EB-5 Minimum Investment 2026: $800K (TEA) vs $1.05M Complete Guide

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program offers a path to a U.S. green card for foreign nationals who invest in a new commercial enterprise that creates jobs for American workers. The investment thresholds, set in stone by Congress in 2022, are the single most important number in the program. This guide explains exactly what you have to invest in 2026, where the money can go, who counts as a TEA, how the 10-job rule actually works, and where most EB-5 cases unravel. It is part of Claxton Law’s Investor Visas (EB-5) pillar.

What is the EB-5 Investor Visa Program?

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, created by Congress in 1990, grants conditional lawful permanent residence to qualifying foreign investors, their spouses, and their unmarried children under 21. To qualify, an investor must place the required capital into a new commercial enterprise in the United States and create at least 10 full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers. The program was reauthorized and substantially rewritten by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA), which is the framework in effect today. The official program overview lives at uscis.gov/eb-5.

EB-5 is one of five employment-based preference categories. It is distinctive because it is open to investors who do not have a U.S. employer, who do not need a labor certification, and who can self-petition. The trade-off is the capital requirement, the complexity of source-of-funds proof, and the need to satisfy both immigration law and federal securities law in the same transaction.

Current EB-5 minimum investment amounts (2026)

The RIA reset and stabilized EB-5 investment amounts in March 2022. As of 2026, the figures in force are:

The RIA requires USCIS to adjust both numbers for inflation every five years. The first scheduled adjustment is January 1, 2027. Investors who file Form I-526E (the new investor petition) before an adjustment date keep the lower threshold for that filing, even if the adjustment occurs while their case is pending. Filing well in advance of a known increase is a common strategic move.

Quick answer - What is the EB-5 minimum investment in 2026? The EB-5 minimum investment in 2026 is $800,000 for a project located in a Targeted Employment Area (TEA), and $1,050,000 for a project outside any TEA. These thresholds, set by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, will adjust for inflation on January 1, 2027 and every five years after that. The full investment must come from lawful sources, must be fully traceable, and must remain at risk in the new commercial enterprise until the 10 required jobs are created.

What qualifies as a Targeted Employment Area (TEA)?

The reduced $800,000 threshold is only available for projects located in a Targeted Employment Area. There are three TEA types under the RIA:

• Rural area - any area outside a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as designated by the Office of Management and Budget, and outside the outer boundary of any city or town with a population of 20,000 or more.
• High-unemployment area - a census tract, or contiguous group of census tracts, where the average unemployment rate is at least 150% of the national average rate at the time of investment.
• Federal infrastructure project - a publicly administered project sponsored by a governmental entity that contracts with a Regional Center.

Before the RIA, individual states issued TEA letters on widely varying standards, which led to "gerrymandered" tract combinations. The RIA now gives the Department of Homeland Security shared authority to validate high-unemployment designations, using a tighter contiguity rule. USCIS publishes ongoing guidance and updated TEA standards at uscis.gov/eb-5.

Because TEA designation can change as census data updates, EB-5 sponsors usually obtain a recent TEA analysis (often from an economist or specialized firm) and include it in the Form I-526E filing package. If the project loses TEA status before the investor files, the investor must contribute the higher $1,050,000 amount.

The 10-job creation requirement

Capital alone does not earn an EB-5 green card. Each investor must create or preserve at least 10 full-time positions for qualifying U.S. workers within approximately two years of the investor being admitted as a conditional permanent resident. A "full-time" position generally means at least 35 hours per week, held by a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or other work-authorized person who is not the investor or the investor’s immediate family.

How jobs are counted depends on the EB-5 path the investor chooses:

• Direct EB-5 investment. The 10 jobs must be direct, W-2 employees of the new commercial enterprise. Independent contractors and indirect jobs do not count.
• Regional Center investment. The 10 jobs can include direct, indirect, and induced positions calculated through an economist-prepared input-output model (typically IMPLAN or RIMS II). This is often what makes the math work for large real estate or construction deals.
• Troubled business exception. An investor in a "troubled business" (a U.S. enterprise that has existed for at least two years and lost at least 20% of its net worth in the prior 12-24 months) can preserve existing jobs rather than create new ones.

Direct investment vs Regional Center investment

The two main EB-5 paths look different from day one. The RIA reauthorized the Regional Center program through September 30, 2027, and made structural reforms to investor protection and oversight. Most current EB-5 filings flow through Regional Centers.

The most common reason an investor picks Regional Center EB-5 is the ability to count indirect jobs, which makes large infrastructure or real-estate developments mathematically feasible. The most common reason an investor picks Direct EB-5 is that they want to actually run a U.S. business after they immigrate, with full control.

The "at-risk" requirement

EB-5 capital must be "at risk" for the purpose of generating a return on the capital placed at risk. This standard comes from the Administrative Appeals Office decision Matter of Izummi, 22 I&N Dec. 169 (Assoc. Comm’r 1998), and remains controlling guidance. In practice this means:

• The funds must be fully and irrevocably committed to the new commercial enterprise. Refundable deposits, guaranteed returns, and rights to immediate redemption all defeat at-risk status.
• The investor cannot have a guaranteed buy-back at a fixed price within a fixed period. Some deal protections (such as deferred buy-backs after sustained period) are permissible if properly structured.
• The capital must remain at risk through the period of conditional residence, at minimum until the 10 jobs are created and sustained.
• Capital used to merely sit in escrow, fund operating reserves, or repay pre-existing project debt that is unrelated to job creation can be disqualified.

