EB-5 Fees Are Going Up on November 30 — What's Changing, and Why USCIS Says It's Necessary

Fee changes rarely make headlines, but this one touches every stage of the EB-5 process, and it comes with a firm date. For anyone planning an EB-5 filing in the next several months, the effective date is now part of the timeline.

What USCIS Announced

In its September 29, 2026 alert, USCIS said it is updating EB-5 fees so that they fully recover the cost of operating the program, meet the statutory processing time goals, and support integrity measures such as audits and site visits. The new fees are designed to take effect on November 30, 2026. USCIS says the rule finalizes the notice of proposed rulemaking that DHS published in the Federal Register in October 2025.

USCIS also stressed a point about how it is funded: the agency is largely supported by filing fees rather than taxpayer dollars, so the cost of reviewing applications, running background checks, verifying eligibility, detecting fraud, and keeping the program operating must be paid by the people who use it.

The Reported Numbers

The USCIS alert itself does not list dollar amounts. The figures below come from a separate summary of the final rule, so treat them as reported and confirm each against the rule text.

Why USCIS Says It's Doing This

The legal backdrop is the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, which directed USCIS to carry out a program-specific fee study and to set EB-5 fees at a level that recovers the full cost of administering the program. The same law set processing time goals and strengthened integrity requirements, including compliance reviews, audits, site visits, and measures meant to help prevent fraud and abuse. In USCIS's framing, higher fees are the price of a program that is adjudicated on a timetable and checked more closely for fraud.

Whether the new fees actually produce faster, more reliable processing is a separate question that only the coming months will answer. A fee increase is a funding decision, not a promise about timelines.

What This Means If You're Planning an EB-5 Filing

• Treat November 30 as a real date. Decide whether your filing is going out before or after it, and confirm which fee applies on your filing date.
• Check the form edition as well as the fee. As with several other recent USCIS changes, a filing with the wrong edition or the wrong fee can be rejected rather than corrected. Confirm whether there is any transition window.
• Keep the numbers in proportion. The fees discussed here are small next to the capital an EB-5 investment requires, which under the 2022 reforms generally starts at $800,000 in a targeted employment area and $1,050,000 elsewhere. The larger planning items are the investment itself, the documented lawful source of funds, and due diligence on the project.
• Don't rush a weak filing to beat a fee. A rushed or incomplete petition costs far more in delay or denial than the fee difference saves. USCIS can now deny incomplete filings without first sending a Request for Evidence.
• For conditional residents, mind the I-829 timing. The petition to remove conditions is tied to the two-year conditional residence period, so calendar it early and confirm the fee that applies when you file.

One More Fee Change in a Busy Year

The EB-5 increase is the latest in a run of cost-related changes we have covered this fall: the proposed $103,265 H-1B fee, the proposed $70,000 fee tied to OPT, and new form editions like the revised Form I-485 and the new Form I-864. They are different programs with different legal bases, and this one is a final rule while several of the others are still proposals. The common thread is that filing now takes more planning, and more money, than it did a year ago.