How can a company also hire its EB-5 investors?

Once an EB-5 investor is a permanent resident, he or she can be employed by any U.S. company. If the EB-5 project hires them, that position cannot count towards the required job creation.

Yes. However, hired EB-5 investors will not count toward the requisite 10 job creation.

You can hire the EB-5 investors once they have received their conditional lawful permanent residence, if you petition for them for a nonimmigrant working visa (H-1B for example), or if they already have employment authorization (F-1 OPT, for example). Keep in mind, however, that the hiring of an EB-5 investor, spouse, or child does not count toward meeting the job creation requirement (10 full-time positions per investor).

As long as the individual EB-5 investor meets all the requirements of an EB-5 investor, there is no prohibition from hiring the immigrant investor, provided of course, the individual has already immigrated to the United States either through the EB-5 program or otherwise is eligible for work authorization either Optional Practical Training (OPT) for 1-3 years upon graduation from a U.S. university, or eligible for an appropriate long-term work visa, for example under the H-1B classification or, depending on his or her nationality, under the E-2 Treaty Investor classification or otherwise.

Not until they get their green cards or other working visas.

Anyone can be hired, but the investors cannot make up a part of the employment requirements.

Not until they get conditional green cards and that could take a few years. If qualified, they can apply for limited H-1B visas, but that category is oversubscribed and now has a lottery to select "winners."

EB-5 investors are allowed to work for their projects. However, the big caveat is that EB-5 investors do not count towards the 10 full-time jobs requirement. Thus, assuming your company hires your EB-5 investor, you would still need to create an additional 10 full-time employment positions for that investor to qualify under the EB-5 program.

There is no prohibition to having the immigrant investors take employment with the job creating entity or project. As long as the immigrant investors that will fill those employment positions are in the United States by legal visa means and their visa permits them to work here legally either because their I-526 petition was approved and they have immigrated here or are here under another visa program that permits the immigrant investor to work. The requirement under the EB-5 program is that the jobs are located in the United States, but there is no requirement as to who fills those jobs. I hope this information is helpful.

Yes, EB-5 investors could be hired by the company in which they invest. However, for the purpose of counting the job creation, they cannot be counted. The rule requires that you create 10+ full time and permanent jobs for every EB-5 investor. For example, if your business with three EB-5 investors has hired 32 people, which includes three EB-5 investors, that means for the purpose of reporting job creation, you have only created 29 jobs - which means the EB-5 investors may have problems removing conditions because you have not created a sufficient number of jobs for three EB-5 investors. Therefore, it is perfectly fine for you to hire the EB-5 investors with the credentials you want, but do not include them in the job creation projections.