The EB-5 conditional green card: two years on probation and Form I-829

The first green card an EB-5 investor receives is a conditional one. It gives you almost every right of a permanent resident, but it expires after two years. What you do, keep and file on time during that period decides whether your conditional green card becomes a permanent one.

The day you enter the US on your immigrant visa, or the day USCIS approves your I-485, you become a permanent resident. It feels like the finish line, and for everyday life it is. Legally, it's a stopover. For the first two years, the law treats EB-5 investors, their spouses and their children as permanent residents on a conditional basis. Only once USCIS has confirmed that the investment was sustained and the jobs were created does the condition fall away. This guide explains what applies during those two years and how to prepare the I-829 that comes at the end. How you got here is covered in our guide to the EB-5 process.

1What a conditional green card means

A conditional green card is not a weaker green card. You can live and work in the US, start or run a business, travel abroad and come back. So can your family. The only difference is the expiry date: the card is valid until the second anniversary of the day you received your status.

The condition is that your investment genuinely meets the EB-5 requirements. USCIS can terminate your status even before the second anniversary if it turns out the investment was made solely to get around immigration law, or that you didn't invest the required capital. You can challenge such a decision in proceedings before an immigration court, where the government has to prove its case.

Two things start on day one, regardless of the condition. The two years count toward naturalization as if you had been a permanent resident without conditions from the start. How naturalization works is explained under Becoming a US citizen. And you are a US tax resident, taxed on your worldwide income, because the IRS ties residency to the green card, not to its condition.

2The capital: keeping it at risk for two years

For petitions filed on or after March 15, 2022, the law requires the capital to remain invested for at least two years. With Form I-829, USCIS checks whether you sustained the investment throughout your time as a conditional resident. It requires that you substantially met the capital requirement in good faith and kept the investment in place the whole time.

Keeping it at risk means the money is in the business and can generate a loss or a profit. You may receive profits the company distributes, even during the two years. But a distribution must not come from your minimum capital, and it must not have been guaranteed to you in advance. If your money was held in escrow until you got your green card, USCIS will want proof with your I-829 that it was released and then stayed in the company.

With a Regional Center, the project sponsor often lends the capital to the business that creates the jobs. If that business repays the loan after the jobs have been created, the company may redeploy the money into a business activity within a reasonable time. It has to stay at risk. Parking it in stocks or bonds is not enough.

3The ten jobs: created or on the way

The second half of the review is about jobs. With a direct investment, you have to show that your company itself created at least ten full-time positions for qualifying employees. With a Regional Center, the jobs can also be created indirectly, proven through an economic model.

Three rules from the USCIS Policy Manual help you assess where you stand. First, the jobs no longer have to exist when you file the I-829. It's enough that they were created and were intended to be permanent when they were created. Second, unless the project documents say otherwise, USCIS allocates a project's jobs among its investors by the date of their I-829. File late on a tight project and you may be credited with fewer jobs. Third, the jobs don't all have to exist by the second anniversary. It's enough that they will be created within a reasonable time. Jobs created within one year after the second anniversary are generally considered reasonable. Jobs not expected until more than three years after your entry generally are not.

The law has a specific rule for this situation. If your I-829 shows that everything else is in order and the jobs are being created, USCIS may, at its discretion, extend your condition by one year. You then file another petition no later than 30 days after the third anniversary, showing the jobs have been created. Otherwise your status ends at the close of that extra year.

4The filing window for Form I-829

Form I-829 must be filed within the 90 days immediately before the second anniversary. The anniversary is the expiry date on your card. The window is narrow, and it's one of the few points in the EB-5 process where a single missed day puts the whole journey at risk.

File too early and USCIS may reject the petition. Don't file at all and your status ends by law on the second anniversary, along with your family's, and you can be removed from the US. USCIS will only consider a late petition if you explain good cause and extraordinary circumstances in writing. The law requires USCIS to notify you of the obligation when the window opens. If no notice arrives, the obligation still stands. So put the date in your calendar yourself, with a reminder four months ahead, so your documents are ready when the window opens.

