itself remove conditions or guarantee repayment. Keep the immigrant-visa or adjustment record with the admission or approval evidence and calendar the conditional-residence anniversary from that event. The I-829 filing is a request to remove conditions; it is not a substitute for maintaining the factual basis of the investment and job evidence.
Confirm capital, jobs and the conditional-residence sequence
For filings before the scheduled 2027 adjustment, verify whether the applicable minimum is US$1,050,000 or the reduced US$800,000 available to a qualifying targeted employment area or infrastructure project. The investment must support ten qualifying permanent full-time jobs under the correct standalone or regional-center method. Petition approval must still be followed by immigrant-visa admission or adjustment, and the resulting conditional residence later requires Form I-829, ordinarily during the 90-day period preceding its second anniversary. A decision-ready file separates money invested from administrative charges and separates petition approval from residence. That sequence helps the investor decide whether the available records support filing now, need clarification, or reveal a business assumption that should be revised before capital is committed.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.
- USCIS — EB-5 investor program
- USCIS — business and investment visa overview
- USCIS — Child Status Protection Act
- Department of State — Visa Bulletin
- USCIS — fee schedule
- 8 USC 1153(b)(5) — investor capital and adjustment provisions
- USCIS — Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status