EB-5 Investor Immigration Lawyer: Eligibility and Representation

Who should contact HLG about EB-5?

An EB-5 consultation is most useful before money moves, because the immigration record is built from decisions made at the investment stage. Contact us if you are:

• A prospective investor weighing whether EB-5 fits your capital, timeline and family plans.
• Planning a family move and want to know how a spouse and unmarried children under 21 qualify.
• Comparing structures, such as starting your own business versus investing through a regional center project.
• An investor with a pending case facing a Request for Evidence (RFE), Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID), project change, regional center termination or the removal-of-conditions stage.

Our role is immigration counsel. We address eligibility, evidence, filings and immigration compliance within the engagement you sign. Choosing an investment, judging its financial merit, securities compliance and tax planning belong to separately retained financial, securities and tax professionals. Immigration counsel cannot certify that an investment is safe or that capital will be repaid.

What are the EB-5 investment and eligibility requirements?

An EB-5 investor must place qualifying capital at risk in a new commercial enterprise, create at least 10 qualifying full-time jobs, and document the lawful source of the funds. The core rules are in 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5), as amended by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA).

• Investment amount. $1,050,000 standard, or $800,000 in a targeted employment area (a rural area or a designated high-unemployment area) or a qualifying infrastructure project. Beginning January 1, 2027, the statute adjusts these amounts for inflation for petitions filed on or after the effective date; the reduced amount becomes 75 percent of the adjusted standard amount. DHS publishes the adjusted figures, so rely on the published amount rather than estimates.
• Capital at risk. Capital cannot carry a guaranteed return or a contractual right to repayment, such as a mandatory redemption or a put option held by the investor. The investment is generally expected to remain invested for at least two years.
• New commercial enterprise. A for-profit U.S. business formed for the ongoing conduct of lawful business. An existing business can qualify if it is restructured into a new enterprise or expanded by at least 40 percent in net worth or employees. A personal residence does not qualify.
• Jobs. At least 10 full-time positions (35 hours or more per week) for qualifying U.S. workers. The investor, the investor’s spouse and the investor’s sons and daughters do not count. See the USCIS Policy Manual on EB-5 eligibility.
• Investor participation. The investor must be engaged in the enterprise through day-to-day management or policy formulation. A limited-partner-type interest can satisfy this requirement under 8 C.F.R. § 204.6.
• Lawful funds. The investment, and the funds used to pay administrative costs and fees tied to it, must be obtained from a lawful source and through lawful means.

The investment amount is not the total cost of an EB-5 case. Government filing fees, legal fees, project administrative fees, business-plan and economic-report costs, and consular or travel costs are separate. USCIS finalized a new EB-5 fee schedule in September 2026, so confirm the current fee on each form page before filing.

Standalone investment or regional center: what changes?

Both structures lead to the same green card category, but they differ in who runs the business, how jobs are proved and which filings come first. Neither structure guarantees approval or a return of capital.

Sources: 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5)(B), (E), (F) and (S); USCIS EB-5 Questions and Answers.

For more detail, see our guides to how EB-5 regional centers work and EB-5 job creation requirements.

How do you document the source and path of funds?

You must show where the money came from and how it traveled, step by step, from its lawful origin to the new commercial enterprise. A bank balance alone does not prove a lawful source. USCIS expects records that connect each transfer, including intermediate accounts, currency conversions and the people who moved funds into the United States on your behalf.

Records that commonly matter

• Earnings: employment records, business ownership and financial statements, and personal and business tax returns. The statute calls for tax returns filed during the past seven years, or another period USCIS sets.
• Sales of property or a business: purchase and sale contracts, proof of how the original asset was acquired, and settlement records.
• Gifts and inheritance: a gift or inheritance does not end the inquiry. Gifted funds must be given in good faith, and USCIS may require the donor’s own source-of-funds records.
• Loans: borrowed funds can count in some circumstances, but the loan terms, security and lender matter. If the lender is not a bank, the lender’s records may be required. Debt secured by the new enterprise’s own assets does not qualify.
• Path of funds: bank statements and wire records for every transfer, exchange-control documents where applicable, and escrow or subscription confirmations.
• Legal history: judgments against you and pending civil, criminal or administrative proceedings that could affect the funds.

Consistency matters as much as volume. Names, dates, amounts and account numbers should agree across every document and every later filing, including at the removal-of-conditions stage. See 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5)(L) and the USCIS Policy Manual on EB-5 eligibility.

