EB-5 Visa 2026: Investment Amounts, Deadlines, and Program Status

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program grants US permanent residence in exchange for an at-risk investment that creates at least 10 full-time American jobs. Minimums are USD 800,000 in a targeted employment area or USD 1,050,000 elsewhere. Two statutory deadlines now dominate planning: 30 September 2026 and 1 January 2027.

What Is the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program?

EB-5 is a statutory route to a US green card for investors who place capital at risk in a new commercial enterprise and create at least 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualifying US workers. USCIS administers it, and it is named for the employment-based fifth preference visa category.

Congress created the programme in 1990 to stimulate the US economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors, and added the Regional Center Program in 1992 to allow pooled investment in USCIS-approved projects. The USCIS EB-5 programme page sets out the basic framework, and the current investment amounts appear on the Green Card for Immigrant Investors page.

One point of caution on sources. The USCIS programme page still describes the 2019 modernisation rule and its USD 1.8 million and USD 900,000 figures. Those amounts were superseded by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, which wrote USD 1,050,000 and USD 800,000 directly into statute. Anyone reading that page in isolation will take away the wrong numbers.

The legal foundation matters more than usual right now. EB-5 exists because Congress legislated it, which means only Congress can end it. That distinguishes it sharply from the newer US Gold Card, which was created by executive order and is currently the subject of a federal lawsuit.

How Much Do You Need to Invest?

USD 800,000 for a project in a targeted employment area or a qualifying infrastructure project, and USD 1,050,000 for anything outside a TEA. These figures come from the 2022 Act and remain in force until the first inflation adjustment on 1 January 2027.

In practice almost everyone invests at the lower figure. In the preamble to its 2026 proposed rule, DHS reported that between fiscal years 2016 and 2021 there were 38,250 investments made under regional centers, of which 38,197, or 99.8 percent, were made at the reduced amount.

The 2027 figures in that table are projections, not law. The statute requires adjustment based on the cumulative change in the unadjusted All Items Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but DHS has not announced the resulting amounts. Treat any specific 2027 number, including ours, as an estimate until the department publishes.

What Does an EB-5 Investment Actually Cost?

The qualifying investment is the largest number but not the only one. Budget for regional centre administrative fees, government filing fees, legal fees, and translation, and treat the administrative fee in particular as a real cost rather than a rounding error.

Government filing fees are genuinely unsettled. A federal court set aside the April 2024 fee rule, restoring the earlier Form I-526E fee of USD 3,675 plus the USD 1,000 Integrity Fund fee, while a further DHS fee rule remains pending. Check the USCIS fee schedule for the figure applicable on your filing date rather than relying on any published guide, including this one.

The administrative fee deserves particular attention because it is often presented as incidental. It is not returned, it is charged in addition to the investment, and it varies materially between regional centres offering broadly similar projects. It is a legitimate question to ask what the fee covers.

What Is a Targeted Employment Area?

A TEA is either a rural area, meaning outside a metropolitan statistical area and outside any city or town of 20,000 or more, or an area of high unemployment where the rate is at least 150% of the national average. Investing in a TEA lowers the threshold from USD 1,050,000 to USD 800,000.

The 2022 Act changed who decides. Under the earlier framework, state and local governments designated high-unemployment TEAs and USCIS generally deferred to them, a practice that produced some very creative census tract combinations. USCIS now reviews and determines high-unemployment designations directly.

TEA status is not a permanent attribute of a place. It is assessed against the project and the data current at the time, so a location that qualified for an earlier offering may not qualify now. This is one of the specific areas the 2026 proposed rule addresses, so the framework may shift again once a final rule issues.

Regional Centre or Direct Investment: Which Pathway?

Two structures exist. Regional centre investment pools capital into a USCIS-approved project and allows indirect job creation to count. Direct or standalone investment means running an actual business yourself, where only direct W-2 employees count toward the 10-job requirement.

The market has voted decisively. The overwhelming majority of investors use the regional centre route, for two structural reasons. Indirect and induced jobs, calculated through accepted economic methodology, make the 10-job test far easier to satisfy than hiring ten people directly. And the regional centre route requires no day-to-day management involvement, where a direct investment realistically requires running a company.

