Questions and Answers > EB-5 Requirements

How many jobs will my business have to create?

I am a U.S. citizen with a manufacturing facility in the United States and I would like to expand operations. I am exploring the possibility of attracting EB-5 investors. How many jobs will the business have to create? What is an EB-5 job buffer?

Answers

• Salvatore Picataggio

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on July 26, 2017

  10 per investor. If you are affiliated with a regional center, you can count jobs indirectly. If you want to be successful in the EB-5 market, at least 12 jobs per investor is a good start.

• Charles Foster

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on January 6, 2017

  For every investor you have to show that you have created at least 10 jobs for U.S. workers, i.e. U.S. citizens or U.S. lawful permanent residents. If your business was created prior to Nov. 29, 1990, you would also have to show that the number of jobs created resulted in a 140 percent increase in your work force.

• Bernard P Wolfsdorf

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on December 12, 2016

  Expanding a business is very difficult because they want a new business, not an expanded business. A minimum is 10 full-time jobs, but if you launch a new business though a regional center, then you can even count indirect jobs. The cushion is the number over 10. Usually 20-30 percent.

• Irina Rostova

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on December 9, 2016

  You need to create 10 new, full-time jobs per each investor. It is recommended to have a "buffer," meaning to create more jobs by 20-30 percent just in case USCIS does not count some of the jobs.

• Jimena G Cabrera

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on December 9, 2016

  Your business must create 10 full-time jobs per investor. A job buffer is a number of extra job positions the investment will create on top of the required 10 full-time jobs.

• BoBi Ahn

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on December 9, 2016

  For EACH EB-5 investor, at least 10 full time jobs must be created. The job buffer is a cushion created by creating/plans to create more jobs than the requisite minimum of 10 per investor. Projects in some cases have a buffer to reassure the investors of EB-5 compliance, etc.

• Phuong Le

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on December 9, 2016

  The back of the envelope figure you are looking at is 10 jobs per investor (with each investor providing $500,000 to $1 million). As for a job buffer, that is recommended as both a best practice and for marketability reasons. Practically speaking, you are probably going to need at least a 20 percent job buffer (if not more).

• Fredrick W Voigtmann

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on December 9, 2016

  The new commercial enterprise (NCE), which must have been formed after Nov. 1990, must create at least 10 full-time positions per EB-5 investor. A "job buffer" is a term to describe how many more jobs the NCE will create than are actually needed by the EB-5 investors. Think of it as a "cushion" or safety net for the EB-5 investors, one or more of whom will lose out if the minimum number of jobs is not reached. For example, if you have five EB-5 investors, then the NCE will need to create at least 50 full-time jobs within the conditional period. If the NCE is projected to create 60 full-time jobs, then that would represent a 20 percent job buffer.

• Vaughan de Kirby

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on December 9, 2016

  The requirement is the creation of 10 permanent jobs for each qualified investment. There are excellent attorneys that specialize in this area - I would recommend you consult with them in your planning.

• Jinhee Wilde

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on December 9, 2016

  The minimum jobs that a business must create is 10 full-time, permanent jobs for every EB-5 investor that you receive. Because the projection done by a business to attract the potential investors is usually more optimistic than realized, the buffer should be at least 25 percent or more. In other words, if the projected job creation is 100, then you should consider getting seven or eight EB-5 investors only just in case you only end up creating 70 or 80 at the end.

• Yazen Abdin

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on December 9, 2016

  The requirement is that each investor produce 10 jobs. When the investor invests with a regional center project (as opposed to a direct project), indirect jobs (ex. construction) can be counted. In regards to your "job buffer" question, I presume you are referring to the fact that some projects will create more than 10 jobs per investor as a buffer; after all, the goal for investors is to get an UNconditional green card. Since one of the requirements for investors to be able to remove the conditions on their green card is to create at least 10 jobs, projects will use the extra jobs created as a buffer to encourage investors to invest with them.

• Stephen Berman

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on December 9, 2016

  10 new jobs per investor.

• Lynne Feldman

  Immigration Attorney

  Answered on December 9, 2016

  10 jobs per qualified investor within about three years from investment.