What can HLG’s immigration representation include?

Richard T. Herman and Ruijie Zhang handle EB-5 representation at HLG. Depending on the written engagement, they can assist with:

1. Eligibility assessment. Whether EB-5 fits your capital, timeline and immigration history, and whether another category may serve you better.
2. Evidence strategy. A source-and-path-of-funds plan tailored to how your money was earned, held and transferred.
3. Petition preparation. Form I-526 or I-526E, with an immigration-side review of the business plan, offering documents and job-creation evidence your advisers provide.
4. Later immigration stages. Adjustment of status or consular processing for you and your family, and Form I-829 to remove conditions.
5. Responses. RFEs, NOIDs and next-step analysis after a denial, when included in the agreed scope.

Business formation, securities, project due diligence, tax planning and litigation are separate services and are not included unless the engagement says so. We confirm the scope in writing before you retain the firm.

How does the EB-5 immigration process work?

EB-5 moves through distinct stages, and approval at one stage does not complete the next.

1. Assessment and evidence. Choose a structure, confirm the investment amount that applies and assemble source-of-funds records.
2. Investment and investor petition. Invest, or be actively in the process of investing, and file Form I-526 or I-526E. For regional center investments, the project’s I-956F must already be filed.
3. Green card application. An investor in the United States may file Form I-485 to adjust status, including at the same time as the petition if approval would make a visa immediately available. Investors abroad complete consular processing through the National Visa Center and a U.S. consulate. Adjustment remains a discretionary benefit; see our overview of USCIS’s 2026 adjustment-of-status memo.
4. Conditional residence. The investor and family receive two-year conditional green cards.
5. Removal of conditions. File Form I-829 during the 90 days before the second anniversary of admission or adjustment as a conditional resident. USCIS reviews the investment and job creation. A late filing is accepted only with good cause and extenuating circumstances; see the I-829 instructions. If USCIS approves, the conditions are removed and each family member receives a 10-year green card. Time spent as a conditional resident generally counts toward the residence required for U.S. citizenship.

A pending I-526 or I-526E does not by itself give work or travel authorization; a pending adjustment application may allow separate applications for those documents. USCIS also controls the order in which it reviews EB-5 cases: the statute directs it to prioritize rural petitions, and it generally decides a regional center’s project application before the related investor petitions; see the USCIS EB-5 Questions and Answers. Check USCIS processing times rather than relying on an advertised timeline.

What should families know about visas, children and timing?

Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 can generally immigrate with you as derivative family members, but each person must be admissible and must complete their own green card stage.

• Children and age. The Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) can protect some children from “aging out,” but filing does not freeze every child’s age. For requests filed on or after August 15, 2025, USCIS uses the Final Action Dates chart to decide when a visa became available for this calculation; see the USCIS Policy Manual on CSPA. A child close to 21 needs an individual calculation.
• Visa availability. EB-5 visas are divided into reserved categories (20 percent rural, 10 percent high unemployment, 2 percent infrastructure) and an unreserved category. Availability can differ by category and by country of birth, and your place in line is generally set by your petition’s filing date, called the priority date. Check the current Visa Bulletin and the USCIS chart for the filing month.
• Country of chargeability. Visa limits usually follow country of birth, not citizenship. In some cases a family can use the country of birth of an accompanying spouse; that analysis is fact-specific.
• Vetting. Nationality-based USCIS processing policies changed repeatedly in 2025 and 2026. Tell us your family’s countries of birth and citizenship so we can review the rules that apply now.

What if a petition or project encounters problems?

Each problem needs its own review, because the available remedy depends on the stage, the notice and when your petition was filed.

• RFE or NOID. Identify the specific eligibility element in question and the response deadline. A strong response addresses the legal issue with evidence, not volume.
• Denial. Options may include an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Office, a motion or a new petition. Explore our USCIS denials and appeals representation.
• Regional center termination or project debarment. Good-faith investors generally have 180 days after USCIS notice to show continued eligibility or amend the petition, for example by the enterprise associating with another approved regional center or by a qualifying new investment. A project failure without termination or debarment does not trigger these protections.
• I-829 denial. Conditional residence ends, but the investor may ask an immigration judge to review the denial in removal proceedings. Act quickly on any notice.
• Project changes. A material change can affect eligibility. Ask for updated offering documents and have the immigration consequences reviewed before you consent to a change.
• Petitions filed before March 15, 2022. These are often governed by earlier rules, including sustaining the investment through the conditional-residence period.

