IN THIS GUIDE · The gift deed is not the deciding document; the donor's records are
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
The gift deed proves the transfer, not the source
A written, irrevocable gift deed from the parents to the investor is necessary: it names the amount, states that nothing is owed in return, and is signed and dated. It is not sufficient. USCIS looks through the gift to ask how the parents obtained the money, so the parents must be willing to provide the same kind of evidence an investor would provide for their own funds. If the parents are unwilling to share their financial history, the gift cannot be used, and that should be discovered before any petition planning.
Which of the parents' records decide it
For the sale of a farm, the deciding records are the deed of sale and the notary's statement of adjustments, the registered title history showing how and when the parents acquired the land, the marketing board's records for any quota sold, and the parents' income tax returns for the years around the sale showing the disposition and the farm income before it. If the sale proceeds were held for a time, bank statements bridge the gap. Where the farm was held by a family corporation, add the corporate records showing the shareholders and the distribution of proceeds to the parents personally before the gift.
Apply the capital, job and engagement conditions to the chosen investment
The current threshold under the 2022 reform is US$1,050,000, or US$800,000 in a targeted employment area or an infrastructure project; verify the figures when filing. The enterprise must create at least ten full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers, counted directly or through the methodology a regional center project is permitted to use. The investor must be engaged in management or policy formulation; a limited-partner role can satisfy that requirement when it carries the policy-formulation rights normally granted under the applicable limited-partnership law. She, not her parents, is the petitioner, so the capital must be hers when invested, which the gift deed and the bank records establish.
Plan the two-year period and the family list
After petition approval, visa availability and either admission on the immigrant visa or adjustment of status confer conditional permanent residence for two years. Form I-829 is then filed in the ninety days before the second anniversary to show the investment was sustained and the jobs created. Her spouse and unmarried children under twenty-one are derivatives; her parents are not, and their gift creates no immigration right for them. Any child near twenty-one should be assessed under the child-status protection rules before filing. Canadian tax advice on the gift and the disposition belongs to the family's planning and should be obtained separately.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.