What Is the EB-5 Green Card and How Does It Work?

The EB-5 green card is a U.S. permanent residency granted to a foreign national who invests either $800,000 or $1,050,000 in an American business that creates at least 10 full-time jobs for qualifying workers. The investor’s spouse and unmarried children under 21 get green cards through the same petition. Residency arrives in two stages: two years of conditional status while the investment and jobs are verified, then unconditional permanent residency once conditions are removed. Congress created the program in 1990, and the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 reshaped how it works today.

How Much You Have to Invest

The standard minimum is $1,050,000. It drops to $800,000 when the money goes into a Targeted Employment Area, defined as either a rural area or a zone with unemployment at least 150 percent of the national average.¹ A rural area is any location outside a metropolitan statistical area and outside cities or towns with 20,000 or more residents. The $800,000 figure also applies to qualifying infrastructure projects.

These amounts were set by the 2022 Reform and Integrity Act, which built in a periodic inflation adjustment. The next scheduled adjustment is not expected until 2027, so both figures remain in effect for 2026.

Every dollar has to be genuinely at risk. Guaranteed returns, mandatory buyback agreements, and capital held in reserve accounts do not count toward the minimum. If a project’s documents promise to repurchase the investor’s equity on a specific date or guarantee a fixed rate of return, USCIS treats that portion as a debt arrangement, not an investment, and will not credit it.²

The 10-Job Requirement

Each investment must create full-time positions for at least 10 qualifying workers.¹ Full-time means at least 35 hours per week in a role that is not temporary, seasonal, or intermittent. USCIS generally considers a job lasting at least two years to satisfy the permanency standard.³

A qualifying worker is a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or another immigrant authorized to work in the country. The investor, their spouse, and their children do not count, and neither does anyone in nonimmigrant status.⁴ USCIS verifies job creation through payroll records, tax filings, and other business documentation, and the investor must sustain those positions through the conditional residency period.

There is one alternative to creating new jobs. If the investment goes into a troubled business that has existed for at least two years and lost at least 20 percent of its net worth during the 12 or 24 months before filing, the investor can count preserved jobs rather than newly created ones.³

Direct Investment or Regional Center

Investors pick between two structures, and the choice shapes how much control they keep and which jobs count.

Direct Investment

The foreign national creates or purchases a commercial enterprise and manages it themselves. Only jobs on the company’s own payroll count toward the 10-job minimum. This route suits investors who want operational control over a business they understand, but the management burden is real and there is little margin for error in proving exactly 10 qualifying positions.

Regional Center Investment

Regional centers are USCIS-designated organizations that pool EB-5 capital and direct it into larger development projects. The main advantage is job-counting flexibility. Regional center investments can include indirect jobs (created in the supply chain) and induced jobs (resulting from spending by direct and indirect employees), and up to 90 percent of the job creation requirement can be met through indirect positions.³ Economic models rather than individual payroll records demonstrate those jobs, which makes hitting the threshold considerably easier.

The tradeoff is control. Regional center investors are passive participants in projects run by others. Under the 2022 reforms, regional centers pay an annual fee into an EB-5 Integrity Fund, and USCIS can terminate a center’s designation for noncompliance. USCIS has stated that termination does not automatically end an investor’s conditional permanent residency, but it creates real complications for pending petitions.

Who Gets a Green Card With You

The investor’s spouse and unmarried children under 21 qualify as derivative beneficiaries and receive green cards through the same petition, with no separate EB-5 case required. Each family member must be named in the original petition when it is filed. Adding a spouse or child later is generally not permitted, so the family composition at filing matters.

Children approaching 21 face a specific risk: turning 21 during processing can cause them to age out and lose eligibility. The Child Status Protection Act provides a formula that can preserve eligibility for some children by subtracting petition processing time from their age at visa availability.⁵ For families with teenagers, choosing a project category with faster processing and current visa availability can decide whether a child keeps eligibility.

How Long the Wait Is

The EB-5 program is capped at 7.1 percent of the total worldwide employment-based visa allocation each fiscal year, which works out to roughly 10,000 visas annually.⁶ Family members count against the cap. When demand exceeds supply, the State Department assigns cutoff dates and applicants wait in line by petition filing date.

Backlogs hit different countries differently. As of mid-2026, the final action date for Chinese nationals in the unreserved category sits at September 2016, and Indian applicants face a final action date of May 2022, with retrogression possible later in fiscal year 2026. Applicants from most other countries currently face no unreserved backlog.