The trade-offs run the other way as well. Direct EB-5 gives you control of your own capital and your own business, and it is permanently authorised in statute rather than dependent on the Regional Center Program's reauthorisation cycle. The direct pathway does not sunset in September 2027. It also does not benefit from the grandfathering protection, which by its terms applies to petitions based on an investment associated with a regional center.

For most investors the practical question is not which structure is philosophically better but whether they intend to operate a US business. If the answer is no, the regional centre route is the realistic one, and the diligence burden shifts from running a company to selecting a project.

How Do You Evaluate an EB-5 Project?

This is where money is actually lost, and it receives less attention than it deserves. USCIS approval of a regional centre is not an endorsement of any project, and USCIS states plainly that its published list does not constitute investment advice.

The questions worth asking before committing capital fall into a few groups.

• Form I-956F status. Has the project application been filed, and has it been approved? USCIS will not approve an investor petition until the associated project application is approved, and a denial at project level can take investor petitions down with it.
• Job creation cushion. How many jobs does the economic report project, against how many investors? A project forecasting only the bare minimum leaves no margin if performance disappoints, and job shortfall threatens the Form I-829 stage.
• Capital stack position. Where does EB-5 money sit relative to senior debt and developer equity? EB-5 capital is frequently subordinate, which means it absorbs losses before senior lenders do.
• Construction and completion risk. Is the project fully funded from other sources, or does completion depend on raising the full EB-5 tranche? Dependency on the raise itself is a material risk.
• Exit and repayment mechanics. What is the anticipated repayment source and horizon, and what happens if it slips? EB-5 capital is illiquid for years by design.
• Redeployment policy. If the original loan repays before the investor completes the immigration process, where does the capital go next? The 2026 proposed rule addresses redeployment, so current practice may change.
• Track record. How many I-526 or I-526E approvals has the regional centre obtained, how many I-829 approvals, and have any of its projects failed?

Securities law sits alongside immigration law here. Most EB-5 offerings are securities, and an investor should expect to review a private placement memorandum and take independent securities advice rather than relying on the regional centre's own marketing material.

What Does Source of Funds Documentation Involve?

It is the single most demanding part of an EB-5 file and the most common reason petitions receive Requests for Evidence. The requirement is not merely to show that you have the money, but to trace it lawfully from its original source through every account to the project escrow.

The evidentiary standard is a path, not a snapshot. A bank statement showing a balance proves nothing about where the balance came from. USCIS expects documentation of the earning event, whatever it was, then each transfer, each currency conversion, and each intermediary account between that event and the investment.

Typical qualifying sources include employment income evidenced by tax filings and employment records, business ownership proceeds evidenced by company financials and share transfer documents, property sale proceeds evidenced by sale contracts and title records, inheritance evidenced by wills and probate documents, and gifts, which require the same full tracing for the donor as would be required for the investor. Loans are permitted where properly secured and documented.

Two practical points that determine whether a September deadline is achievable. First, this work commonly begins six to twelve months before filing, because assembling a documentary chain across years of financial history is slow and often uncovers gaps that need resolving. Second, documents in other languages require certified translation, which adds time proportional to volume.

Golden Harbors does not perform source of funds preparation in-house. We coordinate it with specialist US immigration counsel and, where the applicant's assets sit in a jurisdiction with its own currency and documentation regime, with local advisers in that jurisdiction. We are explicit about that division of labour at the outset, because source of funds is precisely the area where a generalist adviser is not the right resource.

What Are the Set-Aside Categories, and Why Do They Matter?

The 2022 Act reserved a share of the annual EB-5 visa supply for three categories: 20% for rural projects, 10% for high-unemployment areas, and 2% for infrastructure. For investors from backlogged countries these reserved categories are currently the single most important feature of the programme.

The reason is visible in the current Visa Bulletin. In the July 2026 Visa Bulletin published by the State Department, EB-5 Unreserved is unavailable for India for the remainder of fiscal year 2026, and sits at a final action date of 1 December 2016 for mainland China. All other chargeability areas are current.

