On July 2, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security published a 358-page Notice of Proposed Rulemaking — the first formal attempt to implement the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 through regulation. The NPRM touches nearly every corner of the EB-5 program: investment tiers, bridge financing, regional center oversight, source of funds, biometrics, and investor protections. If you’re currently on an H-1B or similar visa and evaluating EB-5, this proposal matters both for how you evaluate projects going forward and for a critical filing deadline this fall.
These are proposed rules, not final rules. The public comment period runs through August 31, 2026. The final rule will follow after DHS reviews comments and may differ from the proposal. That said, the direction of the rulemaking is clear, and several provisions require immediate attention.
What the NPRM Is and What It Isn’t
The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 restructured the program in statute — creating the Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure set-aside categories, raising investment amounts, and establishing the current two-year sustainment standard. But Congress left the implementation details to DHS, and formal regulations were never published. For four years, the program has operated under a combination of statute, USCIS policy guidance, and informal adjudication practice.
This NPRM is DHS’s attempt to convert all of that into binding regulation. Much of it codifies what practitioners already know. Some of it proposes genuinely new restrictions. The bridge financing section is in the latter category and deserves careful attention.
Investment Minimums: What’s Changing and What Isn’t
The investment thresholds most investors care about are unchanged. Rural TEA and High Unemployment TEA projects remain at $800,000. Non-TEA standard investments remain at $1,050,000.
The NPRM introduces a new third tier: a “High Employment Area” (HEA) category. This applies to areas where local unemployment is significantly below the national average — specifically, where the national rate is at least 150 percent of the local rate. Investments in HEA projects would require $1.4 million. As Mona Shah of Mona Shah & Associates observed, this new tier will see minimal use in practice: the overwhelming majority of regional center investors already choose TEA projects for a lower investment amount, and that behavior is unlikely to change.
Starting January 1, 2027, all amounts will adjust for inflation, with subsequent adjustments every five years. If you’re planning to invest, the current $800,000 minimum is locked in only if you file your I-526E before the final rule takes effect with its inflation adjustment date.
Bridge Financing: The Most Consequential Proposed Change
The NPRM proposes eliminating job creation credit for any project where EB-5 capital is used to repay prior bridge financing. Under current practice, many regional center projects use bridge loans to begin construction before EB-5 funds are fully raised — the EB-5 capital then repays those loans, and the jobs created during that pre-EB-5 construction phase count toward the investor’s job creation requirement. The NPRM would end that.
Wolfsdorf Rosenthal, which published a detailed 25-point analysis of the NPRM, describes this as the single most consequential provision in the proposal. Projects that rely on bridge financing as a structural tool would need to redesign their capital stacks or risk investors being unable to count the jobs created during the bridge period.
USCIS explicitly invited public comment on whether less restrictive alternatives are workable – such as capping the duration or percentage of bridge financing that can be used. That invitation signals this provision may be modified before the final rule. But it’s an open question, and investors evaluating current projects should ask directly whether EB-5 capital repays any bridge loans and what the downstream effect would be on job count.
At-Risk Capital and the Two-Year Sustainment Period
The NPRM formally codifies the two-year sustainment rule that has been operating under policy guidance: capital must remain at risk for a minimum of two years from when it becomes available to the job-creating entity. Once those two years are complete and job creation requirements are satisfied, capital can be returned — even if your I-829 is still pending.
This is investor-friendly and represents a significant departure from the pre-Reform and Integrity Act standard, which required capital to remain at risk throughout the entire conditional residency period. The codification gives this rule the force of regulation rather than just policy guidance, which provides more legal certainty.
One clarification in the NPRM worth noting: the two-year clock begins on the investment date, specifically when capital is fully deployed and available to the job-creating entity — not when the I-526E petition is filed. Review your project’s PPM to confirm exactly how and when funds are deployed, since that date determines your sustainment timeline.
Regional Center Oversight and Investor Protections
The NPRM significantly expands DHS’s enforcement toolkit against regional centers. Proposed measures include mandatory annual compliance reporting, audits and site visits at least every five years, expanded record-keeping requirements, and a tiered penalty structure. Regional centers that violate requirements face monetary penalties of up to 10 percent of total invested capital. A late I-956G filing alone carries a $10,000 fine.
DHS estimates the annual compliance cost at roughly $47,000 per regional center. Industry practitioners consider that figure understated — it doesn’t account for legal fees, problem resolution, or the disproportionate burden on smaller single-project centers. The practical effect may be consolidation: smaller operators without the infrastructure to sustain this level of compliance may exit the market.
