The enterprise can be formed and capital committed before filing, and hiring may begin whenever the business needs it, but the ten full-time jobs must exist or be reasonably expected within the conditional period. Do not let the hiring schedule drift toward the I-829 deadline.
Hire on the business's timeline, prove on the program's
EB-5 counts jobs created by the enterprise after the investment, and for a direct investment the I-829 petition must show ten full-time positions filled, or filled within a reasonable time, at the end of two years of conditional residence. That deadline sits years after the I-526 filing, which tempts investors to delay hiring until the business reaches the I-829 window with six employees and a plan. A better sequence for the Paradise couple is to form the enterprise, commit the capital and file, then, once residence is granted and they are running the operation, build the workforce as the contracts justify, keeping payroll records from the first hire.
Jobs created before residence still count if the enterprise and the investment are in place, so early hiring is not wasted. A Visa Bulletin delay lengthens the whole timeline but does not move the two-year clock, which starts on admission as a conditional resident. File Form I-829 in the ninety days before the second anniversary with the payroll evidence assembled well in advance.