EB-5 investors will pay roughly double to file their initial petitions starting November 30, 2026, under a final fee rule U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on September 29. The Form I-526E fee for regional center investors rises from $3,675 to $7,850, and the Form I-829 fee to remove conditions rises from $3,750 to $5,000.
The rule, scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on September 30, finalizes the proposal the Department of Homeland Security issued in October 2025. It is the first EB-5 fee schedule built on the program-specific fee study Congress required in the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022. USCIS says the new fees are meant to recover the full cost of running the program, support its statutory processing time goals, and fund integrity work such as audits and site visits.
Beyond the filing fees, the rule raises EB-5 Integrity Fund fees by 10 percent, adds a $75 technology fee to initial investor petitions, creates a new Form I-527 for pre-2022 investors, and codifies late-payment penalties for regional centers. Any filing postmarked on or after November 30 must carry the new fee.
The new fee schedule at a glance
Investor petition fees roughly double, while fees for regional center amendments and annual statements go down. “Current” below means the fees USCIS has collected since a federal court reinstated the pre-April 2024 schedule in November 2025.
| Form | Who files | Current fee | Final fee (Nov. 30, 2026) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I-526E, initial (incl. $75 tech fee) | Regional center investor | $3,675 | $7,850 | +$4,175 (+114%) |
| I-526E, amendment | Regional center investor | $3,675 | $7,775 | +$4,100 (+112%) |
| I-526 (incl. $75 tech fee) | Standalone investor | $3,675 | $7,615 | +$3,940 (+107%) |
| I-829 | Investor removing conditions | $3,750 | $5,000 | +$1,250 (+33%) |
| I-527 (new) | Pre-2022 investor amending legacy I-526 | None | $10,330 | New fee |
| I-956, initial designation | Regional center | $17,795 | $44,115 | +$26,320 (+148%) |
| I-956, amendment | Regional center | $17,795 | $9,835 | −$7,960 (−45%) |
| I-956F | Regional center (project approval) | $17,795 | $42,675 | +$24,880 (+140%) |
| I-956G annual statement | Regional center | $3,035 | $2,165 | −$870 (−29%) |
| I-956H | Persons involved with a regional center | None | $65 | New fee |
| I-956K | Direct and third-party promoters | None | $2,165 | New fee |
| I-526E Integrity Fund fee | Regional center investor | $1,000 | $1,100 | +$100 (+10%) |
| Regional center Integrity Fund fee, 20 or fewer investors | Regional center (annual) | $10,000 | $11,000 | +$1,000 (+10%) |
| Regional center Integrity Fund fee, 21+ investors | Regional center (annual) | $20,000 | $22,000 | +$2,000 (+10%) |
EB-5 in brief
EB-5 is the U.S. immigrant investor visa: foreign nationals who invest in a U.S. business that creates jobs can earn a green card for themselves, their spouse, and their unmarried children under 21.
- Origins. Congress created EB-5 in 1990 to bring capital investment and job creation to the U.S. economy. The regional center program followed in 1992 and was rebuilt by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, which authorizes it through September 30, 2027.
- Visa numbers. About 10,000 visas are available each year, shared between investors and their families.
- Investment amounts. The minimum is $1,050,000, or $800,000 in a targeted employment area (rural or high-unemployment) or an infrastructure project.
- Job creation. Each investment must create at least 10 full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers. Regional center investors can count indirect jobs toward up to 90 percent of that requirement.
- Two routes. Standalone (direct) investors file Form I-526. Investors pooling capital through a USCIS-designated regional center file Form I-526E, which is the far more common path: USCIS projects about 8,500 I-526E filings a year versus about 312 I-526 filings.
- Conditional to permanent. Approved investors first receive a two-year conditional green card. They then file Form I-829 to show the investment was sustained and the jobs were created, which removes the conditions.
What changes for investors
A regional center investor filing on or after November 30 will pay $8,950 at the petition stage (the $7,850 I-526E fee plus the $1,100 Integrity Fund fee), up from $4,675 today. Adjustment of status, work permit, travel document and biometrics fees are separate and are not changed by this rule.
Initial petitions. The I-526E fee rises to $7,850 and the standalone I-526 fee to $7,615. The I-526E now carries a slightly higher base fee than the I-526 because USCIS found I-526E cases take longer to adjudicate (9.14 hours versus 8.76), largely due to the stricter lawful-source-of-funds review the 2022 Act requires.
New $75 technology fee. Both initial fees include a new EB-5 technology fee, which the 2022 Act caps at 1 percent of the petition fee. It does not apply to I-526E amendments, which is why the amendment fee is $75 lower. USCIS expects the fee to raise under $1 million a year and says it will fund the move from paper filing to electronic case processing.
Removing conditions. The I-829 fee rises 33 percent to $5,000, well below the $7,860 DHS proposed in 2025.
Family members filing their own I-829. The rule settles a long-standing gap on how a spouse and children file when they are not on the principal investor’s I-829:
- If the investor has died, all family members may file together on a single I-829.
- In every other case, such as divorce or an investor who chooses not to file, each family member must file a separate I-829 and pay a separate fee.
- Family members filing separately face the same deadline that would have applied to the investor. DHS declined commenters’ requests to tie that deadline to each family member’s own conditional status.
What changes for regional centers and promoters
New regional centers and new projects face the steepest increases, while existing centers filing amendments and annual statements will pay less.
Designation and project filings. An initial I-956 designation rises to $44,115 and an I-956F project application to $42,675. Both now carry the cost of USCIS terminating (or reaffirming) regional centers. After industry pushback, DHS stopped loading those termination costs onto I-956 amendments, which drop to $9,835. DHS rejected calls for tiered fees based on project size or the type of amendment, citing a lack of data.
