The arithmetic alone is insufficient. Review whether the jobs qualify under the permitted methodology, whether assumptions are supported and how jobs are allocated to the investors. The general ten-job requirement must be established for each investor, not inferred from a headline.
Ask what the total includes
Identify the analysis, dates, inputs and allocation terms. Do not assume every reported worker or economic effect can be counted. Direct and regional-centre job rules differ, so the project must use the framework applicable to its actual structure.
A first review should identify the capital source, the new commercial enterprise, the applicable job methodology, and the investor’s management or policy rights. Read the subscription or operating agreement beside the economic or payroll evidence. EB-5 capital must remain exposed to business risk, and the case must support ten qualifying full-time positions; residence is conditional before the I-829 process. Hypothetical example: An engineered-wood panel project allocates its projected jobs to later investors without showing the allocation method. The investor should ask which report and agreement govern this filing rather than rely on the project’s aggregate jobs. A promising market forecast cannot replace a lawful source trail or a documented job analysis.
Ask whether the relevant agreements give the investor the stated rights and whether the job evidence uses the methodology permitted for this project structure.
Recalculate from the investor-level evidence, not the project headline. Confirm which jobs the economic analysis may count, when they are expected, how allocation priority works and whether any jobs were promised to earlier investors. EB-5 requires at least ten full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers per investor. Capital must reach US$1,050,000 in an ordinary project. The lower US$800,000 threshold applies when the investment qualifies through a targeted employment area or infrastructure project, with lawful source and path documented. Regional-center investors use Form I-526E; direct investors use Form I-526. Form I-829 must be filed within the 90-day period immediately before the second anniversary of obtaining conditional residence to remove conditions. Dividing 400 by ten without testing methodology and allocation is the common mistake.
Hypothetical example: A Saguenay robotics-company owner reviews a manufacturing-development offering that forecasts 400 jobs and seeks forty investors. She asks for the current economic report, construction inputs, investor roster and allocation clause, then checks whether amendments change the calculation. Her funds are traced separately from the job model. The arithmetic may be promising, but it cannot establish that every position qualifies or that her interest receives ten unallocated jobs.