How much EB-5 costs in 2026: investment, USCIS fees and the full budget

Key points

• The investment amount is currently $800,000 in a targeted employment area or infrastructure project and $1,050,000 otherwise.
• From 30 November 2026 a regional center petition (I-526E) costs $7,850, a standalone petition (I-526) $7,615 and the I-829 petition to remove conditions $5,000. The postmark date decides which fee applies.
• The EB-5 Integrity Fund fee paid with each I-526E rises from $1,000 to $1,100.
• The first inflation adjustment to the investment amount applies to petitions filed on or after 1 January 2027. USCIS has not yet published the new figures.
• According to DHS, regional centers typically charge an administrative fee of about 10% of the investment, roughly $80,000.

What the cost of EB-5 is made of

EB-5 grants a green card for investing in a US business that creates at least 10 full-time jobs. The full programme terms are on our page about the EB-5 investor green card, and the filing sequence is in our EB-5 guide. Here we focus on money alone.

An investor's budget has five parts. The first is the investment itself. Investors expect to get it back, but the law requires the capital to be placed at risk in a business, with no guaranteed return. The second is the regional center's administrative fee, or the cost of your own project if you invest directly. The third is government fees paid to USCIS and the Department of State. The fourth is document preparation: translations, apostilles and source of funds evidence. The fifth is legal work in the US and in your home country.

Only the first and third parts can be stated precisely, because the statute and USCIS regulations set them. Everything else depends on the project, the family and how complex your income history is. An honest budget therefore always mixes exact lines with lines marked "to be confirmed".

The investment amount: $800,000 and $1,050,000

For petitions filed on or after 15 March 2022, the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 set two amounts. The reduced amount is $800,000 if the project is in a targeted employment area or is an infrastructure project. The standard amount is $1,050,000 in all other cases. A targeted employment area is either a rural area outside a metropolitan statistical area or an area with unemployment of at least 150% of the national average.

In practice almost every investment uses the reduced amount. In the final rule DHS reports that between fiscal years 2016 and 2025 there were 50,766 regional center investments, of which 50,703 were made at the reduced amount. The statute also reserves 20% of visas for rural areas, 10% for high-unemployment areas and 2% for infrastructure projects. How the queues are moving is covered in our news on the October EB-5 visa bulletin and the November visa bulletin.

The investment must be capital: cash or other assets owned and controlled by the investor, valued at fair market value. USCIS expressly excludes assets acquired by unlawful means. That is why the question of what EB-5 costs is always tied to a second one: can you prove where the money came from?

The 1 January 2027 adjustment

The 2022 Act tied both amounts to inflation. USCIS states that adjustments use the change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) from 15 March 2022 to the date of adjustment, every five years, with the first adjustment effective for petitions filed on or after 1 January 2027.

USCIS had not published the new amounts when this article was prepared, and we will not guess them. What is clear is that the amounts will go up, and the filing date of your petition decides which amount applies to you. If you file an I-526E before 1 January 2027, the $800,000 and $1,050,000 thresholds apply. A January filing will fall under the new amount.

There is a second date as well. The Regional Center Program is authorised by statute through 30 September 2027. In the final rule DHS assumes Congress will extend it, as it has before, but that is an assumption, not a decision. For an investor it is one more reason not to delay a filing without cause.

What this means for you. If your source of funds documents are ready, the best moment to file is before 30 November 2026, when both the old fees and the old investment amount apply. If you cannot make it, the next cut-off is 31 December 2026: the fees will be new, but the investment amount will still be the current one.

USCIS fees before and after 30 November 2026

On 30 September 2026 DHS published the final EB-5 fee rule in the Federal Register. It takes effect on 30 November 2026. Any petition or application postmarked on or after that date must be paid at the new rates.

Why is the pre-30 November fee $3,675 when USCIS raised it to $11,160 in 2024? A federal court in Colorado stayed certain EB-5 fees from the 2024 fee rule. Since 12 November 2025 USCIS has again accepted the fees that applied until 31 March 2024. The new rule replaces them from 30 November 2026.

The $75 technology fee is already included in the I-526 fee and the initial I-526E fee, so it is not paid separately. The rule provides no fee waivers or exemptions for EB-5. Since September 2022 USCIS has not accepted a single combined payment for an I-526E and related forms: each form needs its own payment, or the package is rejected.

The EB-5 Integrity Fund: who pays and how much

The Integrity Fund pays for USCIS compliance reviews, audits and site visits of regional centers. An investor pays into it once, with each I-526E petition. The fee is currently $1,000 and will be $1,100 under the new rule. DHS raised it by 10% to reflect inflation from 2022 to 2025.

