EB-5 Minimum Investment Amounts Increase January 1, 2027: How the Automatic Adjustment Works

The Department of Homeland Security’s proposed EB-5 rule, published July 2, 2026, runs 127 pages in the Federal Register (91 FR 40676-40802), but two calendar dates matter more than everything else for investors planning a filing this year. The first, the September 30, 2026 grandfathering deadline, comes from the 2022 statute, not from this rule; the proposed rule is silent on it, which is exactly why we covered it in a companion article. This piece covers the second: on January 1, 2027, the minimum investment amounts adjust upward, automatically, under a formula the proposed rule now spells out in regulatory text. The exact new numbers will not exist until DHS publishes them. What the rule does tell us, precisely, is how they will be calculated, when they take effect, and who they apply to. File before the adjustment takes effect and today’s amounts govern your petition.

Today’s Two Amounts and the Proposed Third

The Reform and Integrity Act set two minimums, and the proposed rule codifies both. For the standard tier, the investor “must invest one million, fifty thousand United States dollars ($1,050,000) in capital in a new commercial enterprise in the United States.” For the reduced tier, “The required investment amount is lowered to $800,000 if the investment is made in a Targeted Employment Area (TEA) or in an infrastructure project.” One connected requirement is easy to miss: the capital “must remain invested on the date the EB-5 immigrant visa petition is filed.” Investment timing and filing timing are a single planning exercise.

How the Escalator Works

Under proposed 8 CFR 204.407(b), the adjustment is mechanical. The rule states: “This amount will adjust automatically on January 1, 2027, and every 5 years thereafter, based on the cumulative annual percentage change in the unadjusted All Items Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)” measured from January 1, 2022. Three implementation details matter. First, who it applies to. The adjustment applies “for petitions filed on or after each adjustment’s effective date.” A petition filed before the adjustment is governed by the amounts in effect when it was filed. Second, rounding. “The qualifying investment amounts will be rounded down to the nearest $50,000.” The formula’s raw output is not the final number; the published figure will land on a clean $50,000 increment. Third, publication. “DHS will update this figure by publication in the Federal Register.” USCIS will also post the current amounts on its website, so there will be an official number, on an official page, before anyone needs to write a check against it.

The TEA Differential Survives the Adjustment

Start with the tier that matters to most investors. Under proposed 8 CFR 204.407(b)(2), the reduced TEA and infrastructure amount adjusts on the same January 1, 2027 schedule, and after each adjustment it is set at 75 percent of the adjusted standard amount, rounded down to the nearest $50,000. That formula governs adjusted amounts going forward; the current $800,000 figure comes from the 2022 statute itself, not from the formula. See INA 203(b)(5)(C)(ii); 91 FR 40703. The two do not conflict: 75 percent of today’s $1,050,000 would be $787,500, but the formula applies only to the adjusted standard amount, so it could produce a figure below today’s $800,000 only if cumulative inflation since January 2022 came in under roughly 1.6 percent. The discount for investing where the program most wants capital is preserved by formula. The proposal would also create a third tier that does not exist today: a $1,400,000 minimum for a high employment area, a low-unemployment category distinct from TEAs. The new tier would take effect only if and when a final rule does. DHS calculates that amount at 133 percent of the standard minimum, rounded up to the nearest $50,000, and would adjust it on the same five-year cycle (proposed 8 CFR 204.407(b)(3); 91 FR 40703-04). Note the rounding runs in opposite directions: the standard and TEA amounts round down, while the high employment area amount rounds up.

Who Actually Files at the Reduced Amount

Nearly everyone. Reviewing fiscal years 2016 through 2021, DHS found “there were 38,250 investments made under regional centers of which 38,197, or 99.8 percent, were made at the reduced amount.” That is why a change to the $800,000 number touches essentially every prospective regional center investor, and why the January 1, 2027 date deserves the same attention as the grandfathering deadline three months before it. For how projects qualify for the reduced tier, see our EB-5 explainer‘s discussion of targeted employment areas and infrastructure projects.

What We Will Not Do: Predict the Number

The CPI-U data the formula uses is public, and the arithmetic is not complicated. Even so, we are not publishing our own projection. Industry analyses that run the published CPI-U data through the formula generally anticipate the reduced amount landing somewhere around $900,000 and the standard amount around $1,200,000, possibly a step higher, and those are reasonable readings of public data. They are still estimates. The measurement runs through the adjustment date, the rounding changes the raw output, and estimates differ on exactly how, so time will tell. The direction is certain, the amounts go up, and the magnitude is DHS’s to announce in the Federal Register. For planning purposes, the working question is whether you intend to file under the current amounts, and if so, whether your timeline is realistic. Source of funds preparation is typically the longest step in an EB-5 filing and the hardest to compress. The earlier that work begins, the more margin the calendar leaves.

Why January 1, 2027 Holds Even If the Rule Stalls

The rule remains a proposal. Comments are due on or before August 31, 2026, under DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0100, and provisions can change before a final rule. The adjustment schedule itself, though, implements the statute Congress enacted in 2022 (INA section 203(b)(5)(C); 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(C), under which “[b]eginning on January 1, 2027, and every 5 years thereafter, the amount … shall automatically adjust for petitions filed on or after the effective date of each adjustment”), so the January 1, 2027 date does not depend on when, or whether, this rulemaking is finalized. Congress fixed the date, the formula, and even the rounding; the proposal supplies the machinery around them, plus the new $1,400,000 high employment area tier, which exists only if a final rule does. There is history behind that distinction. The last time these amounts rose by regulation alone, under the 2019 Modernization Rule, Behring challenged the rule and a federal court vacated it, returning the TEA minimum to $500,000 until Congress set today’s amounts by statute in 2022. The difference between an agency’s number and Congress’s number is not academic, and it is the subject of our litigation analysis. Behring is preparing formal comments on several provisions of the proposed rule and will publish that analysis as the comment period progresses. Investors should consult their own immigration and securities counsel about their individual plans and timelines. For background, see our EB-5 explainer and our guide to the I-526E petition.

Important Disclosures

This article is provided for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, investment, or immigration advice. Consult your own immigration and securities counsel about your individual circumstances.