How much documentation is required for EB-5 source of funds for gifts?

It depends but, generally, a significant amount of documents may be required. Working with experienced EB-5 immigration lawyers will help you get all of the required documentation together for an approvable I-526 Petition.

Generally, you would need to obtain a declaration from this friend about the gift of funds and his source of funds for the gift.

The general rule is that all sources of fund must be documented and proven to be legal, including but not limited to, gift(s). Efforts should be made to document all funds, otherwise the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may consider an EB-5 petition unapprovable. If satisfactory efforts are made to prove the source(s) of the fund, USCIS may approve the petition; however, based on your fact pattern, a refusal or failure to do a thorough documentation will doom the petition. Consult an EB-5 attorney for guidance on how such documentation efforts can be accomplished.

They certainly want to know where parents got the money, and if much of it was gifted to them, that has to be explained. While they never used to go back this far, we are seeing requests going back this far. At least the giftor would have to be ready to provide a declaration as to where they got the gifted funds.

Traditionally, the tracing of funds do not go back more than 10 years. However, in one situation I did hear that USCIS asked for 12 years back. But I think that is an unusual situation. There must have been other factors to cast suspicion on the officer adjudicating the case.

The EB-5 investor only needs to trace the source of the capital that was used for the EB-5 investment. So, unless part of the minimum capital (i.e. either $500,000 for a TEA or $1 million) that was used to invest for the EB-5 processing originated from the gift 12 years ago, I am not sure how relevant it is to trace it that far. In the alternative, the parents can just obtain a Gift Instrument executed by the friend that he gifted the money to the parents - no further documenting needed.

Generally speaking, the source of the gift from the parents should be fully documented to the extent possible. All your friend can do is provide whatever possible documents and explanations there are, using secondary evidence - even an affidavit, if necessary. In our experience, USCIS is reasonable on these matters.

All source of funds must be documented and that tranche from your parents' friend will be no exception. If anything, USCIS has become much more thorough in checking source of funds and so where your parents got their funds and from whom must be thoroughly explained. Treat the source of funds as follows: when, where and how did the funds first time become funds.