IN THIS GUIDE · Assembling a source and path of funds record from many accounts
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Two questions: origin and route
The record must show that the capital was lawfully obtained and must trace its movement from that origin into the commercial enterprise. Bank statements showing a balance answer neither question fully. Take each component separately — employment income, sale proceeds, dividends, loan advances — and follow it forward through every account, conversion and intermediary until it reaches the investment. Gaps in the middle are as significant as an unexplained origin.
Size the record to the amount required
As reviewed on 7 September 2026, the qualifying capital is US$1,050,000, or US$800,000 where the investment qualifies as a targeted employment area or infrastructure investment. Confirm which figure applies before deciding how many funding components must be traced, because a shortfall means documenting an additional source late in the process. Statutory adjustments begin in 2027, so recheck the figure if filing moves into a later year.
Write the narrative before you file
Draft a plain chronological statement in which every assertion cites a specific exhibit. Where a record is missing because a bank purges statements or an employer has closed, say so and explain what secondary evidence stands in its place. Resolve contradictions between tax filings, transfer references and family recollection rather than leaving a reviewer to reconcile them. An unexplained deposit does not become acceptable merely because it is old.
Keep the record alive after filing
The funding evidence does not stop mattering once the petition is filed. Questions can arise at the immigrant visa interview or on an adjustment application, and the file must still be retrievable then. Keep originals, translations and the exhibit index together, with a note of who prepared each translation. The same discipline helps at the conditional residence stage, when evidence about the investment and jobs is assembled again.
Prefer a story that can be told in a paragraph
The funding record is judged on whether it can be followed, not on how much of it there is, and that has a practical consequence for how the sources are chosen. Two things must be shown: that the capital came from a lawful source, and the path it took to reach the enterprise. Every additional source multiplies both, and every intermediate hop — another account, another jurisdiction, a currency conversion, a transfer through a family member — adds a step that has to be explained and evidenced on its own. So the selection is not simply about which records exist today. A source with excellent documentation but four movements behind it can be harder to present than a plainer one held in a single place for a decade. Where the investor holds more than the required amount, that surplus is an opportunity to simplify rather than a reason to include everything. Decide the combination before any money moves, because once funds are mixed in the enterprise the tracing burden is fixed and no later tidiness can unmix them. Hypothetical example: an investor considering a performing-arts venue project can fund the capital from a long-held deposit account or from a combination involving a business sale, an inheritance and two overseas transfers, and chooses the shorter story even though the longer one is entirely legitimate.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.