Invest in anew chapter.

Which document decides it: the loan agreement and its security

USCIS evaluates lawfully obtained loan proceeds contributed to the new commercial enterprise as cash, not as the investor’s contribution of indebtedness. The agency’s controlling 2021 guidance removed the former requirements that the investor be personally and primarily liable and that the loan be secured by the investor’s own assets. A mortgage on her rental property can still provide a clear lawful source and path: include the loan agreement, registered mortgage, draw statement and transfers into the enterprise, together with evidence that the borrowing and use of proceeds were lawful. The petition must then show that her cash contribution is at risk in the enterprise. A loan made to the enterprise itself is not automatically the investor’s own capital contribution.

Trace the share-sale proceeds through the transaction

The sale of 60% of the agency is a lawful source, but the file must show how she came to own the shares, that the buyer’s payment was received, and how the money reached the U.S. enterprise. Include the incorporation records and share register from the agency’s founding, tax returns showing the agency’s income over the years, the share purchase agreement with its price and payment terms, the bank statement receiving the funds, and any tax paid on the gain. If the buyer pays in instalments, only the instalments received before filing are capital; the balance is not.

Count the ten jobs on a direct payroll

For a direct EB-5 investment outside a regional center, the enterprise must create at least ten full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers, each of at least thirty-five hours per week, on the enterprise’s own payroll. Indirect and induced jobs modelled by economists are available only to regional-center investors. A language-services company must therefore hire ten translators, project managers or administrators as employees, not contractors, within the period required, and the business plan must show how. Positions held by the investor, her spouse or children do not count. The standard investment figure applies unless the location is a qualifying targeted employment area.

Sequence the sale, the loan and the petition

The investor petition must show capital already invested or actively in the process of being invested, so the share sale must close, the loan must be drawn and the funds must be transferred to the U.S. enterprise or committed under binding terms before filing. The threshold is US$1,050,000, or US$800,000 in a targeted employment area or infrastructure project, and the statute schedules an adjustment from January 1, 2027, so a petition filed near that date must use the figure in force on the filing date. She must be engaged in management or policy formulation, which running the company satisfies. Residence, once granted, is conditional for two years; Form I-829 is filed in the final ninety days.

The business plan should connect each projected hire to a function, wage, worksite, and financing source rather than listing ten titles at the end. If revenue assumptions cannot support the payroll, the job projection is vulnerable. She should preserve invoices, bank records, payroll files, and tax records from the outset because those later records are what test whether the capital stayed at risk and the employment result occurred.