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WEST KELOWNA · EB-5 FIELD GUIDE

Does investing through a regional center relieve a West Kelowna family of the ten-job requirement?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

No. Each investor must still be credited with ten full-time jobs. A regional center may count indirect and induced jobs shown by an accepted economic model, which is easier than creating ten direct positions, but the number is still tested at the removal-of-conditions stage.

The model changes how jobs are counted, not how many are needed

Hypothetical example: the regional center's presentation to the family emphasises that they will never have to hire anyone. That is true in the sense that the family will not run payroll, but the family's petition still depends on ten jobs being attributed to their capital. In a regional-center project the jobs are typically calculated from construction expenditure and later operating revenue using an input-output model, and the project's economic report shows how many jobs the model projects in total and how many investors share them.

The family should ask for that report and divide: if the model projects three hundred jobs and the project admits thirty investors, each is covered with no margin; if it projects five hundred, there is room for construction to run under budget. They should also ask what happens if the count falls short, because the I-829 filing must show the jobs were created or will be created within a reasonable time.