Against that, all three set-aside categories remain current for every country, including India and mainland China. An investor entering through a rural or high-unemployment project therefore faces immediate visa number availability, where the same investor in an unreserved project faces a wait measured in years. That is a structural advantage, not a marketing claim, and it is readable directly from the bulletin.

Two caveats. The reserved categories were created by the 2022 Act and, absent reauthorisation, sunset alongside the Regional Center Program at the end of fiscal year 2027. And a set-aside filing only works if the project genuinely qualifies for the category claimed, which is a diligence question rather than a paperwork one.

How Does EB-5 Work for Investors From Greater China?

Chargeability is the first thing to establish, because Greater China is not one market for visa purposes. Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are separate chargeability areas, and their positions in the Visa Bulletin differ sharply.

Mainland China is the only one of the three that is backlogged. In the July 2026 bulletin, EB-5 Unreserved for China sits at a final action date of 1 December 2016, a wait approaching a decade for anyone filing now in that category. Hong Kong and Taiwan are treated as separate chargeability areas and fall under the all other countries line, which is current across every EB-5 category.

The practical consequence for a mainland investor is that category selection matters more than almost anything else. With the unreserved category effectively closed for practical planning purposes and the rural and high-unemployment set-asides current, the set-aside route is the only one that offers near-term visa availability. For a Hong Kong or Taiwan investor, no such constraint applies, and the planning question reduces to whether a filing can be completed before 30 September 2026.

Capital movement is the other distinctly mainland issue. China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange limits individuals to converting the equivalent of USD 50,000 per person per year, which on its face makes an USD 800,000 investment impossible from a single quota. Investors legitimately address this through family member pooling, pre-existing offshore funds, or documented lending arrangements, and each approach must be evidenced to USCIS in full. Enforcement tightened further from 1 January 2026, when new rules lowered bank verification thresholds for outbound transfers and extended record retention.

Two warnings follow from that. USCIS has issued frequent Requests for Evidence on currency arrangements in mainland filings and expects documentation that any counterparty's offshore funds were themselves lawfully sourced. And derivative children face real age-out exposure on a decade-long timeline: USCIS updated its Child Status Protection Act policy for requests filed on or after 15 August 2025 to calculate visa availability from the Final Action Dates chart, which is less favourable than the approach it replaced. Families with teenage children should model this explicitly with counsel rather than assuming the children travel with the case.

What Happens on 30 September 2026?

It is the last day a regional center petition can be filed and still receive statutory protection against a future lapse of the programme. This is the most consequential near-term date in EB-5, and it is approximately ten weeks away at the time of writing.

Congress wrote the protection into the Immigration and Nationality Act at section 203(b)(5)(S), headed "Protection from expired legislation." If the Regional Center Program's authorisation expires, the Secretary of Homeland Security must continue processing petitions filed on or before 30 September 2026 that are based on an investment in a new commercial enterprise associated with a regional center. The statute further provides that USCIS may not deny such a petition based on the expiration of the legislation, and may not suspend or terminate visa allocation to beneficiaries of approved petitions.

The reason this protection exists is recent history. When the Regional Center Program lapsed in mid-2021, tens of thousands of investors were left in limbo for roughly nine months until the 2022 Act restored it. The grandfathering clause was the legislative response.

Two dates are routinely confused, and the distinction is worth stating plainly. 30 September 2026 is the grandfathering filing cutoff. 30 September 2027 is when the Regional Center Program's authorisation expires unless Congress reauthorises it. You can still file in the intervening year while the programme is authorised, but you file without the statutory safety net.

Does the New DHS Proposed Rule Change the Deadline?

No. On 2 July 2026 the Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule implementing the 2022 Act, at 91 FR 40676. It addresses investment amounts, targeted employment areas, regional centre oversight, and audits, but it does not extend the grandfathering date and could not.

The date is statutory. An agency cannot amend a statute by regulation, so only Congress can move 30 September 2026. What DHS could have done is propose regulations implementing the grandfathering protection, and it did not: the provision is cited once in the rule's list of legal authorities, with no proposal attached.