Annual statements and registrations. The I-956G annual statement falls to $2,165. Two filings that were previously free now carry fees: $65 for the I-956H bona fides form for people involved with a regional center, and $2,165 for the I-956K promoter registration.
Integrity Fund fees rise 10 percent. DHS indexed the fees to inflation from 2022 to 2025, up from the 8.25 percent it proposed. The annual regional center fee, due each October 1, becomes $22,000, or $11,000 for centers with 20 or fewer total investors in the prior fiscal year. For that count, DHS treats an investor’s I-829 filing as the point they stop counting toward a center’s total.
Late-payment penalties are now in regulation. The 2022 Act requires a penalty for paying more than 30 days late and termination for not paying within 90 days. Under the penalty schedule DHS proposed, which the final rule does not list among its changes:
- Paid on days 31–60 after the due date: 10 percent penalty.
- Paid on days 61–90: 20 percent penalty.
- Unpaid after 90 days: termination of the regional center’s designation.
Termination is not automatic. USCIS will first issue a notice of intent to terminate, and a center can appeal. DHS said the statute leaves no room for waivers or exceptions to the deadlines.
New Form I-527 for legacy investors
Investors who filed an I-526 before the 2022 Act and whose regional center is terminated, or whose project is debarred, will use a new Form I-527 costing $10,330 to amend their petition and keep their eligibility.
The form implements the 2022 Act’s protection for good-faith investors caught up in a sponsor’s failure. The fee is higher than the $8,000 DHS proposed, despite commenters calling even that figure punitive. DHS attributed the increase to larger USCIS and investor program budgets and declined to offer fee waivers or a reduced rate.
DHS did offer several clarifications that matter to affected investors:
- Priority dates are kept. USCIS will not treat an I-527 as a new petition, so the original priority date stands.
- Not every legacy investor needs one. An investor who remains eligible despite the termination, for example because the project is complete with sufficient jobs and capital sustained, does not need to file an I-527 just to join a new regional center.
- Low take-up so far. As of July 20, 2026, about 10 percent of investors who responded to USCIS’s first round of notices said they intended to amend. USCIS now projects only about 20 I-527 filings a year.
- Case-by-case review. Whether source of funds and job creation are re-examined will depend on each investor’s circumstances.
The protection does not extend to investors whose conditional residence has already been terminated after an I-829 denial, including those in removal proceedings.
How we got here
The new fees land above today’s court-restored levels but well below the April 2024 schedule that a federal court blocked, and below what DHS itself proposed a year ago for most investor forms.
| Form | April 2024 fee (stayed) | Oct. 2025 proposal | Final rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| I-526E, initial | $11,160 | $9,625 | $7,850 |
| I-829 | $9,525 | $7,860 | $5,000 |
| I-956, initial | $47,695 | $28,895 | $44,115 |
| I-956F | $47,695 | $29,935 | $42,675 |
The court ruling. USCIS raised EB-5 fees sharply on April 1, 2024, as part of its agency-wide fee rule. On November 12, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado stayed those EB-5 fees in Moody v. Noem, finding that the 2022 Act barred DHS from setting them without the program-specific fee study. USCIS reverted to the older fees but has said it will not refund investors who paid the higher amounts, noting the court ordered no reimbursement.
Why the numbers moved. DHS rebuilt its fee study using fiscal 2026–2027 projections rather than 2024–2025, as commenters had urged. Projected annual EB-5 filings rose 46 percent to about 16,600, led by I-526E receipts jumping from 3,500 to 8,500. Higher volume spread costs more thinly across investor forms, bringing their fees down from the proposal. Regional center forms went the other way: projected I-956 filings fell 74 percent, so each one carries more cost.
The funding gap. USCIS puts the EB-5 program’s annual cost at about $105 million, against roughly $56.6 million in revenue at current fees. The new schedule is designed to close that $48.4 million gap. USCIS receives no congressional appropriation for EB-5, and DHS chose not to have EB-5 fees subsidize fee-exempt humanitarian work.
Processing times. The fees are set to support the 2022 Act’s average processing goals: 240 days for I-526E and I-829 petitions (120 days for targeted employment area investments), and 180 days for I-956 and I-956F applications (90 days for I-956F projects in a targeted employment area). DHS declined to write these goals into regulation, calling them targets rather than requirements.
Key dates and what to watch
Investors with petitions in preparation have until November 29 to file at today’s lower fees, and a second cost change follows five weeks later.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| Sept. 29, 2026 | USCIS announces the final rule |
| Sept. 30, 2026 | Rule published in the Federal Register |
| Nov. 30, 2026 | New fees apply to filings postmarked on or after this date |
| Jan. 1, 2027 | Scheduled inflation adjustment to the $1,050,000 / $800,000 minimum investment amounts under the 2022 Act |
| Sept. 30, 2027 | Regional center program authorization expires unless Congress extends it |
More rulemaking is coming. This rule covers fees only. A separate DHS proposal published July 2, 2026, would implement the 2022 Act’s broader integrity and eligibility reforms, including questions on sustainment periods and investor protections that commenters raised here. DHS also says it will revisit EB-5 fees in future reviews, including the I-527 fee once it has more filing data.
Sources
- USCIS news release: USCIS Adjusts EB-5 Fees to Cover Program Costs and Strengthen Integrity Measures (Sept. 29, 2026; AILA Doc. No. 26092993)
- DHS final rule, EB-5 Fee Rule, Federal Register public inspection copy (FR Doc. 2026-20016)
- DHS proposed rule, EB-5 Fee Rule, 90 FR 48516 (Oct. 23, 2025)
- EB5Investors.com: EB-5 filing fees to increase on November 30 (Jan. 1, 2027 investment adjustment)
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