What are the job requirements for direct EB-5 investments?

You need to create 10 positions from the investment. Retained jobs may be ok if it were a troubled business.

10 new jobs to be created, but not immediately.

It is very difficult to use EB-5 funds to buy an existing business. The government wants to see new jobs created, so unless this is a troubled business where you are saving 10 jobs, or there will be at least 10 new jobs created and the 40 percent rule satisfied, this will not work. The 40 percent increase is either in the net worth or in the number of employees, so that the new net worth—or number of employees—amounts to at least 140 percent of the pre-expansion net worth or number of employees.

Existing jobs cannot be counted toward meeting the requirement to create 10 NEW fulltime positions. The only way existing jobs might be of value is if you invested in a "troubled business," which has a specific definition under the EB-5 laws/regulations.

The only time 10 new positions do not have to be created is with distressed businesses. Existing businesses (as defined in the EB-5 regulations) may also be subject to additional requirements of net increases.