Money and structure

Path of funds

Also called Path of the funds, Fund tracing.

Path 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.

What it decides

USCIS requires the petitioner to document the path of the funds to establish that the investment was made, or is actively in the process of being made, with the investor's own funds. Matter of Izummi is the case the Policy Manual cites for it: a Wells Fargo letter acknowledged receipt of $120,000 into a custody account, but the record never showed where that money came from, and without wire transfer records the petitioner failed to prove the money was his. Every hop needs a statement, a transfer record or an instrument, so money that surfaces in an account with no documented origin breaks the chain however well the original source is evidenced. The stakes are not only a denial: USCIS lists misrepresenting or concealing the source of funds or the path of funds among the actions that can trigger a fraud, deceit or intentional material misrepresentation finding under INA 203(b)(5)(O), which carries denial or revocation and debarment.

Governed by USCIS Policy Manual, 6 USCIS-PM G.2(A)(2) with footnote 15, page last updated 26 February 2025, citing Matter of Izummi, 22 I&N Dec. 169, 195 (Assoc. Comm. 1998); USCIS Policy Manual, 6 USCIS-PM G.8(B)(2), which lists concealing the source or path of funds as an action that may trigger a finding under INA 203(b)(5)(O) (8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(O)). The Policy Manual is the only source for the requirement itself: neither the statute nor 8 CFR 204.6 uses the phrase path of funds.

Where this is explained properly

Pages here that go into path of funds rather than mentioning it.

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.
Matter of IzummiMatter of Izummi is the 1998 EB-5 precedent decision, thirteen holdings long, that treats an agreement giving the investor a right to be repaid as a debt arrangement barred by 8 CFR 204.6(e), so the money was never a contribution of capital and was never at risk.
Gifted fundsGifted 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.
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.
Denial and revocationDenial and revocation are the two ways USCIS refuses an EB-5 petition: a denial rejects a petition that has not established eligibility, and a revocation withdraws an approval already granted, which is why an approved EB-5 petition is never finally settled.

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