For investors, the more significant provisions are on the protection side. The NPRM includes formal “good faith investor” protections for investors whose regional center is terminated or debarred through no fault of their own. Affected investors receive a 180-day window to reassociate with a compliant sponsor while retaining their original priority dates. As Mona Shah noted, these protections are “more significant than they look” – they prevent a single regional center failure from cascading into irreversible harm for investors who acted in good faith.
Biometrics, Promoter Registration, and Source of Funds
The NPRM proposes requiring biometrics at the I-526E stage. For investors already in the United States, this is a minor procedural step – biometric appointments are routine for US-based applicants and can typically be scheduled within a few weeks.
More consequential for the industry is the new promoter registration framework. Every marketing professional presenting EB-5 investment opportunities to investors must register with USCIS before engaging, disclose their compensation, and provide investors with written agreements. This applies to the global network of agents and brokers who refer investors to regional center projects. Expect the field to contract as smaller operators who can’t sustain compliance exit.
Source of funds scrutiny is also increasing. The NPRM formalizes stricter evidentiary standards, explicitly excludes intangible assets like patents and trademarks from qualifying as EB-5 capital, and accepts cryptocurrency as a lawful source with formalized documentation requirements – transaction histories, tax records, conversion documentation, and ownership proof. If your funds include digital assets, engage immigration counsel before filing to ensure documentation is complete.
The September 30, 2026 Filing Deadline
One provision in the existing statute is worth flagging regardless of how the NPRM ultimately resolves: the RIA grandfathering deadline. Investors who file their I-526E petition by September 30, 2026, are protected under the grandfathering provision — USCIS must continue processing their petitions even if the regional center program were to lapse in the future. This is a filing protection tied to the current program authorization, not a deadline for the reserved set-aside categories themselves.
The regional center program authorization currently runs through September 30, 2027, and the reserved Rural, High Unemployment, and Infrastructure set-asides run through that same date. These set-asides — which are current for investors from every country, including India and China — do not expire in 2026. But the grandfathering protection does.
In short, filing after September 30, 2026 is still possible since the program remains authorized through September 30, 2027. However, the difference is what happens if Congress fails to reauthorize before that date. Grandfathered investors are protected by statute; USCIS must keep processing their petitions through any lapse. Non-grandfathered investors have no such protection — if the program lapses, their petitions could be suspended or returned until Congress acts. The program has lapsed before: in 2021, for roughly eight months, before the Reform and Integrity Act restored authorization. For investors on a visa clock, that kind of interruption carries real costs. Filing before September 30, 2026 eliminates that risk entirely.
Key Takeaways
- The $800,000 investment minimum for Rural TEA and High Unemployment TEA projects is unchanged. Rural EB-5 remains the most accessible entry point into the program.
- The bridge financing proposal is the highest-stakes change in the NPRM. Investors evaluating current projects should ask directly how EB-5 capital interacts with any prior construction financing.
- The two-year sustainment standard is now proposed to be codified as regulation. Capital can be returned once the two-year at-risk period and job creation requirements are satisfied, independent of your I-829 timeline.
- Good faith investor protections preserve priority dates if your regional center is terminated — but this makes due diligence on regional center quality more important, not less.
- Biometrics are proposed at the I-526E stage. For US-based investors, this is a routine step with no meaningful timeline impact.
- The September 30, 2026 grandfathering deadline is real. Filing before that date locks in program protection. The reserved set-aside categories run through September 30, 2027.
- Public comments are open through August 31, 2026. The final rule may differ from the proposal, particularly on bridge financing where USCIS explicitly invited alternative approaches.
Evaluating EB-5 in a Changing Regulatory Environment
The practical effect of this NPRM, if finalized broadly as proposed, will be a more scrutinized and more consolidated EB-5 market. Regional centers that can sustain audit, reporting, and compliance obligations will remain; those that cannot will exit. For investors, this means due diligence on the regional center’s operational track record matters as much as the underlying project.
If you’re on an H-1B or F-1 visa and researching EB-5 as a path to a green card independent of employer sponsorship, the regulatory trajectory here doesn’t change the core mechanics for investors in well-structured rural projects. It does make the selection of project, regional center, and legal counsel more consequential. We invite you to schedule a consultation with our team to discuss how these proposed changes apply to your specific situation.
Disclaimer: This update is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or investment advice. Visa availability is subject to change, and individual circumstances may vary. Prospective investors should consult with qualified immigration counsel and review all offering documents before making any investment decision.
