Reserve for capital gains tax on the sale, advisory and brokerage fees, legal fees for the petition, translations, medical examinations and consular or filing charges for each family member, plus living costs during processing. Government fees change, so confirm current amounts near the filing date instead of budgeting from an older figure.
Budget as though the capital is gone
EB-5 capital must be at risk, so household planning should not assume it comes back on any particular date or at all. Set the investment aside from savings meant for school fees, housing, or income during the first years in the United States. Ask any adviser to itemise the scope of their quote — petition, responses to requests for evidence, consular or adjustment work, and later removal of conditions are often priced separately.
Add one further reserve to that budget: the cost of the last stage, years out. The petition to remove conditions has its own government charge, its own evidence assembly, and often its own professional fee, and it falls due long after the sale proceeds have been allocated and any relationship with a sponsor has cooled. Ask for an indication of that cost now and set the money aside with the rest, since it is the stage on which the outcome actually turns and the one most likely to arrive when funds are least available.
Hypothetical example: a household allocates the investment, the professional fees and the family's living costs from sale proceeds, and adds a fourth line for the later filing, which is the only one of the four that nobody had mentioned in the original planning conversation.