5Your file: what to keep from day one

With Form I-829, you document two things: the sustained investment and the jobs created. The table above lists the evidence USCIS itself gives as examples. With a direct investment, almost all of it sits in your own company. You run payroll, you keep your employees' I-9 forms, you file the tax returns. With a Regional Center, the project sponsor supplies most of it, and your job is to make sure its reports arrive regularly.

If you invest through a Regional Center and prove indirect jobs with an economic model, you have to show that the inputs to the model are credible: actual expenditures with receipts, actual revenues from tax and financial records, or direct jobs from payroll. Documents from your original petition, such as the business plan and the economic impact analysis, belong in the file if you rely on them.

A proven rule of thumb: at the start of the two years, set up a folder and add the project reports, your bank statements and all letters from the company every quarter. By the time the window opens, your file will be nearly done.

6Spouses and children on Form I-829

You can include your spouse and children who received their conditional green cards through you on your I-829. If you don't include them, each family member files their own petition, within the same window as you.

The rule that takes effect with the new fee schedule on November 30, 2026 addresses several situations explicitly. You can include a child who turned 21 or married during the two years. You can include a former spouse you divorced during the two years. And if you don't file an I-829 yourself, your spouse, former spouse and children can still have the condition removed if they prove on their own that the requirements are met. If you have a child approaching their 21st birthday, it pays to look at these rules before the window opens.

7After filing: status, interview, decision

Once you have the receipt notice, Form I-797, you enter a period in which you live entirely lawfully on an expired card. For everyone who properly files an I-829, USCIS extends the card's validity by 48 months beyond its expiry date. Together, the receipt notice and the card prove your status, your work authorization and your right to re-enter after a trip. If you need longer-lasting proof, a USCIS field office can place a stamp in your passport.

The law provides for an in-person interview, meant to take place within 90 days of filing. USCIS can waive it, but not if the regional center, the project company or the job-creating business has been sanctioned. If USCIS approves, the condition is removed retroactively to the second anniversary and you receive the permanent green card. If USCIS denies, you can have the decision reviewed in immigration court proceedings. Until then, under USCIS guidelines, you remain a permanent resident.

8When the project doesn't go to plan

Business plans change, and USCIS knows it. The agency won't deny an I-829 simply because the project departed from the original plan. You may show that the requirements are met anyway, and during the two years the capital may be deployed in ways the petition didn't foresee, as long as it stays at risk. What remains essential is that the original petition was filed in good faith.

If the regional center itself is terminated, your conditional green card does not end automatically. You can still show that the requirements are met, including through indirect jobs. For investors whose project drops out of the program, the law also contains rules allowing them, under certain conditions, to invest in a new project. The two-year period then starts with the new investment.

These protections work best when you never need them. That's why vetting a project before you invest is the most important preparation for the I-829. For the total costs to expect, see our guide to EB-5 costs; for whether a regional center or a direct investment suits you better, see Regional center or direct investment. The visa roadmap for your situation lists the documents you need from day one, per person and per company.

In short

• The EB-5 green card starts out conditional for two years, for you, your spouse and your children. That time already counts toward naturalization.
• During those two years your capital must stay at risk, and the business must create the ten full-time jobs or be on track to do so.
• The I-829 belongs in the 90 days before the second anniversary. Without a filing, your status ends on the anniversary.
• The receipt notice extends the card by 48 months. If jobs are still missing, the law allows a discretionary one-year extension.

How we help you

• Visa RoadmapIn writing: which visa fits you and your family, prepared with the immigration attorney on the firm's team.
• Visa and Green Card ConsultationWhich route to the USA fits you, settled in one conversation.
• Tax structureA clean structure between parent company and US subsidiary, or between you and your US company, coordinated with your accountant.