IN THIS GUIDE · Promoters, compensation and conflicts of interest
Start with the EB-5 eligibility and application overview
Identify every participant’s role
List the issuer, regional centre, promoter, broker, immigration representative and any other adviser. Ask who each person represents and which services they actually provide. A person may introduce a project without supplying independent legal or financial analysis. Do not infer qualifications from a marketing title or assume that a project-paid service is the investor’s own independent review.
Request compensation information
Ask how the participants are paid and whether the offering or another party funds referrals or sales compensation. Current regional-centre rules address promoters and related disclosures; counsel can identify what applies to the transaction. Keep written information with the offering. Compensation does not by itself determine suitability, but undisclosed relationships can prevent the investor from understanding the context of a recommendation.
Verify claims through independent records
Check relevant professional credentials and applicable public regulatory records rather than relying only on logos or testimonials. USCIS regional-centre designation does not establish that a securities seller satisfies separate regulatory requirements. Ask an appropriate professional to evaluate the role and required status. A registration or licence also does not guarantee investment quality or individual immigration approval.
Keep the decision in the investor’s hands
Compare the underlying agreements with oral recommendations and request written answers to unresolved questions. Identify whether advice covers immigration, financial suitability or only project introduction. Preserve engagement terms and material communications. A time-limited sales offer should not prevent independent review, and another family’s favourable result should not be treated as evidence that the same outcome is assured.
Who is allowed to decide what
Nobody in the transaction can make the investor’s decision, and several participants have an interest in appearing to. An issuer decides the terms of its own offering. A regional centre, where one is involved, operates within its designation and the conditions attached to it. A promoter or broker introduces and sells. Immigration counsel assesses eligibility for the individual and the family. A securities or financial adviser assesses suitability, which is a different question from eligibility and is answered against the investor’s own circumstances. The investor decides whether to subscribe. Hypothetical example: a sports-facility operations project supplies a polished eligibility summary alongside its subscription documents, and the useful response is to ask which of these roles the author holds and whom that author represents. A summary produced by the seller remains a sales document however accurate it later proves.
The verification each party cannot perform
Verification breaks down along the same lines. An issuer can confirm its own structure but cannot confirm that the investor’s funds are lawfully sourced, because it does not hold the underlying records. Counsel can assess a source-of-funds narrative but cannot audit a project’s construction budget. A financial adviser can weigh concentration and liquidity but cannot say whether a job-creation methodology will satisfy the requirement. A promoter can verify none of these, whatever the marketing implies. Where a question falls outside every engaged party’s competence — and job creation, the at-risk treatment of capital, and the practicality of any exit frequently do — that gap is itself a finding. Write it down, decide whether to engage someone who can answer it, and record the decision if you proceed without one.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.