Thinking I Could DIY My EB-5 Application After living in New York for five years, I still look back at my EB-5 investment immigration journey with relief. At the most confusing moment, I made a decisive choice: I hired an immigration lawyer. At first, I thought immigration was just about filling out forms and submitting documents. With my business background, I believed I could handle it myself. The EB-5 requirements seemed simple: invest $800,000 in a government-approved project and create 10 full-time jobs. But once I started preparing, I realized how naive I had been. Project compliance checks, proof of fund origins, ongoing employment reports—each step felt like climbing a mountain. Just organizing five years of financial records nearly broke me, not to mention explaining the legitimacy of every single transaction to the immigration authorities. Learning from a Friend’s Mistake A friend’s experience gave me a wake-up call. He tried applying for a German Blue Card on his o...