The dividend can be declared and the funds moved into a personal account at any time, but the transfer to the enterprise or escrow should follow a defined project with a site, a business plan and a targeted-employment-area determination if the lower amount is relied on. Moving capital into an undefined project weakens both the at-risk showing and the job-creation plan.
Move the money once the project it funds exists
Source-of-funds preparation can start immediately, because the corporate financial statements, tax filings and dividend resolution take time to assemble and are unaffected by the project's status. The wire to the new commercial enterprise is different. The petition must show the capital is at risk in a specific enterprise with a specific plan to create ten jobs; a transfer into a U.S.
account with no site under contract looks like parked money and the business plan cannot be credible without a location, a construction budget and a hiring schedule. Escrow tied to petition approval is common and acceptable, provided the escrow agreement commits the funds to the enterprise. If the lower investment threshold depends on the site being in a targeted employment area, that designation should be confirmed for the address before the amount is fixed, because a site change after filing can leave the investor short.
For a post-RIA petition, the two-year sustainment period generally starts when the full qualifying investment is made and placed at risk, not at admission. The two-year conditional-residence period starts at admission or adjustment, and the I-829 filing window is tied to the expiration of that conditional status.