Jobs

Job allocation

Also called employment creation allocation, job allocation agreement, allocation of jobs.

Job allocation is the division of a new commercial enterprise's qualifying full-time jobs among the EB-5 investors who petitioned on it, at least ten to each, under any reasonable agreement the investors have made. Where the documents are silent, USCIS allocates by the date each investor filed to remove conditions, so a shortfall falls on the last to file rather than on everyone in equal shares.

What it decides

8 CFR 204.6(g)(2), headed "Employment creation allocation," allocates the full-time positions created solely to those investors who used the establishment of the new commercial enterprise as the basis for a petition. No allocation must be made among persons not seeking EB-5 classification, or among non-natural persons such as a corporation investing in the enterprise. USCIS will recognize any reasonable agreement made among the investors on identifying and allocating the qualifying positions, and 8 CFR 204.6(g)(1) requires that each individual investment produce at least ten of them. The default matters more than most readers expect. Where the offering documents say nothing, USCIS does not allocate by subscription order or by the order in which investors filed Form I-526E. It allocates by the date each investor filed the petition to remove conditions. The agency's own example is a project creating 25 jobs with three investors and a silent record: the first two to file Form I-829 each count ten, and the third is allocated the remaining five. Two investors also cannot count the same job, and an investor cannot claim a specifically identified position already allocated to someone else in a previously approved case. So a shortfall concentrates on whoever files last, rather than thinning everyone's count evenly. One limit on the whole subject. For petitions filed on or after 15 March 2022, a pooled investment with more than one EB-5 investor is permitted only under the regional center program, so job allocation is now a regional center question for new filings. Read the allocation clause before signing, not after.

Governed by 8 CFR 204.6(g)(1) and (g)(2) (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-8/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-204/subpart-A/section-204.6); 6 USCIS-PM G.2, "Multiple Investors" (https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-6-part-g-chapter-2); 6 USCIS-PM G.7 (https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-6-part-g-chapter-7); INA 204(a)(1)(H)(i), 8 U.S.C. 1154(a)(1)(H)(i) (https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1154&num=0&edition=prelim)

Related terms

Job cushionA job cushion is the margin between the jobs a project's economic report forecasts and the jobs its investors need, which is ten full-time jobs per investor. The word is offering document usage: no statute or regulation defines a cushion or sets a minimum one.
Tenant occupancyTenant occupancy is a job counting method that credits an EB-5 regional center project with jobs attributed to the businesses expected to lease the commercial space the project creates or improves, counted on top of the jobs the project itself creates. It is open only to regional center projects, and only where the count rests on an economically and statistically valid methodology and the jobs are not existing jobs that have been relocated.
Priority dateA priority date is the date USCIS properly receives a complete, signed and paid Form I-526 or I-526E, and it fixes the investor's place in the visa queue for their country of chargeability and their EB-5 category.

Checked against primary sources on 6 August 2026. Back to the glossary