Money and structure

Gifted funds

Also called Gifted capital, Gift funds.

Gifted capital counts toward the EB-5 minimum investment only if the gift was made in good faith and not to get around the limits on permissible sources of capital, and only if the donor's own lawful source of funds is documented to the standard the investor has to meet.

What it decides

For petitions filed on or after 14 May 2022, 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(L)(iii) is written as a bar with an exception: gifted funds may not be counted toward the minimum capital investment unless they were gifted in good faith and were not gifted to circumvent any limitation on permissible sources of capital, which expressly includes proceeds of illegal activity. The same clause requires the investor's petition to include, from the donor, the records described at subclauses (I) and (II) of clause (ii), meaning the business and tax records with seven years of tax returns and the monetary judgment evidence. It does not extend the transferor identity list at subclause (III) to the donor. So a signed gift letter never carries a petition by itself, and the gifted money still has to be traced from the donor's account into the new commercial enterprise. Before 14 May 2022 the regulation simply listed gift instruments among the evidence identifying any other source of capital under 8 CFR 204.6(j)(3)(iii).

Governed by 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(L)(iii) (INA 203(b)(5)(L)(iii)), headed "Gift and loan restrictions", with subclause (I) setting the good faith and anti-circumvention test and subclause (II) the donor records requirement; effective for petitions filed on or after 14 May 2022 per USCIS Policy Manual, 6 USCIS-PM G.2(A)(4) footnote 52. USCIS Policy Manual, 6 USCIS-PM G.2(A)(1) and G.2(A)(4), page last updated 26 February 2025. 8 CFR 204.6(j)(3)(iii) is good for the pre-2022 treatment of gift instruments but carries none of the good faith or donor records conditions.

Related terms

Source of fundsSource of funds is the documentary showing that an EB-5 investor's required capital, and the money used to pay administrative costs and fees, was obtained from a lawful source and through lawful means, proved by records rather than by assertion.
Path of fundsPath of funds is the account by account trail documenting how the capital moved from its proven source into the new commercial enterprise, and it is a separate showing from proving that the source was lawful.
Borrowed fundsBorrowed funds are money an EB-5 investor is lent and then contributes as capital. Since Zhang v. USCIS, USCIS evaluates invested loan proceeds as a cash contribution, not indebtedness, so the loan need not be collateralized, but for petitions filed on or after 14 May 2022 the statute counts them only if the loan was made in good faith and not to circumvent the limits on permissible sources.
CapitalCapital is the cash and tangible assets an EB-5 investor contributes to the new commercial enterprise. Two texts define it: the statute, which governs petitions filed on or after 15 March 2022, and the older regulation, whose conditions on debt USCIS still applies alongside the statute.
Minimum investment amount$800,000 for an investment in a targeted employment area or in an infrastructure project, and $1,050,000 for every other investment, set by 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(C) (INA 203(b)(5)(C)). The amount that applies is the one in force on the date the petition is filed.

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