What are the EB-5 investment requirements in terms of partial payments and partnerships?

The EB-5 investment has to be invested in the new commercial enterprise with the full required total amount invested (either $500,000 or $1 million) before the filing of the I-526 petition.

Two or more investors are allowed to invest into a single EB-5 entity; however, each is required to invest the full required minimum amount - $500,000 in TEA investments and $1 million in non-TEA investments. By pooling the funds, you may not reduce your required minimum investment amount. You may use any combination of legal source of funds for EB-5 investment - business income, sale of assets, a loan secured by your personal assets (may not be a loan from an EB-5 entity in which you plan to invest). You should be invested or in the process of investing at the time of filing of I-526. This means funds should be documented as committed for investment. Best practice is to have invested the full amount or funds be in an escrow account at the time of filing of I-526.

The investment amount is $1 million per family and is reduced to $500 000 per family if the investment is in a regional center, rural area or high unemployment area. You can get a loan from a foreign bank as long as it is executed by assets of the investor.

Two or more people could form a partnership and invest into a business. Each EB-5 investor must invest $1 million unless the business is in a rural area with less than 20,000 population or in a Targeted Employment Area of 150 percent or more of unemployment, in which you may invest $500,000. Your investment funds could be any combination of savings, liquidated assets or loan funds as long as that loan is not from the business in which you are basing the EB-5 application and that you are obligated to pay. You could also pay in installments into the business, but EB-5 case approval depends on whether you have actually committed the funds for investment. Thus, it would be better if the investment has been made fully before you filed the I-526.

EB-5 investments must be personal investment funds. If part of those funds are from an actual, legitimate loan, that may be acceptable (another example would be taking out a second mortgage). Investors must have invested or be in the process of investing at the time of submitting their I-526 petition. In practice, this allows for the use of escrow accounts to hold the personal investment funds while the I-526 is pending, but it is most often the full $500,000 in that escrow account.