Can money gained trading binary options be used for an EB-5 investment?

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) allows EB-5 investors to use several different sources to obtain funds for their projects. Money obtained from trading binary options is considered a legitimate source of EB-5 investment capital. Other possible sources of EB-5 funds include loans, gifts, salary payments, inherited funds, real estate sales, and even cryptocurrency sales.

Still, investors who want to use binary options trading to fund their EB-5 projects must carefully document the source and path of the funds, making sure that the funds were obtained lawfully. Binary options trading is a lesser-known investment vehicle, so investors would do well to include a description of this relatively new trading system when filing their Form I-526. The USCIS adjudicator in charge of the I-526 petition may need some background to properly evaluate the legality of funds obtained from binary options trading.

Even though USCIS allows investors to use funds from a variety of sources all around the world, it strictly requires all investors to prove that their funds were obtained from lawful sources. This means that all EB-5 investors must provide detailed documentation that traces the origin of their funds and proves their legality. To meet USCIS’s high evidentiary standards, investors will have to provide a number of documents that outline the source of their funds.

Since each investor’s situation is different and several different sources of funds can be used, the nature of these documents may vary greatly. For instance, EB-5 investors who use stock proceeds to finance their projects will likely submit documents such as bank statements showing the deposit of the sale proceeds and share transfer agreements tracing the path of the stock. On the other hand, investors using salary payments to fund their projects will have to submit a different set of documents; their evidence will likely include an employment contract and an income certificate.

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