Process and timing

Removal of conditions

Also called ROC, I-829 stage, lifting conditions.

Removal of conditions is the last EB-5 filing, Form I-829, submitted in the 90 days before the second anniversary of conditional residence, in which the investor shows the required capital was invested and kept invested for the period the law requires and that ten full-time jobs were created or can be expected within a reasonable time.

What it decides

The showings are that the investor invested or was actively investing the required capital, that the capital was sustained, and that ten full-time jobs for qualifying employees were created or can be expected within a reasonable time; a troubled business instead maintains employment at no less than the pre-investment level. How long the capital must stay in turns on when the petition for classification was filed, so read the sustainment period entry rather than the regulation's older wording. The 2022 Act added two things: USCIS must have performed a site visit before conditions come off, and where the jobs will instead be created before the third anniversary USCIS may extend conditional status by one year, with a further petition due within 30 days after that anniversary. Approval removes the conditional basis as of the second anniversary, not the decision date, so a petition decided years late still dates unconditional status to that anniversary. Denial ends the status of investor, spouse and children on the date of the written decision, with no appeal; review lies only in removal proceedings, where the burden is on USCIS.

Governed by 8 CFR 216.6(a)(1)(i) for the 90 day window and the automatic extension, (a)(4) and (c)(1) for the showings, (a)(5) for termination on a missed filing, (d)(1) for approval as of the second anniversary and (d)(2) for denial, the loss of appeal and the burden shifting to USCIS; 8 U.S.C. 1186b(c)(1)(C) for the site visit, (c)(3)(B)(ii) for the one year extension, (c)(3)(D) for the burden in removal proceedings and (d)(2)(B) for late filing on good cause; 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(A)(i) for the two year investment requirement. Read 6 USCIS-PM G.7 with care: the chapter still carries the Behring alert and its footnote equating the sustainment period with the two years of conditional residence is the pre-2022 rule. USCIS states the post-2022 rule on its EB-5 Questions and Answers page, last updated 20 April 2026.

Where this is explained properly

Pages here that go into removal of conditions rather than mentioning it.

Related terms

Conditional permanent residenceConditional permanent residence is the status an EB-5 investor and their spouse and children hold for the first two years: full lawful permanent residence, evidenced by a Green Card valid for two years, whose conditional basis must be removed on Form I-829 or the status ends.
Sustainment periodThe period an EB-5 investor's capital must stay invested. For a petition filed on or after 15 March 2022 it is two years, and USCIS counts it from the date the capital was contributed to the new commercial enterprise and placed at risk, not from admission as a conditional resident. For a petition filed before that date it is instead the two years of conditional permanent residence.
Ten full-time jobsTen full-time jobs for qualifying employees is the EB-5 job creation requirement: each investor's capital must produce its own ten, which is the number an offering's economic report has to show for every investor it takes in.
Form I-829Form I-829, Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status, is the petition an EB-5 conditional permanent resident files in the 90 days before the second anniversary of that status, asking USCIS to confirm the capital was invested and the ten jobs created and to make the green card unconditional.
90 day filing windowThe 90 day filing window is the 90 day period immediately preceding the second anniversary of the date an EB-5 investor obtained conditional permanent residence, and it is the period in which Form I-829 must be filed to remove the conditions; filing early gets the petition rejected and failing to file terminates status on that anniversary.

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