The RIA tightened the at-risk analysis further by adding investor protections around the "sustainment period" (the time during which the funds must remain deployed). USCIS guidance issued in 2024 and 2025 clarifies that, for petitions filed after the RIA, the sustainment period is now generally tied to the two years of expected job creation rather than the entire conditional residence period.

Source-of-funds documentation

The single most demanding part of an EB-5 filing is proving the lawful source and full path of the invested funds. USCIS expects a complete chain of custody from the original earnings event to the investor’s commitment into the new commercial enterprise. Gaps, even small ones, generate Requests for Evidence (RFEs) or outright denials.

Common categories of lawful source

• Salary and wage income - employment contracts, tax returns from the country of residence, pay stubs, and bank statements showing accumulation.
• Business ownership earnings - audited financial statements, dividend declarations, ownership documents, corporate tax filings.
• Sale of a business or real estate - sale contracts, deeds, settlement statements, tax records, and proof that the seller was the lawful owner.
• Inheritance - will or probate order, death certificate, evidence of the decedent’s lawful accumulation of those assets, and bank records showing the transfer.
• Gift - signed gift declaration, complete source-of-funds proof for the donor (treated as if the donor were investing), and bank records of the transfer.
• Loan - executed loan agreement, evidence the loan is secured by the investor’s own assets (not the EB-5 project), and proof of the lender’s lawful capacity to lend.

Path-of-funds documentation

Source-of-funds is the "where it came from" question. Path-of-funds is the "how it got here" question. USCIS requires both. Path documentation typically includes wire transfer receipts, intermediary bank statements, foreign exchange conversion records, and (for investors from countries with currency controls) evidence that any informal value transfer system was lawful in both jurisdictions.

EB-5 timeline: I-526E to I-829

EB-5 is a multi-year, two-stage process. The first stage is the investor petition (Form I-526E) and the conditional green card. The second stage is removal of conditions (Form I-829), which converts conditional to permanent residence.

Quick answer - How long does an EB-5 case take? A typical EB-5 case takes 2 to 4 years from filing Form I-526E to receiving a conditional green card, with rural set-aside cases often falling at the faster end. After two years of conditional residence, the investor files Form I-829 to remove conditions, which can take another 3 to 5 years to adjudicate. Country-of-birth backlogs (especially for investors born in mainland China and India) can extend timelines significantly outside the reserved set-aside categories.

Visa set-asides under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act

One of the most significant changes the RIA made is the creation of reserved visa set-asides. Each fiscal year, USCIS allocates a portion of the EB-5 annual cap to three reserved categories:

For investors from heavily backlogged countries, choosing a project that qualifies for a reserved category can shave years off the wait. This is one of the most important strategic decisions in a modern EB-5 case.

Common reasons EB-5 petitions get denied

• Incomplete or non-traceable source-of-funds. Missing tax returns, unexplained cash deposits, or a gift donor whose own source is not documented.
• Insufficient business plan. The "Matter of Ho" standard requires a comprehensive, credible plan showing how 10 jobs will be created within roughly two years.
• Project changes after filing. Material changes to the business model, location, or capital structure that are not properly disclosed to USCIS.
• Capital not at risk. Guaranteed redemption clauses, refundable subscription amounts, or capital deployed only to reserve accounts.
• Job-creation methodology issues. Economic reports that overstate indirect jobs, use stale data, or rely on construction expenditures that do not meet the 24-month rule.
• Securities law problems. Unregistered offerings, lack of an SEC Form D filing, or unlicensed broker-dealer involvement.
• Loss of TEA status. Project filed with $800,000 but the TEA designation expired or was never properly supported.
• Inadmissibility issues. Criminal history, prior immigration violations, or fraud findings discovered during background checks.

Should you hire an immigration attorney for EB-5?

The short answer is yes. EB-5 is the most complex employment-based green card category, and even experienced corporate attorneys without immigration training routinely miss provisions that determine approval. Three reasons stand out:

• Source-of-funds is its own specialty. Building a defensible chain from original earnings to the U.S. project requires immigration-specific judgment about what USCIS will accept, what to translate, and how to anticipate RFEs.
• Securities law lives next to immigration law. Every EB-5 offering implicates the Securities Act of 1933, the Exchange Act of 1934, state blue sky laws, and SEC rules. Mishandling a securities issue can later be the reason an immigration case fails.
• The stakes compound over years. A small structural mistake at the I-526E stage might not surface until the I-829 stage five years later, when the investor has already moved their family and built a life in the U.S.

Quick answer - Should you hire an attorney for EB-5? Yes. EB-5 is the most complex employment-based green card category, sitting at the intersection of immigration law, federal and state securities law, and tax planning. Source-of-funds documentation alone often spans hundreds of pages and requires immigration-specific judgment. An experienced EB-5 attorney works alongside the Regional Center counsel, the investor’s tax advisor, and translators to ensure the petition is both legally compliant and persuasive. The cost of legal representation is small compared with the multi-million-dollar investment and the years of life decisions that depend on approval.

Claxton Law works directly with investors and their family-office advisors on EB-5 source-of-funds packages, project diligence, and I-526E and I-829 strategy. Learn more about our team at Diane Claxton’s attorney page.

Frequently asked questions