IN THIS GUIDE · Read a regional-centre offering the way an adjudicator will before liquidating rental properties for EB-5
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Capital, jobs, participation and residence
As checked on September 7, 2026, the standard EB-5 investment is US$1,050,000, or US$800,000 for a project in a targeted employment area or a qualifying infrastructure project, with statutory inflation adjustments beginning January 1, 2027. The capital must be lawfully obtained, placed at risk and, under the 2022 reform law, sustained for at least two years. It must create at least ten full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers; regional-centre projects may count indirect jobs under an approved economic model. The investor must engage in management or policy formulation, which for a limited partner can be satisfied through the rights the partnership agreement confers. Approval leads to a two-year conditional permanent residence, with Form I-829 filed in the 90 days before the second anniversary to remove conditions. A spouse and unmarried children under 21 may immigrate as derivatives.
What to ask about the offering before signing
Ask how many investors the project is raising from and how many jobs the economic report projects, then divide; the project must have jobs to allocate to this investor after earlier investors are counted. Ask whether the targeted-employment-area designation was made under the 2022 rules, which are stricter than the old state letters, and when it expires. Ask what happens to the investor's capital if the project's construction jobs are all created before her petition is adjudicated. Ask for the regional centre's most recent USCIS designation status and whether it has had any compliance action. The offering memorandum answers some of this; a written response from the sponsor should answer the rest.
Fifteen years of rental history as source of funds
Sale proceeds are only the last step. The review traces how each property was acquired, how the down payments were funded, how the mortgages were serviced, and how rental income was declared. Purchase agreements, mortgage statements, land-title records, tax returns showing rental income and the engineer's employment income over the period are the core. Where the down payment on the first house came from a gift or an earlier sale, that source needs its own documents. Mortgage discharge statements at closing show the net proceeds. Savings used to top up the investment need statements showing accumulation from declared income. Start assembling this before listing the properties, because the slowest records are usually the oldest.
The years in between
Filing Form I-526 or I-526E does not give the family any status in the United States. Canadians can continue to visit as visitors, but cannot work or live there on the strength of a pending investor petition. Once the petition is approved and a visa number is available, the family completes consular processing and enters as conditional permanent residents. The engineer can keep her Saskatchewan job throughout, and should plan to, since the investment itself does not provide an income. Children's ages are protected by the Child Status Protection Act from the I-526 or I-526E filing date for as long as the petition is pending, so filing before a child turns 21 matters.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.