Plan on $70,000 to $100,000 above the investment itself for a typical regional center case, which puts a realistic all-in figure for an $800,000 targeted employment area deal somewhere between $870,000 and $900,000. Commissioning your own independent diligence pushes it higher. The sponsor's administrative fee is the largest single item and usually runs $50,000 to $80,000. Immigration counsel, government filing fees for every family member and a source of funds report account for most of the balance. None of it can come out of the $800,000, because the full investment has to reach the new commercial enterprise and stay at risk there.
What the $800,000 actually buys
The threshold is $800,000 inside a targeted employment area and $1,050,000 outside one, and both figures adjust for inflation for the first time on 1 January 2027. That money is a purchase of a limited partnership or membership interest in a new commercial enterprise. It has to be at risk with no guaranteed return, and it has to create 10 full time jobs for qualifying US workers.
Sustainment is two years under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, and USCIS explains how it treats the period in Volume 6, Part G of the USCIS Policy Manual. When you actually see the capital again is a different number entirely. Most offerings run five to seven years before repayment, and redeployment into a second project stretches that further. Anyone who tells you the money returns in 24 months is describing the statute rather than the deal. Read the private placement memorandum. That document governs, and it is where the real answer lives.
Government fees are charged per person, not per family
The investor petition, Form I-526E through a regional center or Form I-526 for a direct investment, carries one fee covering the whole family. Everything downstream is priced per head. Each spouse and each child pays a separate fee on Form I-485, or a separate immigrant visa fee through consular processing, plus a medical examination that costs a few hundred dollars per person and is never included. Form I-765 for a work permit and Form I-131 for advance parole carry their own charges when filed with an adjustment. Then Form I-829 arrives two years later with a fee of its own.
USCIS publishes the schedule on its official filing fees page, and those numbers moved in 2024 and will move again. Price your case from that page on the day you file. A brochure quoting a filing fee without a date is telling you how old the brochure is.
Administrative fees and what they really pay for
Most regional center offerings charge a one time administrative fee of $50,000 to $80,000, entirely separate from the $800,000. It covers the sponsor's overhead, the economic impact report and the offering documents. It also funds ongoing compliance obligations such as the annual statement on Form I-956G. In most offerings, part of it pays a commission to whoever introduced you to the deal.
That last item is the one to ask about. Ask it early. The 2022 statute requires promoters and migration agents to register with USCIS on Form I-956K and requires commissions to be disclosed, so ask for the number in writing. A $70,000 administrative fee where $40,000 goes to an agent tells you a great deal about how the project was sold and how much diligence the sponsor's own team performed.
Ask two more questions while you are at it. Is the fee refundable if the I-526E is denied? Is any part of it refundable if the project never breaks ground? Answers vary by sponsor, and both are negotiable when capital is scarce. Whatever you are promised belongs in the subscription agreement, because a reassuring email from a sales desk carries no legal weight at all. Be equally skeptical of any claim that a government body has blessed the offering, a pitch the SEC addresses directly in its investor alert on claims that the SEC has approved an offering. No agency approves these deals. USCIS designates regional centers and reviews project documents, and neither step is an endorsement of the investment.
Source of funds is where the bills surprise people
EB-5 legal fees commonly land between $15,000 and $30,000 for a regional center case, and the spread is driven almost entirely by how complicated your money is. A salaried executive with 10 years of payslips and a clean bank trail sits at the bottom of that range. A business owner selling a company sits at the top, as does a family using gifted funds that trace back to a property sale in a jurisdiction with thin records.
Then add the specialists. A third party source of funds report from an accounting firm typically costs $5,000 to $15,000. Certified translations are priced per page, and a heavy file runs into thousands on its own. Some sponsors require an independent verification report as a condition of accepting your subscription, which is a line item you did not choose and cannot decline.
The regulation driving all of it, 8 CFR 204.6 on EB-5 eligibility, requires evidence that the capital was obtained by lawful means, and USCIS reads it strictly. Underspending here is the most expensive saving available in EB-5. A request for evidence adds months to the timeline and costs more to answer than doing the work properly the first time would have cost.
Getting the money out of your own country
Transfer costs are real and they are specific to where you live. China limits individuals to $50,000 of foreign exchange per year, so an $800,000 investment is usually assembled from relatives, each of whom then becomes part of the source of funds file and part of the legal bill. India permits up to $250,000 per person each financial year under its outbound remittance scheme, with tax collected at source on larger transfers.
Currency movement between the day you commit and the day you fund can cost more than every professional fee on this page combined. Escrow charges, wire fees and independent bank confirmations look trivial next to that, and they still appear on the invoice.
Taxes and the cost that never appears on a term sheet
A green card makes you a US tax resident on worldwide income from your first day of permanent residence, and for most investors that is the largest number in this whole discussion. Somebody with substantial foreign income can pay more US tax in year one than the entire administrative fee. Selling appreciated assets before the residency starting date, restructuring a family holding company, and understanding your home country's exit tax are all far cheaper to handle before the visa than after it.
Opportunity cost belongs in the same paragraph. Eight hundred thousand dollars parked for six years at a distribution rate under 1 percent, measured against what the same capital would earn in a diversified portfolio, is the true price of the green card. Most investors decide it is worth paying. Very few run the arithmetic first.
A realistic all-in budget
- Investment: $800,000 in a targeted employment area or $1,050,000 outside one, adjusting for inflation from 1 January 2027.
- Administrative fee: $50,000 to $80,000, non refundable in most offerings once the petition is filed.
- Immigration counsel: $15,000 to $30,000, higher when the source of funds story is complicated.
- Source of funds report and certified translations: $5,000 to $20,000.
- Government fees: the petition fee once, then adjustment or immigrant visa fees and a medical exam for every family member.
- Independent project diligence: $5,000 to $25,000 to have your own counsel read the offering, which almost nobody pays for and almost everybody should.
Two footnotes worth pricing. A family of four pays roughly the same professional fees as a single investor and noticeably more in government fees, which is the subject of our page on EB-5 for multiple family members. And the calendar carries a cost: petitions filed on or before 30 September 2026 are protected from a program lapse under 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(S), while the regional center program itself is authorized through 30 September 2027.
Where the fee structure signals project risk
Costs signal things. An unusually low administrative fee often means the sponsor is recovering money elsewhere, through a higher interest spread or fees charged inside the project. An unusually high one usually means a long agent chain. Neither is disqualifying and both deserve a direct question.
Timing matters as well. An investor may file Form I-526E once the regional center has filed Form I-956F for that specific offering, and USCIS must approve the I-956F before those petitions can be approved. A project that has already secured that approval carries a different risk profile from one that filed last month, which is explained in our page on exemplar approval and Form I-956F. Waiting for the approval before filing your own petition, though, simply throws away priority date.
Budget $900,000 and be pleasantly surprised. Budget $800,000 and you will be writing unplanned checks at the worst possible moment, which is usually while a request for evidence sits on your desk with a deadline on it. The full sequence and its costs are laid out in our EB-5 timeline from investment to citizenship, and choosing counsel is covered in what EB-5 immigration attorneys do.