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10 mins read | Sep 1, 2026
Yes. You can use a loan for an EB-5 investment. USCIS treats borrowed money as qualifying capital when you're personally and primarily liable for the debt, the loan isn't secured by the assets of the business receiving your investment, and both the borrowed funds and any collateral trace back to a lawful source.
The liability condition is the one that decides most cases. The debt has to sit on you as an individual, and the documents you file have to show it. That's why a loan taken out by a company you own tends to fail, even when the money reaches the same bank account.
Borrowing doesn't change the amount you invest: $800,000 for a project in a targeted employment area, meaning a rural area or one with high unemployment, and $1,050,000 elsewhere. It changes what you prove about where the money came from. For how this immigrant visa category works end to end, from petition to permanent residence, read our EB-5 visa guide.
What "personally and primarily liable" means for an EB-5 loan
Personally and primarily liable means the loan documents name you as the borrower who owes the money first, with no one else standing between you and the lender. USCIS looks at who carries the repayment obligation under the agreement, not who benefits from the funds.
Two structures commonly fail that test. The first is a loan taken by a company you own, where the entity is the borrower and you're at most a guarantor. A guarantee is a secondary obligation, so the debt isn't primarily yours. The second is a loan secured by the assets of the new commercial enterprise, the business that receives your capital, which the USCIS Policy Manual rules out directly.
A related structure comes up often enough to name. Money you lend to the enterprise doesn't count as capital either, because USCIS requires an equity contribution, so funds advanced under a note, bond, or other debt arrangement fall outside the definition.
EB-5 secured loan vs unsecured loan: where the policy stands
A loan secured by assets you own, such as a home equity line or a mortgage on property in your name, is the cleanest version of this and the one adjudicators see most often. The collateral is documented and the liability is yours, so the file is short.
Unsecured loans sit in a more contested space. USCIS used to read invested loan proceeds as "indebtedness" under the capital regulation, which requires your own assets to secure the debt, and it denied petitions funded by unsecured loans on that basis. A federal court struck that interpretation down in Zhang v. USCIS, and current guidance records that USCIS stopped following it as of November 30, 2018, with the Policy Manual revised on July 22, 2021 to comply with the court order. Cash from a legitimate loan is now evaluated as a cash contribution.
An unsecured loan therefore isn't disqualified on its face. What keeps the question unsettled is that the regulation's definition of capital and the source-of-funds evidence list USCIS still publishes both describe borrowing as debt "secured by the investor's own assets." The older framing hasn't left the guidance.
For petitions filed on or after May 14, 2022, the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act separately permits borrowed funds. They have to be loaned in good faith and not loaned to get around the limits on where capital can come from. Unsecured structures still draw questions, so have yours reviewed before you commit.
Collateral and lawful source of funds for an EB-5 loan
Pledging an asset doesn't move it outside the source-of-funds review. If you borrow against property, the property needs a documented lawful origin of its own. When your lender isn't a bank, USCIS expects the same source-of-funds evidence from the lender that it expects from you.
Source of funds generates more requests for evidence, the USCIS notices asking for more documentation before a decision, than any other part of an EB-5 case. You're building a traceable chain from lawful earnings, a property sale, a gift, or an inheritance through every account to the enterprise. A loan adds a second chain: one for the proceeds, one for whatever secures them.
Everything about the EB-5 visa in one placeInvestment amounts, job creation, processing times, and the path from conditional to permanent green card.
Loan or gift for EB-5 capital: what each one has to prove
Families often have both options on the table, and the choice changes the evidence burden rather than whether you qualify. A gift takes the repayment obligation out of the file, while a loan keeps it there and asks you to show the terms are real.
| Loan to the investor | Gift to the investor | |
|---|---|---|
| Who must be liable | You, personally and primarily, under the loan documents | Nobody, there's no repayment obligation |
| Core document | Signed loan agreement with terms, rate, and schedule | Signed gift instrument confirming the transfer is unconditional |
| Whose money gets traced | Yours and the lender's, unless the lender is a bank | Yours and the donor's |
| Extra evidence | Collateral ownership and valuation, if the loan is secured | Proof the gift isn't a disguised loan, such as tax filings |
| Common failure point | The borrower on paper is a company, not you | Side terms suggesting the money must be repaid |
Neither route is faster at USCIS. A gift shifts the documentation burden onto the donor's history, while a loan keeps it split between you, the lender, and the collateral.
What USCIS asks for when you borrow money for an EB-5 investment
Your petition, Form I-526E for a regional center investment or Form I-526 for a standalone one, should carry the loan on its face rather than leave it to be discovered. Present the borrowing inside the source-of-funds narrative, supported by:
- The executed loan agreement or promissory note naming you as the borrower, with terms, interest rate, and maturity spelled out
- Evidence that the liability is yours and that no entity is standing in as the primary obligor
- Ownership and valuation records for any collateral, plus proof that no asset of the new commercial enterprise secures the loan
- Bank records tracing the proceeds from disbursement through every account to the enterprise
- Lawful source documentation for the lender's funds when the lender isn't a bank
One requirement survives all of this. Borrowed capital still has to be genuinely at risk in the enterprise, with no guaranteed return and no contractual right to be repaid by the project. Whether a loan for an EB-5 visa holds up comes down to who owes the debt and where the money originated, and an attorney can answer both from the loan documents. If you're weighing this against a smaller, nonimmigrant route, our EB-5 vs E-2 visa comparison covers where each one fits.
Investment amounts and policy positions here are current as of August 2026. USCIS updates its guidance periodically, so check the linked official pages for the latest.
Tukki is a U.S. immigration services provider that helps investors build EB-5 cases, document a lawful source of funds including gifted and borrowed capital, and plan the path from petition to a permanent green card.