Jobs

Ten full-time jobs

Also called job creation requirement, 10 jobs, ten jobs.

Ten 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.

What it decides

The statute requires the new commercial enterprise to create full-time employment for not fewer than 10 United States citizens, United States nationals, lawful permanent residents or other immigrants authorized to work, 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(A)(ii). The regulation calls them qualifying employees and excludes the investor, the investor's spouse, sons and daughters, and any nonimmigrant, so an employee holding H-1B, L-1 or F-1 status does not count, 8 CFR 204.6(e). Full-time means a position requiring at least 35 working hours per week; two or more qualifying employees sharing one full-time position count, but combinations of part-time positions never do, even when the hours add up, 8 CFR 204.6(e). Where several investors sit in one enterprise, which since 15 March 2022 is possible only under the regional center program, each individual investment must produce its own ten, 8 CFR 204.6(g)(1). Outside a regional center the enterprise or its wholly owned subsidiary must itself employ the ten, because only regional center investors may count indirect jobs. The petition carries a business plan showing the need for ten qualifying employees within the next two years, 8 CFR 204.6(j)(4)(i)(B), a period USCIS treats as starting six months after the petition is adjudicated. At Form I-829 the investor shows the ten were created, or can be expected within a reasonable time, and that the capital was continuously maintained over the two years of conditional residence, 8 CFR 216.6(a)(4)(iv) and (iii); for petitions filed on or after 15 March 2022 the statute also requires the capital to be expected to remain invested for not less than two years, 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(A)(i).

Governed by 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(A)(i) and (A)(ii) (https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1153&num=0&edition=prelim); 8 CFR 204.6(e), 204.6(g)(1), 204.6(j)(4)(i)(B) (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-8/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-204/subpart-A/section-204.6); 8 CFR 216.6(a)(4)(iii) and (iv) (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-8/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-216/section-216.6); USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part G, Chapter 2 (https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-6-part-g-chapter-2) for the nonimmigrant exclusion, the direct employer rule outside a regional center, the post 15 March 2022 limit on pooled investments and the six month start of the two year job creation window

Where this is explained properly

Pages here that go into ten full-time jobs rather than mentioning it.

Related terms

Full-time employmentFull-time employment in EB-5 means employment of a qualifying employee in a position that requires a minimum of 35 working hours per week, not 40. The 35 hours are measured by what the position requires rather than by the hours any one person works, which is why job sharing counts, but the person filling the position must still be a qualifying employee.
Exit strategyExit strategy is the industry name for how and when invested capital is meant to return to the investor, whether through repayment of the project loan, a sale, a refinancing or a buyback. USCIS does not define the term, and immigration law limits it: capital the investor has a contractual right to get back does not count as capital at all.

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