Who does what

Fund administrator

Also called independent fund administrator, third-party fund administrator.

A fund administrator is the independent licensed professional that a new commercial enterprise must retain under 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(Q)(iv) to cosign every separate account holding EB-5 investor capital and to check and countersign each transfer out of it before the money moves, unless the requirement is waived.

What it decides

The administrator must be independent of, and not directly related to, the new commercial enterprise, its regional center, the job creating entity or their principals and managers, and must be licensed, active and in good standing as a certified public accountant, an attorney, or a broker-dealer or investment adviser registered with the SEC, or otherwise meet the Secretary's requirements. It tracks every transfer from a separate account, cosigns all such accounts, verifies before each transfer that it complies with the governing documents and approves it by written or electronic signature, periodically reports account activity to each investor, and keeps the books for five years after the fiscal year of the transactions. Where capital moves to an affiliated job creating entity, that entity must tell the administrator within 30 days that an authorized person verified the money reached the project. Its absence is not by itself a warning sign. DHS must waive it for an enterprise that commissions an annual Generally Accepted Auditing Standards audit and gives it to DHS and every investor, and may waive it for one controlled by an SEC registered adviser or broker-dealer.

Governed by 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(Q)(iv) for the independence test, the four qualifying capacities at (II)(aa) to (dd) and the duties at (III) to (VII); (Q)(iii)(II) for the 30 day notice from an affiliated job-creating entity; (Q)(v)(II) for the mandatory audit waiver and (Q)(v)(I) for the discretionary waiver, which DHS may grant only after consulting the SEC. All added by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022. The separate account requirement at (Q)(i) is a separate duty and is not waivable.

Where this is explained properly

Pages here that go into fund administrator rather than mentioning it.

Related terms

Fund administrationFund administration is the duty under 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(Q) for a new commercial enterprise to hold each investor's capital in a separate insured United States account and to retain an independent fund administrator over that account. The account requirement cannot be waived; the administrator can be, either by an annual GAAS financial audit shared with DHS and every investor, or by a discretionary waiver where an SEC registered adviser or broker-dealer controls the enterprise.
Escrow agentAn escrow agent is the party, usually a bank or trust company, that holds an EB-5 investor's subscription money under a written escrow agreement and releases it to the new commercial enterprise only when the trigger stated in that agreement occurs. No EB-5 statute or regulation defines the role, but USCIS limits what the trigger may be.
New commercial enterpriseA new commercial enterprise, usually shortened to NCE, is the for-profit entity formed in the United States that receives the EB-5 investor's capital and gives the investor an equity stake in return, and it is the enterprise the petition is built around.
Affiliated job-creating entityA job-creating entity in the regional center program that is controlled, managed or owned by any of the people involved with the regional center or the new commercial enterprise, those people being the ones who hold substantive authority, directly or indirectly, over the investors' money.

Checked against primary sources on 10 August 2026. Back to the glossary