The 2022 reforms created a lever that changes this picture. Each fiscal year, the law reserves 20 percent of EB-5 visas for rural investments, 10 percent for high-unemployment investments, and 2 percent for infrastructure projects.¹ These reserved categories have separate queues, and as of 2026 they remain current for applicants from all countries. A Chinese investor choosing a qualifying rural project avoids the decade-long unreserved queue entirely. Processing of I-526E petitions has varied widely: rural projects have sometimes received approval in under six months, urban projects sometimes over two years.

The Filing Steps

The petition begins with Form I-526 for direct investors or Form I-526E for regional center investors.⁷ Both forms require personal information, employment and residence history, and the full investment documentation package. The I-526E adds a $1,000 Integrity Fund contribution. The petition must include a comprehensive business plan with market analysis and economic projections showing how the project generates the required jobs.

Investors already in the United States on a valid visa can file Form I-485 to adjust to permanent resident status, and in some cases can file it concurrently with the I-526 or I-526E provided a visa is immediately available.⁸ Concurrent filing is especially useful for reserved-category investors whose visas remain current, because it produces a work permit and travel document while the petition is pending. Investors outside the country use consular processing at a U.S. embassy or consulate.

Approval does not deliver a permanent green card. The investor and family first receive conditional permanent resident status lasting two years. During that window, the investment must stay active and job creation must be met or on track.

Within the 90-day period immediately before the two-year status expires, the investor files Form I-829 to remove conditions.⁹ The filing must show that capital remained invested and that the 10 jobs were created, or for regional center investments that economic models project sufficient job creation. Miss the 90-day window and USCIS will terminate conditional resident status and begin removal proceedings.¹⁰ A successful I-829 produces an unconditional green card valid for ten years with standard renewal rights. Naturalization becomes available after meeting the standard residency requirements.

Proving Where the Money Came From

USCIS demands proof that every dollar was earned legally. The investor must establish legal ownership of the capital and trace its path from origin to project account.⁴ This is where most petitions run into trouble.

Documentation typically includes several years of personal and business tax returns, bank statements, corporate records, and property sale contracts. If the money passed through multiple accounts or entities before reaching the project, every step of that chain has to be documented.

Gifted funds add complexity. USCIS requires a formal gift letter identifying the date, amount, and relationship between the parties, plus records showing the donor earned the gifted money lawfully. That usually means producing the donor’s tax returns and financial statements too. If the donor’s country imposes a gift tax, proof of payment or exemption may be needed.

What It Costs Beyond the Investment

The investment itself is the largest cost, but not the only one. Regional center investors typically pay a one-time administrative fee to the center ranging from $30,000 to $60,000, not credited toward the investment. Most centers require it paid in full before the I-526E petition is filed.

Federal filing fees add up. The I-526 or I-526E filing fee is $3,675 as of early 2026, plus the $1,000 Integrity Fund fee for regional center investors. The I-485, biometrics, and eventual I-829 each carry their own fees. Immigration attorney fees for the full process commonly run into five figures. Direct investors face additional costs for business formation and ongoing operations.

None of these ancillary costs are refundable if the petition is denied. Recovery of the investment capital itself depends on structure. In a direct investment, much of the capital is typically already spent on the business by the time USCIS decides, making recovery unlikely. Regional center subscription agreements may include refund provisions for denied petitions, though administrative fees are generally excluded.

Risks Worth Understanding

The at-risk requirement means the investment has no safety net by design. Capital must be exposed to potential loss, and some EB-5 projects have failed, leaving investors with neither a green card nor their money. Due diligence on the project, the developer’s track record, and the regional center’s compliance history matters more than in most investment decisions because both immigration status and capital are at stake.

Regional center termination is a specific risk that has materialized for hundreds of investors. USCIS has terminated the designation of over a hundred regional centers, frequently for failure to pay the annual Integrity Fund fee or submit required reporting. USCIS has stated that a center’s termination does not necessarily end an investor’s conditional residency, but the resulting uncertainty and delay are real.

For investors from countries with long backlogs, the wait itself is a risk. A Chinese national in the unreserved category faces a potential wait of nearly a decade based on current final action dates. Personal circumstances change over that time, children age out, and investment conditions shift. Choosing a reserved category avoids that risk for now, though reserved category backlogs could develop if demand rises.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S.C. 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. EB-5 At-Risk and Escrow Issues Training Materials
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. About the EB-5 Visa Classification
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 6 Part G Chapter 2 – Immigrant Petition Eligibility Requirements
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Child Status Protection Act (CSPA)
6
U.S. Department of State. Annual Limit Reached in the EB-5 Unreserved Category
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-526, Immigrant Petition by Standalone Investor
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. EB-5 Questions and Answers
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-829, Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status
10
eCFR. 8 CFR 1216.6 – Petition by Entrepreneur to Remove Conditional Basis of Lawful Permanent Resident Status