An EB-5 business plan must meet the Matter of Ho standard: a comprehensive, detailed, and credible plan that shows what the new commercial enterprise does, where it operates, how the invested capital is spent, and how it will create at least ten full-time jobs. We build EB-5 plans to that bar and revise them to your attorney's and regional center's feedback.
This is the business plan that supports your I-526 petition, not legal advice, and no plan can guarantee an outcome. Work with a qualified EB-5 immigration attorney.
The Matter of Ho standard
Matter of Ho is the 1998 precedent that defines a compliant EB-5 plan. It requires enough detail to convince USCIS the enterprise will genuinely create jobs, which is a far higher bar than a typical business plan. Our guide to EB-5 visa requirements breaks down what that means in practice.
The ten-job creation requirement
Each qualifying investment must create at least ten full-time jobs of 35 or more hours per week for authorized workers, generally within two years. We build a detailed, defensible job-creation schedule tied to your projected financials and hiring timeline.
Use of capital and financials
The plan must show exactly how the qualifying investment will be spent and how the business grows to support the jobs. We document the use of capital and build credible five-year financials that hold up to requests for evidence.
What an EB-5 business plan includes
An EB-5 plan written to Matter of Ho is detailed by design. Every plan we build includes:
- A comprehensive business and operations description USCIS can assess.
- A documented use of the qualifying investment, line by line.
- A job-creation schedule reaching at least ten full-time positions, with a hiring timeline.
- A source-of-funds narrative supporting a lawful, traceable investment.
- Credible five-year financial model that withstands a request for evidence.
Preparing an I-526 petition?
We write Matter of Ho-compliant EB-5 plans with detailed job-creation and capital-use analysis. Share your project and job-creation plan for a fixed quote up front.
Request a quoteDirect EB-5 vs regional center plans
A direct EB-5 investor builds and manages their own new commercial enterprise and counts only direct W-2 jobs, so the business plan carries the full weight of the petition. A regional center investment pools capital into a larger USCIS-designated project, may count indirect and induced jobs, and pairs the plan with an economic-impact report. We write the Matter of Ho plan for direct cases and the project-level plan behind a regional-center filing. The EB-5 minimum investment guide covers the $800,000 and $1,050,000 thresholds that apply to each route.
The RFE patterns the plan has to pre-empt
Most EB-5 requests for evidence attack the same few seams, so we write against them from the first draft. Backloaded jobs: a schedule that creates eight of the ten positions in the final quarter reads as arithmetic, not hiring; the ramp has to follow the operations. Payroll that ignores the market: salaries in the projections must be consistent with prevailing wage data for the roles and location, or the ten jobs look underfunded. A market section written for no one: generic industry pages pulled from reports draw scrutiny; the analysis has to be local to where the enterprise actually competes. And capital that does not reconcile: the use-of-funds table, the financial projections, and the source-of-funds narrative describing the same dollars three different ways. A plan that closes these seams before filing is the difference between an approval and a response deadline.
How much does an EB-5 business plan cost?
EB-5 plans are priced to scope because of the depth Matter of Ho demands: the more complex the enterprise and its job-creation model, the more research and modeling the plan requires. We confirm a fixed quote up front, with rush options for an I-526 or I-526E filing deadline. For the broader picture of what a business plan costs, see our pricing breakdown.
Hiring an EB-5 business plan writer
Look for genuine Matter of Ho experience when you hire an EB-5 business plan writer, plus credible, conservative numbers rather than inflated projections that draw scrutiny. Our umbrella immigration business plan service also covers E-2 and L-1 petitions.