Practical guidance.

If you are an investor

Diligence is the touchstone. Ask who signs the checks, how many affiliated entities there are, who holds the capital independently, where EB-5 investors sit in the waterfall, and how much of the developer's own money is in the deal. Then request the documents that substantiate the answers.

Understand what you own. Know whether you are a lender or an equity holder, whether your position is secured, what guarantees exist and who actually stands behind them, and what happens on the day of a default. That structure will determine your recovery long before any dispute begins.

Insist on real escrow and milestone releases. Money handed to the promoter before the project is approved and genuinely underway tends to never come back.

Move at the first credible sign of trouble. Stalled construction, reports that stop arriving, or a new raise proposed to cover an old shortfall are all warning signs. Early intervention is the single factor that most separates the recoveries that work from those that do not.

Retain both types of counsel. Bring in securities-recovery counsel and immigration counsel at the same time so your strategy protects your money and your petition together, rather than sacrificing one to save the other.