I am investing in healthcare-related franchises while looking at them as potential EB-5 projects. The business under consideration is a franchise that provides home care for elders. Although the business will deploy a significant number of employees, most of them are hired on a part time basis. Can these part time jobs be counted towards the EB-5 10-job requirement? How would they be counted?
While different hours can be counted to reach full time employment, generally part time employees cannot be counted. This is not an anomaly and you should consult an EB-5 attorney to ensure your plan complies with relevant EB-5 requirements.
Ten full time positions are required in a direct EB-5 project, such as in a healthcare-related franchise project. The part time jobs may be added and counted toward the 10 full time positions, if some of the part time jobs can be combined as full time positions. However, depending on the nature of the job, some part time jobs may be prohibited from being combined to count as a full time position.
Two employees filling one full time job of at least 35 hours/week is permissible, but you may not count two part time jobs as one full time job.
Part time jobs may be counted, but you need a total of 35 hours to qualify for one job. Two part timers at 17.5 hours per week will suffice for one job.
The new commercial enterprise must create full time employment for at least 10 U.S. workers. Employment is defined in terms of the position, not the person. It is acceptable that two or more qualifying employees share a full time position since it will count as one full time job. But two part time jobs do not count or qualify.
Generally, part time jobs are not counted toward EB-5 job numbers, but some combinations of positions may be counted. You would need to look closely at the job creating entity and estimations.
It must be full time at 35 hours a week. Job sharing may be permissible, but not part time.
