In general, "eligible individuals" include those:

1. Who establish a new commercial enterprise by:
   
   • creating an original business;
     
   • purchasing an existing business and simultaneously or subsequently restructuring or reorganizing the business such that a new commercial enterprise results; or
     
   • expanding an existing business by 140 percent of the pre-investment number of jobs or net worth, or retaining all existing jobs in a troubled business that has lost 20 percent of its net worth over the past 12 to 24 months; and
     
2. Who have invested -- or who are actively in the process of investing -- in a new commercial enterprise:
   
   • at least $1,000,000, or
     
   • at least $500,000 where the investment is being made in a "targeted employment area," which is an area that has experienced unemployment of at least 150 per cent of the national average rate or a rural area as designated by the Office of Management and Budget; and
     
3. Whose engagement in a new commercial enterprise will benefit the United States economy and:
   
   • create full-time employment for not fewer than 10 qualified individuals; or
     
   • maintain the number of existing employees at no less than the pre-investment level for a period of at least two years, where the capital investment is being made in a "troubled business," which is a business that has been in existence for at least two years and that has lost 20 percent of its net worth over the past 12 to 24 months.

From U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services