eb5 visa cost
EB-5 Visa Cost: $800,000 TEA to $1.05M, All Fees
The EB-5 minimum is 1,050,000 US dollars, or 800,000 dollars for a targeted employment area or infrastructure project, and both figures face their first inflation adjustment for petitions filed on or after 1 January 2027. Filing fees changed direction in November 2025, when a court order sent EB-5 forms back to their pre-2024 amounts. Below that, the costs that decide the outcome are the ones attached to job creation and to what the regulations refuse to count as capital.
Two investment amounts, and a deadline on both
For petitions filed on or after 15 March 2022, when the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act took effect, the standard minimum investment is 1,050,000 US dollars. Investing in a targeted employment area brings that down to 800,000 dollars, and since the Act that lower figure also covers qualifying infrastructure projects. The older 1,000,000 and 500,000 dollar figures apply only to petitions filed before that date, and the 1.8 million and 900,000 dollar numbers still circulating online come from a 2019 rule that a federal court vacated in 2021.
The part worth planning around is what happens next. Future adjustments are tied to inflation using the change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers from 15 March 2022, applied every five years, and the first of those adjustments takes effect for petitions filed on or after 1 January 2027. Anyone weighing EB-5 across a multi-year horizon is looking at a known repricing date rather than an open-ended risk.
A targeted employment area is either a rural area or one with unemployment at 150 percent or more of the national average. Rural means outside any metropolitan statistical area and outside the boundary of any city or town of 20,000 people or more. Because the designation is assessed at the time of investment, it is a project characteristic rather than something you elect.
The filing fees changed direction in November 2025
This is where most published EB-5 cost breakdowns are now wrong. Following a court order partially staying the 2024 DHS fee rule, USCIS published a new edition of Form G-1055 on 14 November 2025 that returned the EB-5 forms to their pre-April 2024 amounts.
On the current schedule that means 3,675 dollars to file Form I-526 as a standalone investor or Form I-526E as a regional center investor, and 3,750 dollars for Form I-829 to remove conditions at the end. Regional center investors filing an initial I-526E on or after 1 October 2022 must also include a separate 1,000 dollar EB-5 Integrity Fund fee, which does not apply to an amendment. Adjusting status from inside the United States on Form I-485 is 1,440 dollars per person on paper.
Against a 800,000 dollar investment these are small numbers, and that is the point: government fees are never what makes EB-5 expensive. Regional center administrative or subscription fees, immigration counsel, and securities and tax advice are the professional costs that actually accumulate, and unlike the filing fees they are not published anywhere you can check them.
What the regulations refuse to count as capital
Capital means cash and real, personal or mixed tangible assets you own and control, valued at fair market value. The exclusions matter more than the definition, because each one describes a deal structure someone will offer you.
Four things do not count. Assets obtained directly or indirectly by unlawful means. Capital invested in exchange for a note, bond, convertible debt or any other debt arrangement between you and the new commercial enterprise. Capital invested with a guaranteed rate of return. And capital subject to any agreement giving you a contractual right to repayment, with one narrow carve-out: the enterprise may hold a buy-back option exercisable solely at its own discretion.
So the reassurance a nervous investor most wants, some promise of getting the money back, is the precise feature that disqualifies the investment. If a project offers a guaranteed return or a redemption right you control, it is not offering a compliant EB-5 investment, whatever the marketing says. You must also establish that you are the legal owner of the capital, which is what the source-of-funds work exists to document.
Job creation is the condition that removes the conditions
EB-5 grants conditional permanent residence first. Getting the conditions removed depends on job creation, so this is the requirement that decides whether the investment achieved what you bought it for. The enterprise must create full-time positions for at least ten qualifying employees.
How those jobs may be counted is the main practical difference between the two routes. A new commercial enterprise outside a regional center must directly create the positions, meaning it is itself the employer. Inside a regional center, jobs may be created directly or indirectly, and up to 90 percent of the requirement may be met with indirect jobs modelled from project expenditure. That flexibility is why most capital goes through regional centers, and it is also why the credibility of a project's job-creation methodology deserves as much scrutiny as its financial return.
