US Drops Fee Hikes for Immigrant Investors After Court Loss

US Citizenship and Immigration Services is dropping steep 2024 fee increases of nearly $7,500 for participation in an immigrant investor visa program following a court order last week.

A Northern District of Colorado judge found that the agency improperly raised fees on EB-5 immigrant investor petitions and applications for enterprises known as regional centers, which allow them to pool funding.

The EB-5 visa program offers immigrants a path to permanent residency by making a minimum investment in job-creating businesses in the US. The rollout of President Donald Trump’s “gold card” initiative earlier this year put the ongoing status of the EB-5 program in doubt after administration officials initially said it would be replaced by the new visa option for the ultra wealthy. But a September executive order from the White House clarified that the gold card would instead use visas from high-skilled green card categories.

Most EB-5 investments are made through the regional center program, which Congress reauthorized in 2022. USCIS raised fees on immigrant investors in 2024 regulations without a required fee study, violating that reauthorization law and the Administrative Procedure Act, the judge found in a Nov. 12 order.

The agency said Tuesday that effective immediately it will accept fees in effect until March 31, 2024, for the EB-5 program. Fees for the I-526 form that immigrant investors must submit before applying for a green card will revert from more than $11,000 to $3,675. Petitions to remove conditions on permanent residency drop from more than $9,500 to $3,750. And applications for regional center designation will go from more almost $48,000 to $17,795.

The new guidance and court ruling came after USCIS released a proposal last month—based on a cost study conducted by the agency—that would adopt fees lower than the 2024 rule but significantly higher than the fee levels restored this week.