EB-5Immigrant investor

Overview

EB-5 is the employment-based fifth preference immigrant category. You can apply for a green card if you make the required investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States and plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers. Congress created the program in 1990 to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors.^[8]

There are two ways to invest. As a standalone investor, you invest in a new commercial enterprise and file Form I-526. Through the Regional Center Program, you pool your investment with other immigrant investors in a project associated with a regional center designated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and file Form I-526E; the regional center asks USCIS to approve each investment offering on Form I-956F. Immigrant visas are authorized under the Regional Center Program through Sept. 30, 2027.^[2,3,4,5,10]

What you must show

These amounts are tied to inflation, using the change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) since March 15, 2022, and adjust every five years. The first adjustment takes effect for petitions filed on or after Jan. 1, 2027, so check the amount that applies on the day you file.^[5]

Capital means cash and all real, personal or mixed tangible assets you own and control, valued at fair-market value in U.S. dollars. You must show you are the legal owner of the capital; in certain circumstances it can include your promise to pay (a promissory note). It does not include assets acquired by unlawful means; money invested in exchange for a note, bond or any other debt arrangement with the new commercial enterprise; money invested with an assured rate of return; or money subject to an agreement between you and the new commercial enterprise that gives you a contractual right to repayment (the enterprise may keep a buy-back option that only it decides whether to use).^[5]

Targeted employment areas and set-aside visas

The lower amount applies in a targeted employment area (TEA): at the time of investment, either a rural area or an area that has experienced high unemployment (at least 150% of the national average rate). A rural area is outside any metropolitan statistical area and outside the outer boundary of any city or town with a population of 20,000 or more in the most recent decennial census. A high-unemployment area is the census tract or contiguous census tracts where the new commercial enterprise is principally doing business, which may include any directly adjacent tracts, if their weighted average unemployment is 150% of the national average.^[5]

Job creation

If you invest on your own (outside a regional center), the new commercial enterprise, or its wholly owned subsidiaries, must itself employ the workers, so only direct jobs count. If you invest through a regional center, jobs can be created directly or indirectly, and indirect jobs (held outside the enterprise but created as a result of it) can meet up to 90% of the requirement.^[5]

A qualifying employee is a U.S. citizen, a lawful permanent resident, or another immigrant authorized to work in the United States, such as a conditional resident, temporary resident, asylee or refugee. Immigrant investors (including you), their spouses, sons and daughters, and anyone in a nonimmigrant status (such as H-1B) or not authorized to work in the United States do not count. A full-time position requires at least 35 working hours a week; two or more qualifying employees may share one full-time position if the weekly hours are met, but part-time positions cannot be added together. Intermittent, temporary, seasonal or transient jobs do not qualify, although jobs expected to last at least two years are generally not treated that way.^[5]

If you invest in a troubled business, you may rely on keeping existing jobs instead: you must show that the number of existing employees is, or will be, no less than the pre-investment level for at least two years. A troubled business has existed for at least two years and had a net loss, during the 12- or 24-month period before the priority date on your petition, of at least 20% of its net worth before the loss.^[5]

Evidence for Form I-526 or I-526E

Fees

From investment to a permanent green card

1. 1

   File I-526 or I-526E

   Once you have invested or are actively in the process of investing, you file Form I-526 or I-526E with USCIS. Your priority date, which sets your place in the visa line, is the date USCIS accepts the petition for processing.^[1,7,14]

2. 2

   Wait for a visa number

   Employment-based immigrant visas are numerically limited. The State Department's monthly Visa Bulletin shows cut-off dates by preference category and country of chargeability (usually your country of birth); a visa is available to you when your priority date is earlier than the cut-off date for your category and country in the applicable chart.^[14]

3. 3

   Apply for the green card

   If a visa is immediately available and you are in the United States, you may file Form I-485 together with your I-526 or I-526E, while it is pending, or after it is approved. After approval, you either file Form I-485 if you have not already (a visa must still be immediately available) or apply for an EB-5 immigrant visa abroad with Form DS-260.^[7]