Sources: 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5)(M) and (P); USCIS EB-5 Questions and Answers.

Is EB-5 the right route, or should you compare alternatives?

EB-5 is a permanent-residence strategy. Other investor and business routes solve different problems, and the right answer depends on nationality, capital, business role and family goals. Our investor immigration overview compares them.

• E-2 treaty investor status is temporary and renewable, and requires citizenship of a treaty country and a substantial investment in a business you direct. E-2 does not convert into a green card; moving to EB-5 requires a separate qualifying petition.
• L-1 and EB-1C may suit owners and executives of an established foreign company opening a U.S. office.
• The EB-2 National Interest Waiver may suit founders whose work has national importance, with no investment threshold.
• The Gold Card program (Form I-140G), created by executive order, uses EB-1 and EB-2 visa numbers in exchange for a nonrefundable gift. As of 2026 it is legally untested and faces litigation, and a gift is not an EB-5 investment.

Compare every employment-based category on our work green cards page.

What should you prepare for an EB-5 consultation?

You do not need a finished file. Bring what you have, and the consultation will identify what is missing. Gather, where available:

• Passport and identity information, nationality and country of birth, current immigration status, I-94 record and any prior immigration filings or decisions.
• Your spouse’s and children’s information, including children’s dates of birth, and your family’s intended timing.
• The proposed business or project: business plan, offering or subscription documents, and any regional center or project identifiers.
• A summary of available capital and where it came from, with tax returns, business or employment records, sale documents, gift or inheritance documents, or loan records as relevant.
• Bank statements and transfer records tracing the funds, including intermediary accounts and currency conversions.
• Any receipts, petitions, RFEs, NOIDs or decisions, and any deadline.

The exact document request depends on your facts. Ask the firm how to transmit financial records securely before sending them. The consultation assesses EB-5 eligibility, the structure you are considering, gaps in your funding evidence, family and timing issues, and alternatives. It is not investment advice or financial due diligence on a project.

Consultation fees

HLG lists a one-hour initial consultation at $200 and a separate one-hour document review at $500. Check the booking page for current services, prices and cancellation terms. Representation fees, government filing fees, project fees and other professionals’ charges are separate and are set out in writing.

EB-5 questions clients commonly ask

How much does EB-5 require, and what other costs are separate?

For petitions filed before the January 1, 2027 inflation adjustment, the minimum investment is $1,050,000, or $800,000 in a targeted employment area or qualifying infrastructure project. Filing fees, legal fees, project administrative fees and business-plan or economic-report costs are separate, and funds used for fees must also come from a lawful source.

What is the difference between a standalone and a regional center investment?

A standalone investor files Form I-526 and usually runs a business that must directly employ at least 10 qualifying workers. A regional center investor files Form I-526E, invests in a project whose Form I-956F has been filed, and may count indirect jobs within statutory limits.

Can gifts, inherited money or loans be used for EB-5?

Often, yes, if documented. Gifted and borrowed funds must be given or loaned in good faith, and USCIS may require the donor’s or non-bank lender’s own financial records. Debt secured by the new enterprise’s own assets does not count.

Can I file for adjustment of status while my EB-5 petition is pending?

Yes, if you are eligible to adjust status in the United States and approval of your petition would make a visa immediately available to you. Concurrent filing depends on visa availability for your category and country of chargeability.

Can my spouse and children immigrate with me?

Generally, yes. Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 can qualify as derivatives. Each must be admissible, and a child near 21 needs an individual Child Status Protection Act analysis.

Does EB-5 approval guarantee that I will recover my investment?

No. Capital must be at risk, and a guaranteed return or contractual repayment right disqualifies it. USCIS approval of a petition or project is not an endorsement of the investment. See the SEC and USCIS investor alert.

What happens if I receive an RFE or my project changes?

An RFE sets a deadline to supply specific evidence. A project change may or may not be material. If a regional center is terminated or a project entity is debarred, good-faith investors generally have 180 days after USCIS notice to respond. Have counsel review the notice promptly.

Is the EB-5 program going away?

No. The EB-5 category is permanent law. The regional center program is authorized through September 30, 2027 and depends on Congress to continue; regional center petitions filed on or before September 30, 2026 keep statutory protection if it lapses. Standalone investments do not depend on that authorization.