IN THIS GUIDE · Keeping several investors' cases separable inside one enterprise
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Ten jobs each, not ten between them
Every investor must be creditable with at least ten qualifying full-time positions. Where several people invest in one enterprise, the total employment required rises with the number of investors, and the methodology must show which positions are attributed to whom. Ask how the enterprise avoids counting the same job twice, and what happens to the last investor in the queue if hiring falls short of the projection. Ask for the attribution methodology in writing and read who is at the end of the queue, since that position carries the real exposure if hiring runs behind the projection. Where the answer depends on the order in which capital was received, the group's own agreement should record that order and the date of each contribution rather than leaving it to be reconstructed later.
Structure decides how jobs may be counted
The methods available for counting employment differ with the arrangement chosen. A standalone Form I-526 case and a regional center case supported by Form I-526E do not rest on the same job-counting rules, and a regional center's designation is a status conferred on the center, not a guarantee about any investment or its outcome. Confirm which structure the group is entering before modelling how ten positions per investor arise. Establish also whether the enterprise receiving the capital is the same entity that will employ the workers, because that is frequently not the case and the distinction affects how employment may be attributed. Ask which entity holds the payroll, which holds the assets, and what agreement binds them, and obtain those documents rather than a description of them.
One family's money, three separate stories
Relatives often fund each other, and that is where group filings become difficult. Each investor must document the lawful source of the capital credited to them, including any gift or loan from within the family, with the giver's own earnings or asset sales evidenced. Pooled accounts blur the trail. Open separate records early, keep transfers traceable to named individuals, and avoid moving money between participants once contributions have been fixed. Where a transfer between relatives has already happened, do not attempt to unwind it quietly. Document what occurred, when, and why, and put it to counsel with the underlying records. A transaction that is explained on the face of the file is an ordinary feature of family finance; the same transaction discovered in a bank statement without explanation is a question that spreads to every participant.
Agree now what happens if one case fails
Petitions filed together are not decided together. One may be approved while another is refused or delayed, and the group's commercial agreement should say what follows: whether the remaining investors carry the shortfall, whether the enterprise can proceed, and how an unsuccessful participant's interest is treated. Settling this in the documents is easier than negotiating it among relatives after a decision has already changed the position. Include in that agreement how information will be shared, since a difficulty in one case often becomes visible to the others only when it is too late to respond. A short standing arrangement, that each participant tells the group when a notice is received, costs nothing and prevents the situation where two relatives are making commercial decisions on facts the third already knows are wrong.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.