4. 4

   Two years of conditional residence

   When USCIS approves your I-485, or when you are admitted with an EB-5 immigrant visa, you and your derivative family members get conditional permanent residence for two years. Unless a rule says otherwise, conditional residents have the same rights and duties as other permanent residents.^[7,15]

5. 5

   Remove the conditions (I-829)

   You file Form I-829 within the 90-day period immediately before the second anniversary of becoming a conditional resident; that anniversary is the expiration date on your green card. If USCIS approves it, the conditions are removed from your status and from that of the dependents you included.^[7,16]

Spouse and children

Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 can apply for green cards as your derivatives, each with a classification symbol tied to yours (for example, RU2 for the spouse and RU3 for a child of an RU1 regional center investor). The marriage or parent-child relationship must exist when you are admitted as a permanent resident or adjust status; a spouse or child acquired after that is not entitled to derivative status. A child born after that date to a marriage that already existed before it counts as acquired before it. Their residence is conditional for two years, like yours.^{[4,7,8,11,17]}

A child applying as your derivative who turns 21 before getting a green card may still count as a child under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA), as long as the child stays unmarried. The CSPA age is the child's age when a visa becomes available (the later of the I-526 or I-526E approval date and the first day of the month the Visa Bulletin's Final Action Dates chart shows a visa available) minus the time the petition was pending; if the result is under 21, the child still counts as a child. The child must seek to acquire permanent residence within 1 year of the visa becoming available, although USCIS may, in its discretion, excuse a failure that resulted from extraordinary circumstances. Because the result turns on exact dates, an immigration attorney can apply it to your family.^[18]

Adjustment of status (I-485)

To adjust status inside the United States, you must properly file Form I-485; have been inspected and admitted or inspected and paroled (there are some limited exceptions); be physically present when you file; be eligible for an immigrant visa based on an approved I-526 or I-526E; have a visa immediately available both when you file and when USCIS makes its final decision; not be barred from adjustment, although section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) may still allow some people who are barred to adjust; be admissible (or eligible for a waiver or other relief); and merit USCIS's favorable discretion. Your spouse and children filing as derivatives have their own list of similar requirements.^[6,7]

While your I-485 is pending, you can generally apply for a work permit with Form I-765 and for advance parole with Form I-131. If you leave the United States without an advance parole document while your I-485 is pending, you will generally have abandoned the application.^[6]

Consular processing

If you are outside the United States (or are in the United States but want to apply for your immigrant visa abroad), you file Form DS-260 with the State Department after USCIS approves your I-526 or I-526E. The National Visa Center (NVC) collects fees and documents, and the consulate schedules your interview once your priority date is current. If you get the visa, you pay the USCIS Immigrant Fee, and your two years of conditional residence start when you are admitted at a U.S. port of entry.^[7,19]

Removing the conditions (Form I-829)

With Form I-829 you show that the enterprise was established; that you invested, or were actively in the process of investing, the required capital; that you sustained the investment (see below); and that you created, or can be expected to create within a reasonable time, 10 full-time jobs for qualifying employees (for a troubled business, that you kept the existing jobs at the pre-investment level). A properly filed I-829 automatically extends your conditional status, if necessary, until USCIS decides, and USCIS may waive the interview.^[4,20]The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act changed some requirements for petitions filed on or after March 15, 2022; the State Department lists capital that is expected to remain invested for not less than two years. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 6, Part G explains how USCIS applies the rules to petitions filed before and after the Act, and an immigration attorney can apply them to your case.

◈High confidence How long the investment must stay in: the State Department's Foreign Affairs Manual (9 FAM 502.4) lists, among the conditions for EB-5 status, that the capital is expected to remain invested for not less than two years. The regulation on Form I-829, 8 CFR 216.6, treats the investment as sustained if you, in good faith, substantially met the capital requirement and continuously maintained the investment over the two years of conditional residence; the eCFR also links to an amendment to that section published on Sept. 30, 2026. USCIS policy for petitions filed before and after the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act is in Volume 6, Part G of the USCIS Policy Manual. Which period applies to your investment is a question an immigration attorney can answer.^[4,5,20]

Common mistakes

Recent policy changes

Ask WELIVEINUSA Visa