IN THIS GUIDE · Capital raised from a land sale and a loan secured on the investor's remaining property
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
What counts as capital, and when borrowed money qualifies
Cash loan proceeds may count as capital; they are not disqualified merely because the loan is unsecured or is not secured by assets the investor owns. Under the current statute, borrowed funds must be loaned to the investor in good faith, must not be used to circumvent restrictions on permissible sources of capital, and must be documented through their lawful source and path; when the lender is not a bank, the petition must also include the lender's required source records. A mortgage over Gordon's retained land can therefore be used, but the collateral and personal-liability features are not what make the cash proceeds qualifying capital. The invested cash must be owned and controlled by Gordon, be placed at risk for generating a return, and carry no prohibited guaranteed return or repayment right from the new commercial enterprise.
Source and path have to be shown for every dollar
The lawful source of funds is the requirement that consumes the most preparation time in almost every case. For the land sale, that means the chain of ownership, the sale agreement, the statement of adjustments, and the deposit of proceeds into an identified account. For the loan, the mortgage documents, the lender's statement and evidence of the security. For the farming and logging income that paid down the land in the first place, tax filings covering the relevant years. The path matters as much as the source: each transfer between accounts, each currency conversion, and each intermediary must be visible, because an unexplained gap in the trail is treated as a gap in the evidence.
The amount, the jobs and the investor's own role
The qualifying investment is $1,050,000, reduced to $800,000 where the investment is in a targeted employment area or in an infrastructure project, under the 2022 reform legislation; the applicable figures and their adjustment should be re-verified before any commitment. The enterprise must create at least ten full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers. And the investor must be engaged in the management of the enterprise, through day-to-day managerial control or policy formulation — a limited partner's rights in a properly structured partnership can satisfy this, but pure passivity does not. These are cumulative requirements, and satisfying the money question does not soften any of them.
Two stages, two years apart
An approved investor and eligible family members receive permanent residence on a conditional basis for two years. Removing those conditions requires a further filing, Form I-829, supported by evidence that the investment was sustained and that the required jobs were created or, where permitted, will be created within a reasonable time. This is why the choice of project matters as much as the choice of route: an enterprise that does not create the jobs leaves the family exposed at the second stage, years after the money moved. Derivative status is limited to a spouse and unmarried children under twenty-one, and a child's age is a planning constraint from the first day.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.