Citizenship & Residency Brief: The US investor green card just got more expensive to file, and the filing date is now the deadline that matters
Citizenship & Residency Brief: The US investor green card just got more expensive to file, and the filing date is now the deadline that matters
The United States is about to make its investor green card route more expensive to file. If you are weighing an EB-5 petition, the filing date now matters as much as the investment itself, because a petition posted one day late will cost thousands more in government fees alone.
Was: the initial EB-5 petition fee was 3,675 dollars, with a 1,000 dollar Integrity Fund fee on top, a total of 4,675 dollars at initial filing for a regional center investor. Now: the initial petition fee rises to 7,850 dollars for regional center investors and 7,615 dollars for standalone investors, and the Integrity Fund fee rises to 1,100 dollars, taking the regional center total at filing to 8,950 dollars. Effective: November 30, 2026, for filings postmarked on or after that date, under the Department of Homeland Security final rule published in the Federal Register on September 30, 2026.
EB-5 is the US route to permanent residency through investment: a qualifying investment in a US business, plus at least 10 full-time jobs for US workers. The standard minimum investment is 1.05 million dollars, or 800,000 dollars in a targeted employment area or qualifying infrastructure project. Those investment minimums do not change under this fee rule, though a separate inflation adjustment to the minimums is due on January 1, 2027, and the new figures have not yet been published.
The fee table in full: Form I-526 for standalone investors rises from 3,675 to 7,615 dollars, up 107 percent. Form I-526E for regional center investors rises from 3,675 to 7,850 dollars, up 114 percent, and an amendment to that form will cost 7,775 dollars. Form I-829, filed later to remove conditions on the green card, rises from 3,750 to 5,000 dollars. The new petition fees include a 75 dollar technology fee. The department estimates about 16,600 EB-5 filings a year are affected, with a weighted average fee increase of about 70.7 percent.
The window logic is blunt. A petition postmarked by November 29, 2026 pays the old schedule. A petition postmarked from November 30 pays the new one, a difference of 4,275 dollars at the initial regional center filing. That is small next to an 800,000 dollar investment, but it is real money for no extra benefit, and it rewards anyone whose paperwork is ready now. What to check before acting: confirm every figure on the USCIS fee schedule on the day you file, confirm whether your project qualifies as a targeted employment area, and remember that the fee change says nothing about visa availability, which remains current for the EB-5 set-aside categories in the November 2026 visa bulletin.
One caution: the fee rule is about government charges only. Legal fees, regional center administration fees and the investment itself are separate, and none of them fall because of this rule. Anyone selling an EB-5 filing as suddenly cheap, or suddenly urgent beyond the November 30 fee date, is overselling it.
Information only, not financial or immigration advice.
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