Risk and compliance

Good faith investor protection

Also called good faith investor, INA 203(b)(5)(M), 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(M), reassociation, Treatment of good faith investors following program noncompliance.

Good faith investor protection is the rule at 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(M) that keeps an EB-5 petition or conditional residence alive after USCIS terminates the regional center or debars the new commercial enterprise or job creating entity, provided the investor cures within 180 days of being notified and was not a knowing participant in the conduct behind it.

What it decides

USCIS notifies the affected investors, and the petition or the conditional status ends 180 days after that notice unless the investor acts. Where a regional center was terminated, the cure is for the new commercial enterprise to associate with an approved center, whatever that center's approved geography, or for the investor to invest in another new commercial enterprise, at the amount the statute required when the original petition was filed. Where an enterprise or job creating entity was debarred, the investor associates with an enterprise in good standing and adds capital only so far as the remaining job creation requires. Within the same 180 days the investor files an amendment or notifies USCIS that the petition still qualifies. Business plan changes behind that amendment are not material changes, funds recovered from third parties and insurance proceeds may count as capital, the original priority date survives and derivative children are protected from ageing out. Where the investor reinvests, the two year clock for removing conditions starts again from the new investment. This is subparagraph (M), not the grandfathering rule at subparagraph (S).

Governed by 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(M), Treatment of good faith investors following program noncompliance, clauses (i) through (vi): (ii) for the 180 days and the two cures, (iii) for the amendment and the material change relief, (iv) for the restarted two year period, (v) for the priority date and age out protection, (vi) for the knowing participant exception. USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part G, Chapter 3, Section E (6 USCIS-PM G.3(E)), issued by the policy alert of 16 July 2024, carries the rest, including the point that a reinvestment is measured by the amount required when the original Form I-526 was filed, which the statute does not state. Chapter 8 of the same part covers sanctions and touches (M) only in passing.

Where this is explained properly

Pages here that go into good faith investor protection rather than mentioning it.

Related terms

Regional center terminationRegional center termination is USCIS ending a center's designation, after which the center may not solicit, generate or promote EB-5 investors or otherwise take part in the program, and its investors lose their petitions 180 days after USCIS notifies them unless they move to another center or another new commercial enterprise.
Debarment and suspensionDebarment and suspension are the EB-5 sanctions the USCIS Director imposes on a non-compliant regional center or the individuals behind it: a suspension is temporary and lifts if the violation is cured, while a debarment is a permanent bar, and both sit on one graduated ladder that also carries fines and termination of the regional center's designation.
GrandfatheringThe rule at 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(S) that requires DHS to keep processing a regional center investor's petition, and to keep visas flowing to approved ones, even if the legislation authorizing the regional center program expires, provided the petition was filed on or before 30 September 2026.
Priority dateA priority date is the date USCIS properly receives a complete, signed and paid Form I-526 or I-526E, and it fixes the investor's place in the visa queue for their country of chargeability and their EB-5 category.
Material changeA material change is a change in the facts after a petition is filed whose changed circumstances would have a natural tendency to influence, or are predictably capable of affecting, the decision. Because eligibility is fixed at the time of filing, a material change arising before the investor obtains conditional residence makes the petition unapprovable rather than amendable.

Checked against primary sources on 10 August 2026. Back to the glossary