USCIS will soon increase the filing fees and the required investment amounts under the EB-5 program

USCIS is about to increase the filing fees that EB-5 investors pay, starting from November 30, 2026. USCIS will also increase the minimum required investment amounts under the EB-5 programs, starting from January 1, 2027. I will fill you in on the details below.

With an announcement in the Federal Register on September 30, 2026, USCIS announced that it will increase, from November 30, 2026, the fees for all EB-5-related filings, from investors and the regional centers alike. Investors filing an I-526E petition, to launch their immigration process based on investment in a project under a regional center, will pay a total of $8,950, up from $4,675. This consists of an I-526E filing fee of $7,850, increased from $3,675, and an EB-5 Integrity Fund Fee of $1,100, increased from $1,000. Investors filing an I-526 petition, based on an investment in their own self-directed business, will pay a total of $7,615, increased from $3,675. Investors filing an I-829 petition, in order to remove the conditions from their conditional permanent residence, will pay a filing fee of $5,000, increased from $3,750.

When Congress extended the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program (the regional center version of the EB-5 program) in March 2022, it imposed on it and the original and permanent EB-5 program for investors with stand-alone businesses, aka the “Standard EB-5 Program”, an inflation-based adjustment provision that would increase the investment amount ever 5 years based on the CPI inflation rate. The first upward adjustment of the minimum required investment amounts will take place on January 1, 2027. USCIS has not yet announced the exact amounts, but industry insiders have done the calculations and anticipate that the new investment amounts will be somewhere between $900,000 and $937,500 for high-unemployment-rate areas and rural areas, up from the current level of $800,000, and somewhere between $1,200,000 and $1,250,000 for economically more prosperous areas, up from $1,050,000.

In order to avoid the increase in the filing fees, an investor would have to invest and file their I-526, I-526E, or I-829 petition on or before November 29, 2026. In order to avoid the investment amount increase, an investor would have to invest and file the I-526 or I-526E petition on or before December 31, 2026.

If you would like to see the announcement in the Federal Register of the filing fee increase, please click here.

If you would like to see the legal provision, INA § 203(b)(5)(C)(iii) (codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5)(C)(iii), that provides for the upward adjustment of the investment amount based on inflation, please click here.