DHS has finalized its EB-5 fee rule, and the new fee schedule takes effect on November 30, 2026. The headline numbers are significant. The initial Form I-526E regional center petition rises from $3,675 to $7,850, and the Form I-526 standalone petition rises from $3,675 to $7,615. The Form I-829 petition to remove conditions rises from $3,750 to $5,000. The I-526 and initial I-526E amounts include a $75 EB-5 Technology Fee.
That is a significant jump, but the new I-526E fee is well below the $11,160 that applied from April 2024 until a federal court stayed those fees in November 2025. A final rule brings real value. Investors, regional centers, and counsel can now plan against known numbers. DHS revised its fee study with what it calls “newer data” (91 FR 61946).
How the Fee Model Works
USCIS is funded largely by filing fees, and the Reform and Integrity Act directs that EB-5 fees be set at a level sufficient to recover the costs of the program. The arithmetic is simple: projected costs are divided across projected filings to arrive at a fee per filing. That makes the volume forecast one of the most important inputs in the entire rule, and it matters most for one form: the I-526E. At 8,500 petitions and $7,850 each, the I-526E accounts for about $66.7 million of the $105.5 million in projected EB-5 revenue, close to two-thirds of the total.
The Forecast
The revised study projects 8,500 I-526E receipts per year for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, up from 3,500 in the proposed rule, and the rule’s ten-year impact analysis holds that figure flat through fiscal year 2035. DHS says USCIS “produced most of the estimates in this final rule during the meetings in June 2025” (91 FR 61946), more than a year before the filing deadline. The final rule does not discuss the September 30, 2026 grandfathering date or the statutory investment amount adjustment scheduled for January 1, 2027, both of which bear directly on when investors file, and whether they do. DHS acknowledges the general point in the rule itself: policy and regulatory changes “can affect USCIS staffing needs, costs, fee revenue, and processing times, including those for EB-5 workloads,” and DHS says it cannot represent that it has accounted for every future policy change. A higher volume forecast spreads program costs across more filings, which keeps each fee lower for today’s filers.
Under the statute, regional center petitions filed on or before September 30, 2026 are protected if the program’s authorization expires (8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(S)). That protection drew filings forward into a concentrated rush ahead of the deadline. A year shaped by a deadline surge is a difficult baseline to carry forward for a decade.
The sensitivity is easy to calculate. Each 1,000 I-526E filings below the forecast reduces revenue by roughly $7.85 million. At half the forecast volume, the shortfall would approach $33 million, a large share of the roughly $48 million gap the rule was written to specifically close.
The Program Carries Its Own Costs
In its 2024 fee rule, DHS took the position that EB-5 costs should not be shifted onto fees paid by other filers, reasoning that the program’s financial wherewithal requirements make that inappropriate. In practical terms, EB-5 is expected to fund itself.
What 2020 Showed
This dynamic raises memories of past USCIS budget shortfalls but there are differences worth pointing out. In May 2020, as the pandemic cut into fee receipts, USCIS asked Congress for $1.2 billion in emergency funding, and roughly 13,400 employees, about two-thirds of the workforce, received furlough notices. The furlough was ultimately averted through spending cuts and a steady recovery in incoming receipts. Congress separately addressed the shortfall in the Continuing Appropriations Act signed on September 30, 2020, which gave USCIS access to premium processing revenue for operating expenses and raised premium processing fees.
Two things resolved that episode: receipts came back, and Congress provided a structural fix. A post-deadline change in EB-5 filing volume would have a different cause: a statutory date that has passed.
Why It Matters for Processing Times
Adjudication capacity follows funding. If revenue comes in below what the fee model assumed, processing times are where the effect would appear first.
What the Math Implies for Fees
Full cost recovery spread across fewer filings requires a higher fee per filing. Had the revised study forecast lower post-deadline volumes, the published fees would likely have been higher than the ones taking effect in November. We welcome fees that stay reasonable for investors. Keeping costs accessible is what allows the program to deliver the investment and job creation Congress designed it to produce.
Building the Record Now
The framework includes a scheduled check on its own forecasts. Federal law requires agencies to review their fees every two years, and in the proposed rule DHS said USCIS will review the EB-5 program fees on that schedule, two years after they take effect. DHS described that review as what mitigates any shortcoming in the information available when the fees were set. The final rule adds that DHS will monitor the effect of the new fees on program participation and assess the need for future adjustments. The Reform and Integrity Act sets the standard those fees have to meet: recovery of the full cost of the program, including the cost of meeting its processing-time goals.
In 2020, the fix came from a rebound in receipts and from Congress. This time a scheduled review can do that work before adjudication capacity or processing times are affected, and it will have actual post-deadline receipt data to work with.
That creates a practical opportunity in the short term. If regional centers, counsel, and industry organizations document what they observe and share the math described above, it could open the door to broader conversations, such as one on grandfathering.
We encourage everyone who works in this program to track filing volumes and processing times closely, share what they see through their industry organizations, and engage with their representatives and with USCIS early. Conversations about funding stability are also a chance for Congress and the industry to build a working relationship.
Sources
- DHS, EB-5 Fee Rule, Final Rule, 91 FR 61940 (Sept. 30, 2026), Section III.C and Table 13, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/09/30/2026-20016/us-citizenship-and-immigration-services-employment-based-immigrant-visa-fifth-preference-eb-5-fee
- USCIS, “USCIS Adjusts EB-5 Fees to Cover Program Costs and Strengthen Integrity Measures,” https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/uscis-adjusts-eb-5-fees-to-cover-program-costs-and-strengthen-integrity-measures
- DHS, EB-5 Fee Rule, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 90 FR 48516, 48521 and 48523 (Oct. 23, 2025), Docket USCIS-2025-0139, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/10/23/2025-19642/us-citizenship-and-immigration-services-employment-based-immigrant-visa-fifth-preference-eb-5-fee
- USCIS, “Frequently Asked Questions on the USCIS Fee Rule,” https://www.uscis.gov/archive/frequently-asked-questions-on-the-uscis-fee-rule
- USCIS, “USCIS Averts Furlough of Nearly 70% of Workforce,” https://www.uscis.gov/archive/uscis-averts-furlough-of-nearly-70-of-workforce
- Letter from U.S. Senators to USCIS regarding the FY2020 budget shortfall (November 12, 2020), https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/foia/USCIS_budget_shortfall_Senator_Cassidy.pdf
- Federal News Network, “USCIS pushes potential furlough date for 13,400 employees back to August,” https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2020/06/uscis-pushes-potential-furlough-date-for-13400-employees-back-to-august/
- National Immigration Forum, “Remaking USCIS: Supplementing a Fee-Funded Agency,” https://forumtogether.org/article/remaking-uscis-supplementing-a-fee-funded-agency/
- 31 U.S.C. 902(a)(8), https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title31-section902&num=0&edition=prelim
- EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, Pub. L. 117-103, div. BB, sec. 106 (8 U.S.C. 1153 note), https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1153&num=0&edition=prelim
Important Disclosures
This article is provided for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, investment, or immigration advice. EB-5 eligibility, project risks, and immigration outcomes depend on specific facts, evolving USCIS policy, and individual legal strategy. Investors should consult their own qualified immigration and securities counsel regarding how these concepts apply to their particular circumstances. References to USCIS, precedent decisions, or attorney commentary are descriptive only and do not imply any guarantee of outcome in any specific case.
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