The calendar makes the point on its own. Comments on the proposed rule are due by 31 August 2026 under DHS docket number USCIS-2026-0100, available through the Federal Register and regulations.gov. DHS must then review comments and prepare a final rule, which routinely takes many months. The grandfathering deadline arrives 30 days after the comment window closes. The rulemaking cannot rescue the date, and the date will pass before the rulemaking finishes.

Everything in a proposed rule remains subject to change before a final rule issues. Investors should not plan around provisions that are not yet law, and should not assume Congress will act on the deadline either. Nothing enacted to date extends it.

Victoria Cold, European Attorney at Golden Harbors, notes: "The EB-5 conversation in the second half of 2026 is really a conversation about sequencing. Source of funds documentation is the long pole, and it is the one step that cannot be compressed at the end. An investor who starts in September to meet a September deadline has already missed it."

How Does the EB-5 Process Work?

Three stages: the investor petition, the conditional green card, then removal of conditions. End to end it is measured in years rather than months, and the timeline depends heavily on country of birth and category.

• Select a project and complete diligence. For regional centre investments the project files Form I-956F, and USCIS will not approve an investor petition until the associated project application is approved.
• Document source of funds. The full investment must be lawfully sourced and traceable, which is the most demanding evidentiary element of the case.
• Invest and file the investor petition: Form I-526E for regional centre investors, Form I-526 for standalone investors.
• On approval, either adjust status inside the United States on Form I-485 or complete consular processing abroad, subject to visa availability under the Visa Bulletin.
• Receive conditional permanent residence, valid for two years, for the investor, spouse, and unmarried children under 21.
• File Form I-829 in the 90-day window before the second anniversary of conditional residence, evidencing that the capital was sustained and the jobs created.

Government filing fees are currently in flux and should be verified rather than assumed. A federal court set aside the April 2024 fee rule, restoring the earlier Form I-526E fee of USD 3,675 plus the USD 1,000 EB-5 Integrity Fund fee, while a further DHS fee rule remains pending. Check the USCIS fee schedule for the figure applicable on your filing date.

What Are the Main Risks?

The capital must be genuinely at risk, which means it can be lost. EB-5 is an investment before it is an immigration product, and the immigration benefit fails if the investment fails to create the required jobs.

• Capital risk. The statute requires the investment to remain at risk in the new commercial enterprise. There is no guaranteed return and no principal protection, and any offering promising otherwise is misdescribing the programme.
• Job creation risk. Removal of conditions on Form I-829 depends on the required 10 jobs being created or preserved. A project that underperforms can jeopardise the immigration outcome as well as the money.
• Project dependency. If the regional centre's Form I-956F is denied, investor petitions tied to that project are likely to fail regardless of how strong the individual's own documentation is.
• Backlog risk. Indian and mainland Chinese investors in the unreserved category face multi-year waits, and children can age out of derivative eligibility during them.
• Legislative risk. The Regional Center Program requires reauthorisation before 30 September 2027, and the reserved categories sunset with it absent congressional action.
• Regulatory risk. The 2026 proposed rule may change bridge financing, redeployment, and promoter registration rules before it is finalised.

Securities law applies alongside immigration law. Most EB-5 offerings are securities, and investors should expect to review a private placement memorandum and take independent securities advice rather than relying on a regional centre's own marketing.

How Does EB-5 Compare to the US Gold Card?

The decisive difference is legal foundation. EB-5 was created by Congress and can only be ended by Congress. The Gold Card was created by executive order in September 2025 and is currently before a federal court on the question of whether that was permissible.

The financial structures differ just as sharply. An EB-5 investment is capital placed at risk in a business, and it can potentially be returned. The Gold Card payment is a non-refundable transfer to the government. EB-5 also carries its own dedicated visa numbers, including the reserved set-asides that remain current for backlogged countries, whereas the Gold Card draws from the existing EB-1 and EB-2 pools and creates no additional capacity.

One documented effect of the Gold Card's rollout has been renewed investor interest in EB-5, precisely because EB-5 rests on statute. Our guide to the US Gold Card covers that programme's current status and litigation in detail. Investors weighing the United States against European residence should also consider the Portugal Golden Visa and the Greece Golden Visa, which have very different presence requirements.

