EB-5 guidance you can act on
EB-5 Legal Path curates attorney-written analysis, real investor case studies, and step-by-step checklists so you always know what USCIS expects, from sourcing funds to removing conditions.
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The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program grants US permanent residency to a foreign national who invests in a new commercial enterprise that creates at least ten full-time American jobs. These are the figures that decide whether a project qualifies and how long the wait runs.
Figures verified on August 2, 2026. The statute schedules the first inflation adjustment to the investment amounts for 1 January 2027, so check the USCIS page before you wire funds.
EB-5 gives permanent residence to someone who invests in a US business that creates at least ten full time jobs. There is no employer sponsor, no job offer and no lottery. It runs in five stages, and the money is genuinely at risk for all of them.
The minimum is $800,000 if the project sits in a Targeted Employment Area and $1,050,000 if it does not. Almost every regional center offering is structured to qualify for the lower tier, and both figures rise with inflation from 1 January 2027.
USCIS traces the capital back to its lawful origin, and wants an unbroken documentary path from how it was earned to the account it was wired from. This is the stage that produces most requests for evidence, and it is the stage investors underestimate.
The petition establishes that the investment and the job creation plan qualify. After approval you still need a visa to be available for your country of birth, and for investors born in mainland China or India that second wait can be the longer one.
You, your spouse and your unmarried children under 21 receive a green card valid for two years. It carries the same rights as a permanent one, with a condition attached that has to be removed before it expires.
In the 90 days before the two years are up you show that the capital stayed at risk and that the ten jobs per investor were created. Approval converts the conditional card into permanent residence with no further condition.
Programme rules are published by USCIS, with the detailed adjudication policy in Volume 6, Part G of the USCIS Policy Manual. The current investment amounts and set-asides come from the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022.
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The Request for Evidence is no longer the step that comes before a denial. USCIS rewrote its evidence guidance on 5 August 2026, applied it to petitions already pending, and quietly removed the extra fourteen days it used to give filers overseas.
The 2024 USCIS fee increase was not struck down. A court stayed its EB-5 portion, USCIS went back to charging $3,675 for Form I-526E and $3,750 for Form I-829, and the regulation on the books still shows the higher numbers nobody collects.
USCIS guidance now tells officers to treat adjustment of status as discretionary relief an applicant must earn, which raises the risk on the Form I-485 leg of a concurrently filed EB-5 case. The Form I-526E petition and the priority date are unaffected. Investors already out of status face the hardest choice, because departing for a consular interview can trigger a three year bar.
EB-5 requires $800,000 in a Targeted Employment Area or $1,050,000 outside one, documented lawful source of funds, and at least ten full time jobs for US workers. Investors receive two year conditional residence before applying to remove conditions. Set-asides for rural, high unemployment and infrastructure projects now drive where most capital goes.
A U in the EB-5 Visa Bulletin means every visa number in that category has been used for the fiscal year, so no green card can be issued until the new allocation begins on 1 October. Petitions keep being adjudicated and priority dates are unaffected. What stops is issuance abroad and approval of adjustment of status inside the country.
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$800,000 if the project sits in a Targeted Employment Area, meaning a rural area or one with high unemployment, and $1,050,000 anywhere else. Those thresholds come from the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 and are scheduled to adjust for inflation on 1 January 2027.
A TEA is either a rural area or an area where unemployment runs at least 150 percent of the national average. Investing in one lowers the required amount to $800,000 and puts the petition into a reserved visa category that has been moving faster than the general queue.
The wait breaks into two parts that people often confuse. USCIS adjudication of Form I-526E is one clock, and visa availability for your country of birth is a separate one. Investors born in China and India face the queue; most other countries do not, which is why two people who file on the same day can be years apart.
Ten full-time positions for qualifying US workers per investor. Through a regional center those jobs can be indirect and calculated by an economic model, which is the main reason most investors go that route rather than running a business themselves.
Your money has to be genuinely exposed to loss for the whole sustainment period. Any arrangement that guarantees the return of your capital, including a redemption promise or a personal guarantee from the developer, can sink the petition. Treat a guaranteed return as a warning sign rather than a feature.
In practice yes. The petition turns on documenting where every dollar came from, and a source of funds record that satisfies USCIS is built by someone who has done it before. Project selection and legal representation are separate decisions, and it is worth keeping them separate.
EB-5 project checklist
Questionnaires for attorneys and regional center operators.
Templates for tracking wires, pledges, and redeployment events.
Benchmarks so you know if your file is on track with peers.
