What are the steps for a business entity to receive EB-5 funding?

The first step is to retain an experienced EB-5 immigration attorney to coordinate the team of professionals in order to prepare the required compliant EB-5 documentation. In addition, there will be necessary information to be inserted in the EB-5 documentation to make it marketable to potential investors.

Congratulations on your progress so far. Now is the time to retain an experienced EB-5 attorney.

The next step would be to find an interested investor.

You need to be working with someone who can put the whole thing together. You need a quarterback or general manager. Often a lawyer or regional center, as you are missing several key ingredients.

If you plan on directly creating the required number of jobs (without the need to count indirect or induced job creation), your next step is to retain a securities lawyer and generate a set of offering documents. Offering documents include securities documents, such as a Private Placement Memorandum and corporate governance documents, like a Limited Liability Company Operating Agreement (if that is your business structure). Your investors will need to review and/or sign your offering documents. A securities lawyer who handles EB-5 offerings will know what you need. Then you need to engage an agent or consultant to assist you with finding investors. A securities or immigration lawyer who practices in EB-5 should be able to make introductions for you. If you need to count indirect or induced job creation in order to raise the required amount of funds, you will need an EB-5 economist to generate an economic analysis that sets forth the number of direct, indirect, and induced jobs your project will create. (Recall that you must create 10 jobs for every $500,000 an EB-5 investor will provide.) You will also need offering documents. Finally, you need a regional center to sponsor your project. An EB-5 practitioner should be able to introduce you to reputable regional centers with a track record. If you are going to need a regional center, it is best to reach out now to make sure you find a sponsoring center before you pay a lawyer to generate documents. Good luck!

You need to find investors. You could advertise online or seek out agents in foreign countries to promote your product. You could find immigration attorneys in the EB-5 area and let them know about your project.

Arrange a consultation and retain U.S. immigration counsel with experience with the EB-5 program, as this is an immigration program and the entity must comply with the USCIS rules and regulations. The immigration attorney will review your business plan for compliance, and lead other professionals to create the required documentation. Immigration attorneys cannot actually "sell" your project to the EB-5 investor market or any particular EB-5 investor, so please keep that in mind when putting together your team of professionals.