United States EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program
- Processing time
- 24–48 months
- Physical presence
- A green card is a residence you must actually keep: extended absences can be treated as abandonment. Conditions are removed after two years, and naturalisation becomes possible after five years of permanent residence, with substantial physical presence.
- Family
- One investment covers the investor, a spouse and unmarried children under 21.
Investment routes
Business investment
From $800 000
- Capital
- Refundable
An 800,000 USD investment in a new commercial enterprise located in a targeted employment area (a rural area or one of high unemployment) or a qualifying infrastructure project, which must create at least ten full-time US jobs. The capital is at genuine risk — the jobs must materialise — and is only returned, if at all, once the project runs its course.
Business investment
From $1 050 000
- Capital
- Refundable
The standard threshold of 1,050,000 USD applies to any project that does not qualify as a targeted employment area or infrastructure project. The same ten-job and at-risk rules apply.
Limits and drawbacks
- A green card makes you a US tax resident on your worldwide income — the heaviest and most far-reaching tax net on this list — and leaving later can trigger an expatriation “exit tax”. This is the single biggest thing to plan for.
- The capital is genuinely at risk: the project must create at least ten jobs, and your money is not a deposit. Choosing the project and regional centre well is everything.
- Timelines are long — commonly two to four years — and far longer for nationals of backlogged countries such as China and India.
- It demands real US residence; you cannot treat the green card as a flag to collect and ignore without risking its loss.