EB-5 Q&A: How to calculate jobs in a standard EB-5 investment

Question: What are the employment restrictions for an EB-5 investor in a direct business? Question Detail: Can an EB-5 investor be employed for compensation at the business in which they invest? If this is possible, are there salary restrictions? Will this employment affect job creation requirements? Answer: An investor may be employed by the business enterprise in which he or she invested, but neither the jobs held by the investor nor family members may be included when proving the 10 full-time position created by the investment. Each EB5 investment, $1,000,000 or $500,000 if the investment is in a targeted employment area (“TEA” - targeted because there is high unemployment in the area) must create 10 full-time jobs. Prior to the second anniversary of the investor’s having entered the United States as a conditional U.S. lawful permanent resident, the investor must file with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service to remove the condition. In that application, the investor must show that his or her EB5 investment created 10 full-time jobs. This may be shown, for example, by attaching the w-2 or I-9 forms from ten full-time employees. Neither the investor nor any family member may be included as an employee for the purpose of meeting the ten- employee requirement. Otherwise, and depending upon the organizational structure of the business enterprise, certain state and federal employment reports and requirements apply equally to the investor as to other employees. There is no legal or regulatory salary restriction except that the enterprise must have sufficient revenue to create 10 full-time jobs in additional to those held by the investor and family.