A troubled business is treated differently again, allowing job maintenance rather than creation: the investor shows employee numbers will be no lower than pre-investment levels for at least two years. A troubled business must have existed for at least two years and lost at least 20 percent of its net worth over the preceding 12 or 24 months.
Set-asides, and the arithmetic of time
The Reform and Integrity Act reserved a share of EB-5 visas each fiscal year by investment type: 20 percent for rural areas, 10 percent for high-unemployment areas, and 2 percent for infrastructure projects. Unused set-aside visas stay in their category for one further fiscal year, then release into the unreserved EB-5 numbers in the third year. For applicants from heavily backlogged countries, choosing a rural project can matter more to the timeline than anything else in the file.
One date belongs in every EB-5 plan and rarely appears in the marketing. Immigrant visas under the Regional Center Program are authorised through 30 September 2027. The programme has been reauthorised repeatedly since 1992 and may well be again, but a route whose statutory authorisation expires inside the ordinary processing window is a route with legislative risk attached, and that risk is not priced in a fee table.
So a complete EB-5 quote has five parts: the qualifying investment, project and regional center fees, government filing fees, professional fees for counsel and source-of-funds work, and family processing. Ask for those separated. Then ask separately what happens to your capital if the project underperforms, because approval and repayment are independent questions and no one should present either as settled.
Common questions
How much does the EB-5 visa cost in 2026?
The minimum qualifying investment is 1,050,000 US dollars, or 800,000 dollars in a targeted employment area or a qualifying infrastructure project, for petitions filed on or after 15 March 2022. On top sit government filing fees of 3,675 dollars for Form I-526 or I-526E and 3,750 dollars for Form I-829, plus a 1,000 dollar Integrity Fund fee for initial I-526E filings. Regional center administrative fees, immigration counsel and source-of-funds work are additional and are not published.
Is the EB-5 minimum investment going up?
Yes, on a scheduled basis. The amounts are adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers measured from 15 March 2022, with adjustments every five years. The first adjustment takes effect for petitions filed on or after 1 January 2027. That makes the filing date, rather than the date you commit funds or sign project documents, the thing that fixes which figure applies to you.
Why do some sites say EB-5 costs 900,000 dollars?
Because they are quoting a rule that no longer exists. A 2019 modernisation rule raised the amounts to 1.8 million dollars and 900,000 dollars, but the US District Court for the Northern District of California vacated it in June 2021 in Behring Regional Center LLC v. Wolf. The figures that apply now come from the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022: 1,050,000 dollars standard and 800,000 dollars for a targeted employment area.
What is a targeted employment area for EB-5?
Either a rural area or an area of high unemployment, assessed at the time of investment. Rural means anywhere outside a metropolitan statistical area and outside the outer boundary of a city or town with a population of 20,000 or more. High unemployment means the relevant census tract or contiguous tracts show a weighted average unemployment rate of at least 150 percent of the national average. Qualifying reduces the minimum investment to 800,000 dollars.
How many jobs must an EB-5 investment create?
At least ten full-time positions for qualifying employees. Outside a regional center the new commercial enterprise must directly employ those workers itself. Within a regional center, jobs may be counted directly or indirectly and up to 90 percent of the requirement can be met through indirect jobs. In a troubled business the investor may instead show that employment will be maintained at no less than pre-investment levels for at least two years.
Can an EB-5 project promise to return my money?
Not without breaking the rules it is selling compliance with. USCIS excludes from qualifying capital any investment made in exchange for a debt arrangement, any investment carrying a guaranteed rate of return, and any investment subject to an agreement giving the investor a contractual right to repayment. The only permitted repayment mechanism is a buy-back option exercisable solely at the discretion of the enterprise, not the investor.
How long is the EB-5 regional center programme authorised for?
Immigrant visas under the Regional Center Program are authorised through 30 September 2027. Congress first created the programme as a pilot in 1992 and has reauthorised it repeatedly since, but the authorisation is finite and sits inside the ordinary processing window for many applicants. Treat that as a genuine planning risk and ask counsel what happens to a pending petition if reauthorisation is delayed.
Official sources to verify
- EB-5 Immigrant Investor ProgramU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- About the EB-5 Visa ClassificationU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- Form G-1055, Fee ScheduleU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
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