How Golden Harbors Helps

Golden Harbors advisors work through the sequencing question first, because in the second half of 2026 timing drives everything. We assess whether a September filing is realistic given the applicant's source of funds position, and we say so plainly when it is not rather than starting a process that will miss the date.

We are equally clear about the division of labour. Golden Harbors does not prepare source of funds documentation or file petitions in-house. We coordinate the file, introduce and work alongside specialist US immigration counsel and securities advisers, and bring in local advisers where the applicant's assets and currency regime require it. For investors from India and mainland China we model the set-aside categories against the current Visa Bulletin, since category selection often matters more than project selection for those applicants.

Where the United States is one option among several, we compare it against Caribbean citizenship by investment and other routes on honest terms, including the cases where a European residence programme is the better fit.

Frequently Asked Questions About the EB-5 Program

How Much Is the Minimum EB-5 Investment in 2026?

USD 800,000 for a project in a targeted employment area or a qualifying infrastructure project, and USD 1,050,000 for a project outside a TEA. These amounts were set by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 and remain in force until the first inflation adjustment takes effect on 1 January 2027. Verify current figures with USCIS before investing.

What Is the 30 September 2026 EB-5 Deadline?

It is the last day a regional center petition can be filed and still receive protection under INA section 203(b)(5)(S). Petitions filed by that date must continue to be processed even if the Regional Center Program later lapses, cannot be denied because of that expiration, and their visa allocation cannot be suspended. Only Congress can change the date.

Will the EB-5 Investment Amount Increase in 2027?

Yes. The 2022 Act requires automatic adjustment for inflation on 1 January 2027 and every five years thereafter, based on the unadjusted CPI-U published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Industry analysts project the TEA minimum rising toward USD 900,000 and the standard minimum toward USD 1.2 million, but DHS has not published final figures.

What Does EB-5 Cost Beyond the Investment?

Regional centre administrative fees commonly run USD 50,000 to USD 70,000 and are not returned. Add government filing fees, the USD 1,000 Integrity Fund fee on regional centre petitions, immigration legal fees, source of funds support, and translation. Filing fees are subject to litigation and a pending rule, so confirm current amounts with USCIS.

Should You Choose a Regional Centre or Direct EB-5 Investment?

Most investors use the regional centre route because indirect job creation counts toward the 10-job requirement and no day-to-day management is needed. Direct investment means running an actual business where only direct employees count. Direct EB-5 is permanently authorised and does not sunset, but it does not receive the regional centre grandfathering protection.

How Do Chinese Investors Fund an EB-5 Investment?

China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange limits individuals to about USD 50,000 per person per year, so a single quota cannot fund an USD 800,000 investment. Investors commonly use family member pooling, pre-existing offshore funds, or documented loans. Every arrangement must be fully evidenced, and USCIS frequently issues Requests for Evidence on currency transactions in mainland filings.

Are Hong Kong and Taiwan Treated the Same as Mainland China?

No. They are separate chargeability areas. In the July 2026 Visa Bulletin, EB-5 Unreserved for mainland China sits at 1 December 2016, while Hong Kong and Taiwan fall under the all other countries line and are current across every EB-5 category. Mainland-specific currency rules also do not apply to them.

Can EB-5 Money Be Lost?

Yes. The statute requires the capital to remain at risk in the new commercial enterprise, so there is no guaranteed return or principal protection. If the project fails, the investor can lose both the money and the immigration benefit, since removal of conditions depends on the required jobs being created.

How Long Does the EB-5 Process Take?

It is measured in years rather than months and varies substantially by country of birth and category. Stages include the investor petition, conditional permanent residence for two years, and removal of conditions on Form I-829. Investors from backlogged countries in the unreserved category face the longest timelines; set-aside categories are currently faster.

What Is Required for EB-5 Source of Funds?

A traceable path from the lawful original source through every account to the project escrow, not merely proof that you hold the money. Common sources include salary, business proceeds, property sales, inheritance, gifts, and secured loans. Preparation commonly begins six to twelve months before filing, and foreign-language documents require certified translation.