IN THIS GUIDE · A feedlot owner weighing a direct EB-5 investment in a U.S. cattle-feeding operation
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Capital: the amount, the source and the path
The standard EB-5 investment is US$1,050,000, reduced to US$800,000 for a project in a targeted employment area, which includes rural areas as defined by the statute, or in an infrastructure project, under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022; those thresholds adjust and should be verified at filing. Dale's capital can come from his share of the Alberta feedlot's retained earnings, a distribution, or the sale of cattle or land, but every dollar must be traced from a lawful source through each account to the U.S. enterprise. Money borrowed against his own assets can qualify if he is personally liable and the loan is secured by assets other than the enterprise's.
Jobs: ten full-time positions for qualifying workers
A direct EB-5 enterprise must create at least ten full-time jobs for U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents or other immigrants lawfully authorized to work, excluding the investor, the investor's spouse and children, and workers in nonimmigrant status. Full-time means at least thirty-five hours per week, and seasonal pen riders hired for four months do not count. A feeding operation that runs year-round can support permanent feed-truck drivers, pen riders, a mill operator, a bookkeeper and a yard foreman, but the business plan must show those positions as permanent, with wages, and show that they will exist within the required period. Two part-time positions cannot be combined into one full-time job under the direct program; job-sharing arrangements have specific rules and should not be improvised.
Engagement: managing from Alberta is not enough
The investor must be engaged in the new commercial enterprise through day-to-day management or through policy formulation, for instance as a corporate officer or a general partner with actual rights. A wholly passive owner who signs cheques from Lethbridge County while a hired manager runs everything does not meet the standard. Dale need not ride pens himself, but he should hold an office, attend to budgets, approve capital spending and be able to show minutes, resolutions and correspondence demonstrating that he directs the enterprise. That engagement also affects the family's plans, because conditional permanent residence carries residence expectations of its own.
Conditional residence, the I-829, and the family
Approval of Form I-526 and issuance of the immigrant visa gives Dale, his wife and his unmarried children under 21 conditional permanent residence for two years. In the ninety days before that period ends, he files Form I-829 to remove conditions, showing that the capital was sustained at risk and the jobs were created or will be within a reasonable time. Children must be under 21 when their status is determined, with Child Status Protection Act rules potentially freezing age during processing; a seventeen-year-old at filing is not guaranteed to remain a child through a long wait. The filing and biometric fees for Forms I-526 and I-829 are in the USCIS fee schedule, Form G-1055.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.