The annual fee is paid by the regional center, not the investor. On 1 October each year a center pays $22,000, or $11,000 if it has 20 or fewer investors. Before the rule the amounts were $20,000 and $10,000. Late payment carries a 10% or 20% penalty, and if a center has not paid by 30 December, USCIS terminates its designation. For an investor this is a reason to ask the center how it handles the fee and what happens to the project if the designation ends.

A standalone investor filing an I-526 without a regional center does not pay into the Integrity Fund. In exchange, that investor must create 10 direct jobs, while in a regional center up to 90% of the jobs can be counted as indirect.

The budget by stage: from petition to permanent green card

The EB-5 route has three stages, each with its own payments.

Under current USCIS regulations the I-485 fee is $1,440 for each applicant aged 14 or older and $950 for a child under 14 filing together with a parent. The EB-5 fee rule does not change this. An employment authorisation application (I-765) filed with a pending I-485 costs $260, and a travel document (I-131) costs $630. Both are optional: you file them if you need to work or travel while the I-485 is pending.

On the consular route, instead of the I-485 each family member pays the Department of State immigrant visa fee and a medical examination by a panel physician, and then the USCIS immigrant fee of $235 per person for producing the green card after entry. We confirm the consular fee and the medical exam cost on the payment date, as they are set by the Department of State and the physicians, not by USCIS.

Family costs: a worked example

Let us count USCIS fees only for a family of four already living in the US on another visa: the investor, a spouse and two children aged 15 and 10. The investor uses a regional center and files the petition after 30 November 2026 together with the I-485 applications.

The total is $19,220 for the family, before any I-765 or I-131. If the same family files before 30 November, the I-526E costs $3,675 and the Integrity Fund $1,000, while the I-829 two years later is paid at whatever rate applies then. Under today's rules the difference on the I-526E and Integrity Fund alone is $4,275.

If a spouse or child is not included in the investor's I-829, each of them files their own petition and pays their own fee; the new rule clarifies this in 8 CFR 216.6. Including the whole family in one petition is simpler and cheaper.

The full investor budget

Below is the budget structure we build for a client before a project is chosen. Exact figures appear only where the statute or a USCIS regulation sets them. The other lines say "depends" or "to be confirmed", and that is not evasion: legal and project costs cannot be the same for everyone.

After the investment itself, the most visible line is the regional center's administrative fee. In the final rule DHS notes that almost all centers charge about 10% of the investment and uses $80,000 per investor as a baseline. A given project may charge differently, so the fee is checked against the offering documents.

Taxes deserve separate thought. A green card changes your tax position in the US, and for many investors that is the most significant long-term cost. It is not a USCIS fee, but it is worth reviewing with a tax adviser before filing, not after arrival.

Source of funds evidence

An I-526E will not succeed without proof that the capital was lawfully obtained. You need to trace the money from its source to the project account: salary, the sale of a business or property, dividends, an inheritance, a gift, or a loan secured by your own assets. Each step needs a document, and foreign documents usually need translation and an apostille.

Two concepts are worth separating. Source of funds is where this particular $800,000 came from. Source of wealth is how you built your overall wealth. USCIS focuses on the first, but without the second the story often looks incomplete. Our source of funds guide explains how to build the file, and our article on documenting cash savings covers cash and older savings.

We prepare the file as part of our source of funds service. Documents from different countries go through sworn translation and are legalised with an apostille. This part usually sets the filing timeline: a project can be chosen in a week, while archive records of a business sale from ten years ago can take months to collect.

If EB-5 does not fit your budget

EB-5 is a permanent green card, and the high entry threshold is the price of that. If the goal is to live and run a business in the US, without necessarily holding permanent status at once, compare EB-5 with the E-2 visa. It requires a substantial investment in your own business, but no fixed amount. Citizens of some countries cannot obtain an E-2 directly, so the route often runs through a second citizenship: we covered the Grenada route in our article on the E-2 visa through Grenadian citizenship, and the programme terms are on our page about Grenada citizenship.

Other options are the E-2 business visa for those who already hold an eligible passport and the O-1 visa for people with extraordinary achievements. A US business will also need company registration. An overview of all routes to the country is on our USA page.

Where to start

Our consultation checklist helps you prepare for the first conversation. You can discuss your situation and budget in an online consultation.

How this article was prepared

Sources: the DHS and USCIS final rule on EB-5 fees (Federal Register, volume 91, no. 188, 30 September 2026, document 2026-20016), including the new text of 8 CFR 106.2(d) and 8 CFR 216.6; the current text of 8 CFR 106.2 in the official Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) on the I-485, I-765 and I-131 fees and the USCIS immigrant fee; the USCIS pages "About the EB-5 Visa Classification" and "EB-5 Immigrant Investor Process" (last updated 18 November 2025); and the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 as set out in those documents. Information as of 1 November 2026. The Department of State consular fee is not stated here and should be checked on the Department's website on the payment date. This article is not a substitute for legal advice on your situation.