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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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Foreign investor applicants using the EB-5 immigrant investor program will face higher filing fees and changes to certain application procedures under a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
The changes affect investor petitions, certain existing investors, and regional centers participating in the program. The revised fees take effect on November 30, 2026.
The EB-5 visa program allows eligible foreign investors to seek U.S. permanent residence by investing at least $1.05 million in a qualifying business, or $800,000 in a targeted employment area or infrastructure project, and creating at least 10 full-time jobs.
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USCIS, an immigration benefits agency, is largely funded by fees rather than congressional appropriations, and DHS said the changes are intended to recover the costs of administering the EB-5 program.
The changes come as the Trump administration has sought to exert greater control of legal immigration, including through changes to visa and green card programs. The higher fees will make this particular pathway to permanent residence more expensive, adding thousands of dollars in government fees for some applicants on top of the investment already required.
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New EB-5 Fees Take Effect November 30
Applications, petitions and requests postmarked on or after Nov. 30 must include the fees established by the new rule. Filings postmarked before that date remain subject to the fee schedule in effect at the time they are sent.
DHS estimates that the revised schedule will affect about 16,600 EB-5 filings annually. Across the nine existing forms covered by the rule, the department calculated a weighted average fee increase of about 70.7%, or approximately $2,946 per filing. The individual increases will vary depending on the form and any additional charges that apply.
What Individual Investors Will Pay
The filing fee for Form I-526, used by a standalone EB-5 investor, will rise from $3,675 to $7,615. The new amount includes a $75 technology fee. The technology charge is intended to support improvements to USCIS systems used to process, adjudicate, and archive EB-5 filings, according to the Federal Register notice.
For a regional center investor filing Form I-526E, the initial filing fee will be $7,850, including the technology charge. The investor must also pay a separate EB-5 Integrity Fund fee, which will increase from $1,000 to $1,100.
An amendment to Form I-526E will carry a $7,775 fee. The technology fee does not apply to an I-526E amendment, according to the final regulation.
Form I-829, which qualifying investors use to ask USCIS to remove the conditions on their permanent resident status, will increase from $3,750 to $5,000. An investor may generally include an eligible spouse and children on the petition. Family members who are not included may be required to file separate petitions under the circumstances described in the rule.
New Form Introduced for Some Legacy Investors
The rule introduces Form I-527, Amendment to Legacy Form I-526, with a filing fee of $10,330.
The form is intended for certain investors who filed Form I-526 before the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 and need to amend their petitions to preserve eligibility following the termination of a regional center or the debarment of a new commercial enterprise or job-creating entity. It is not a general replacement for Form I-526.
USCIS set the fee based partly on projected demand and the estimated cost of reviewing amendments. The agency estimates about 20 filings annually but acknowledged that data on expected use of the form is limited.
Regional Centers Face Higher Charges
Regional centers will also pay higher annual EB-5 Integrity Fund fees. Centers with more than 20 qualifying investors will pay $22,000, up from $20,000, while those with 20 or fewer will pay $11,000, up from $10,000.
The fees support oversight of the EB-5 program, including audits, site visits and fraud investigations, DHS said.
Regional centers that pay their annual Integrity Fund fees between November 1 and November 30 will face a 10% penalty, rising to 20% for payments made between December 1 and December 30. Centers that fail to pay the fee and any applicable penalty by December 30 face termination of their designation.
Other fees are also increasing. An initial Form I-956 application for regional-center designation will cost $44,115, while Form I-956F will cost $42,675.
November Visa Bulletin Brings Progress for Some Applicants
Separately, the State Department’s November Visa Bulletin shows movement in several employment- and family-based green card categories. The bulletin determines when applicants in numerically limited categories may move forward based on their priority date and country of chargeability.
For employment-based applicants, the EB-2 final action date advanced by three months to April 1, 2025, for most countries, while EB-3 advanced by one month to June 15, 2024. India saw more limited movement, with its EB-3 final action date advancing by 21 days, while EB-2 remained unchanged. China's EB-3 date advanced by 14 days, while its EB-2 date also remained unchanged.
There were larger advances in some family-sponsored categories. Final action dates for the F1, F2B and F3 family-sponsored categories advanced by one year for most countries, including China and India. The F4 category also advanced by one year for most countries, including China, but remained unchanged for India, Mexico and the Philippines. The Visa Bulletin changes are separate from the new EB-5 fee schedule taking effect November 30.
For EB-5 applicants, the unreserved category's final action dates remained unchanged, while the rural, high-unemployment and infrastructure set-aside categories remained current for all countries.
Immigration attorney Nandini Nair told Newsweek that the November Visa Bulletin offers a "mixed picture".
"While we are seeing meaningful movement in EB-2 for most countries and modest progress in EB-3, Indian professionals continue to face significant backlogs, particularly in EB-1 and EB-2," Nair told Newsweek. "The continued use of the Dates for Filing chart provides some relief by allowing eligible applicants to move forward with adjustment filings, but filing an application is not the same as receiving a green card. For many highly skilled professionals who have already spent years waiting, November brings more frustration than meaningful progress."
Gnanamookan Krishnan Senthurjothi, an immigration attorney and co-founder of the law firm The Visa Code, told Newsweek that Indian applicants saw “limited progress” in November.
"The continued backlog underscores the lengthy wait facing Indian professionals seeking US permanent residence."
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Rhian Morgan.
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