One of the key benefits of a Regional Center project is its ability to count direct, induced, and indirect job creation needed for the EB-5 visa’s requirements. This is beneficial for investors as it eases the burden of meeting the job creation criterion compared to direct investments as the indirect and induced jobs created typically provides a large job creation cushion.. 

In a Standalone Direct EB-5 Investment, you can only count the employees in your payroll (evidenced by W-2 Forms, Wage and Tax Statements). If you cannot maintain at least 10 full-time employees until the end of your 2-year Conditional Residency, your I-829 Petition for Permanent Residency will be denied. The USCIS adjudicator may give you a discretionary third year, but this is not guaranteed.

However, a Regional Center can use USCIS-approved economic models to estimate the economic impact and job creation from capital spent in construction activities and project revenues. This is provided for EB-5 capital and also all other sources of capital for the project.

Regional Center job creation includes direct jobs (construction workers), indirect jobs (workers in the supply chain of all materials and services) and induced jobs (these are created as the direct and indirect workers spend their wages). USCIS considers all these model-derived jobs full time and permanent. Therefore, job creation becomes more abundant and more predictable.