EB-5 Application Requirements

As an EB5 Visa applicant you are invited to invest $1 million in a qualified investment. If your investment is made in a "targeted employment area," ("TEA") or Regional Center, meaning areas that are experiencing 150% of the national unemployment rate average, the capital investment may be $500,000. You can establish a business or invest in an existing business that was created or restructured after November 19, 1990.

An experienced immigration attorney works with a designation official in the state where you seek to invest.

You will need to provide documentation that your capital has been legally obtained. Try to obtain such documents as tax payments, business registrations, real estate sales documents, or other easily verifiable sources in order to prove the source of investment as qualified. Your capital does not need to have originated abroad. If you have lived in the U.S. for several years and have already transferred substantial sums to the U.S., and the legal sources of those funds can be proven, this money may be used toward the EB5 investment.

There is no requirement that you be involved with the active management and control of the investment business. You can be a passive investor as a member of a limited partnership. You may consider going into a pooled investment where an experienced business person with a viable business project (hotel, restaurant chain, etc.) gathers a group of investors or you may diversify your investment over a few or several projects, as long as the qualifiers are met and the requirement of 10 new jobs created is easily verifiable. For example, if a restaurant chain projects to employ 30 employees in 5 restaurants, there can be at least 3 EB5 investors.

The business entity will often take forms of limited liability companies (LLCs) or limited partnerships (LPs). LLCs are preferred entities among many experienced business attorneys. They have the benefit of having the corporate liability protection along with tax benefits, (single taxation as opposed to the corporate double-taxation). They are also flexible in that the members (the constituents are called members rather than shareholders or partners) can be foreign nationals, another entity, etc. LPs are considered outdated by many. Such arrangements allow investors to have the benefit of being part of a larger project, sometimes increasing the potential of higher return, and increasing the likelihood that an experienced person is managing the project. Usually, the investors will receive smaller ownership in such cases in return for the benefits of being a passive owner and making the EB5 hurdle easier.

You can invest the required amount alone, create the qualifying business with another immigrant investor, or even create the business with US citizens or other people not seeking classification as an immigrant investor. In such cases, each person seeking classification as an immigrant investor must have invested the required amount and must have created the required 10 new positions each.