A spouse and unmarried children under twenty-one may be included as derivatives and obtain conditional permanent residence with the investor. A child who turns twenty-one may lose derivative eligibility, subject to the age-out protections that apply.
Derivative status is generous but the age limit is real
EB-5 differs from the temporary categories in that the family obtains permanent residence rather than a dependent nonimmigrant status, which changes work and study rights entirely: derivatives are permanent residents and may work. The limits that matter are age and marital status.
An unmarried child under twenty-one qualifies; one who marries does not, and one who reaches twenty-one may fall out of the petition depending on how the age-out rules apply to the filing dates in their case. Given that EB-5 involves a two-year conditional period, with Form I-829 filed in the 90 days before the second anniversary, the elapsed time is long enough for a teenager's eligibility to change during the process, so Terrence should map each child's twenty-first birthday against the expected filing dates at the outset and take advice specific to those dates rather than assuming the family moves as a unit.