Green Card

The short answer. Yes. A petitioner may submit financial material beyond the annual report, federal tax return, or audited financial statements that the regulation requires, and USCIS may also ask for such material. What additional evidence cannot do is take the place of the required initial evidence, and it earns weight rather than creating an entitlement to approval. 8 C.F.R. § 204.5(g)(2).

The short answer. Three measures do most of the work when USCIS decides whether a petitioning employer is able to pay the wage offered: the wage actually paid to the beneficiary, the employer’s net income, and the employer’s net current assets. Each is examined for every year from the priority date forward, and all three serve the same regulatory requirement, 8 C.F.R. § 204.5(g)(2).

The short answer. The regulation names three documentary forms as the evidence that must accompany a petition resting on an offer of employment: copies of annual reports, federal tax returns, or audited financial statements. An employer that employs 100 or more workers may instead submit a statement from a financial officer of the organization, which the adjudicator may accept. 8 C.F.R. § 204.5(g)(2).

The requirement. Where an employment-based immigrant petition rests on an offer of employment, the petition must be accompanied by evidence that the prospective United States employer is able to pay the wage offered. 8 C.F.R. § 204.5(g)(2). The employer’s ability to pay is treated as one of the essential elements in deciding whether the job offered to the beneficiary is realistic.

This section addresses various issues which are common to Employment Based Green Cards.

For EB-5 investors, an approved regional center can make it easier to satisfy the program's job-creation requirement: an investment channeled through a regional center may count indirect and induced jobs, not only the direct jobs an independent enterprise must create on its own.

Most EB-5 investors today do not go out and run a business of their own. They invest through a regional center, a USCIS-designated entity that sponsors projects and pools capital from a number of immigrant investors. Congress created this route in 1992 as a pilot and has kept it alive by periodic reauthorization ever since. The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 rebuilt it, and immigrant visas are currently authorized under the Regional Center Program through September 30, 2027.

Every EB-5 case rests on three questions: is the money going into a qualifying business, is it enough money and is it genuinely at risk, and will the business create the jobs Congress asked for. The requirements below are the current ones, as rewritten by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022. Older figures still circulate widely online, so it is worth checking the date of anything you read.

According to the Labor Department:

The Selection of Continuation Option Letter may be signed and submitted by either the employer or the employer's attorney/agent of record. We request, however, that employers and attorneys coordinate to determine who will submit the Selection of Continuation Option Letter to ensure that the appropriate Backlog Processing Center does not receive conflicting or duplicate responses. In the instance of conflicting responses, we will default to the employer's response.

The message on my Corrections List states, "The Employer's name/address is not the same on Form ETA 750 Part A and Part B." What do I need to do?

According to the Labor Department:

Please refer to item 6 on Form ETA 750 Part A and item 8 on Form ETA 750 Part B. These items must match exactly on your application. Initial and date any corrections you make on your application and return it to the appropriate Backlog Processing Center.