In a direct investment the positions must be full-time employees of the new commercial enterprise. Independent contractors and staffing-agency placements do not satisfy the requirement.
Employees on the enterprise's own payroll
Hypothetical example: This restriction shapes how a manufacturing operation should be structured before the investment is made rather than after. Businesses commonly rely on contractors for maintenance, logistics and specialized trades, and an owner planning an EB-5 filing needs to know that those arrangements will not build the required headcount. The positions counted must be full-time, meaning at least thirty-five hours a week, filled by qualifying United States workers, and employed by the enterprise itself. Investors sometimes discover late that a plan built around a lean core team plus contractors cannot reach ten, at which point the business model has to change or the investment has to be restructured. The regional-centre route counts jobs differently, which is a separate decision to weigh early.
The first review should match the investor's capital, enterprise structure and job model before a subscription or purchase is signed. Hypothetical example: A vertical-greenhouse venture forecasts twelve workers but intends to outsource harvesting to a contractor. Direct EB-5 analysis counts qualifying employees of the enterprise, so the business must decide whether to hire that function itself or revise the job model. A headcount slide cannot convert contractors into qualifying positions.
Test the plan against real management capacity as well as headcount. A business that cannot supervise the planned employees may not sustain the jobs it lists.