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Questions and Answers > EB-5 Investments

How many EB-5 investors can a non-regional center business have?

If a smaller business doesn't want to go through the regional center application process, can it still solicit and receive funds from EB-5 immigrant investors? Is there a limit on the number of EB-5 investors a direct business can have?

Answers

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    Julia Roussinova

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    There is no limitation on the number of EB-5 investors for direct investment. However, you need to ensure at least 10 full-time jobs (at least 35 hours a week) are created per each EB-5 investor.

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    Yazen Abdin

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    A EB-5 non-regional center business can accept EB-5 funds. There is no limit on the number of investors that can be accepted. However, the non-regional center business would still need to meet the 10 jobs per investor requirement.

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    John J Downey

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    There is no limit per se. The non-regional center number of investors will be determined by how many direct jobs the venture will generate. You need 10 jobs per investor.

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    Xiaosheng Huang

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    There is no limit regarding the EB-5 investors. You can do the direct EB-5 investment that one investor shall invest at least $1 million.

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    Bernard P Wolfsdorf

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    No limit. Just create 10 jobs per investor.

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    Salvatore Picataggio

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    Pooled direct investments are acceptable, as long as there is sufficient direct job creation for the amount of investors. If the project can only support 20 direct jobs, you cannot have more than two investors.

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    Charles Foster

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    Yes, a small business may still solicit and receive funds from EB-5 immigrant investors. This is called a direct EB-5 investment. There is no limit per se, but for every investor there must be 10 new jobs created for U.S. workers for a 2+ year period of time. Depending upon a variety of factors, it could be much longer that those positions would have to be maintained.

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    BoBi Ahn

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    As long as each investor's minimum invested funds ($500,000 for a TEA or $1 million for a non-TEA) are invested by EACH investor AND each investor generates/creates at least 10 full-time jobs EACH, then yes, it is doable; however, in most cases small businesses cannot maintain such a high number of full-time employees, which is the reason for most investors turning to regional center projects since indirect job creation is counted towards the minimum number of jobs created, and such large projects can create a large volume of jobs, etc.

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    Steffanie J Lewis

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    A direct, non-regional center business can have as many investors as it can support. Support is determined by the number of full-time positions that can be created. For example, if the small business can create 20 full-time positions, it can support two investors because each investor must create 10 full-time positions in the business. Yes, a direct EB-5 project can solicit and receive funds from EB-5 investors. However, be very careful that, as the issuer, you do not act like a broker in violation of SEC regulations. If you choose to do so, please engage an attorney knowledgeable in SEC regulations.

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    Stephen Berman

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    There is no rule that limits the number of investors.

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    Matthew T Galati

    Immigration Attorney
    Answered on

    Yes. This is commonly known as a "pooled direct." There is no USCIS-imposed limit on the number of investors independent from the universal requirement that each EB-5 investor must create 10 full-time jobs for qualifying workers.