Immigrant Investors Pay Lower EB-5 Visa Fees in DHS Proposal (1)

Immigrant investors would pay reduced application fees for EB-5 visas in a proposed rule released by the Department of Homeland Security.

Participants in the program would pay $9,625, or 14% less than current fees, to submit the I-526 form that allows foreign investors to obtain a visa, under Wednesday’s proposal. Investors participating in large enterprises known as regional centers would pay $9,530, or 15% less than current fees.

The EB-5 program has seen steady growth since a 2022 reauthorization of the regional center program that tightened reporting requirements among other provisions to address fraud and abuse. For immigrants with the financial resources from India and China, EB-5 allows them the chance to avoid decades-long backlogs for employment-based green cards.

Amid a broader crackdown on immigration programs, President Donald Trump announced a “gold card” proposal for ultra wealthy immigrants that administration officials initially suggested would replace the EB-5 program. But subsequent details on the gold card plan indicated it would operate alongside the EB-5 visa program.

The program offers immigrants a path to permanent residency when they invest a minimum amount in job creating businesses in the US. Most investments through the program pass through regional centers that allow multiple participants to pool funding.

The proposed regulation would codify provisions of the regional center reauthorization law that raised investment thresholds to $1.05 million, or $800,000 for rural areas and those with high unemployment.

The proposal would set goals for processing times for adjudicating EB-5 benefits, targeting 240 days to adjudicate visas for regional center investors and 180 days to to adjudicate an application for an enterprise seeking regional center designation.

It also reflected findings of a fee study required by Congress as part of the reauthorization. US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which administers the program, found the cost of processing I-526 forms was about $35.5 million. That’s higher than previous estimates, but the agency said it could set lower fees because exemptions aren’t available for benefit requests.

USCIS adopted fee increases of nearly $7,500 for the I-526 form in regulations issued last year. The American Immigrant Investor Alliance, which advocates for EB-5 investors, sued the agency over the fee hikes, arguing it was required to complete the fee study mandated by Congress before imposing new costs on immigrant investors. A federal judge declined to block them from taking effect last year while the litigation unfolded.

Ishaan Khanna, the group’s president, said the proposal released Wednesday “represents a commendable and long-overdue DHS effort to align fees with actual processing costs and goals.”