The increases are substantial. DHS estimates that form fees will rise by about 70.7 percent on average—roughly $2,945.90 per filing—across the approximately 16,600 EB-5 program filings expected annually. The agency is also introducing a technology fee for the first time and raising the Integrity Fund fees that regional centers pay.
The court decision that triggered this rulemaking came on November 12, 2025, when the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado stayed certain EB-5 fees that had been set in the FY 2022/2023 fee rule and became effective April 1, 2024. The court determined that the EB-5 Reform Act precluded DHS from adjusting those fees. DHS disagreed with the decision but implemented it anyway, reverting to the fees that were in effect before March 31, 2024. This final rule now replaces those older fees with new ones.
The fee increases reflect revised cost and workload projections. The EB-5 program-specific costs have risen from approximately $86 million in the proposed rule to about $105 million in this final version. The agency's overall IEFA (Immigration Examinations Fee Account) non-premium annual average cost projection jumped from $5.316 billion for FY 2024/2025 to approximately $6.960 billion for FY 2026/2027. Using current EB-5 fees and these updated assumptions, projected EB-5 revenue is approximately $56.6 million, leaving a cost-revenue gap of roughly $48.4 million. The final fee schedule is designed to close that gap.
The receipt forecasts for EB-5 filings have also been revised upward. The Volume Projection Committee increased projected average annual EB-5 receipts from 11,262 to 16,604. Completion rate estimates were updated using more recent data from the Immigrant Investor Program Office while remaining aligned with the processing time goals in the EB-5 Reform Act.
For the Integrity Fund fees, DHS is applying a 10 percent inflation adjustment based on Consumer Price Index data from 2022 to 2025. The I-526E Integrity Fund fee rises from $1,000 to $1,100. The Regional Center fee increases from $10,000 to $11,000. For certain Regional Center applications, the fee goes from $20,000 to $22,000.
The rule also introduces a technology fee, authorized under section 106(c) of the EB-5 Reform Act, to support improvements to USCIS information technology systems. The exact amount of this fee is included in the revised Form G-1055, Fee Schedule, which is part of the rulemaking docket.
DHS made several changes from the proposed rule based on public comments and updated data. The receipt forecasts, cost projections, and completion rate estimates all shifted to reflect more recent planning information. The agency also revised how it allocates the costs of regional center terminations and reaffirmations—those costs are now assigned only to initial Form I-956 (Application for Regional Center Designation) and Form I-956F (Application for Approval of an Investment in a Commercial Enterprise) filings, rather than to Form I-956 amendments.
The rule is published under the authority of the EB-5 Reform Act, which repealed prior statutory provisions for the Regional Center Program and amended the Immigration and Nationality Act to reform the regional center program of the EB-5 category. The EB-5 Reform Act authorized DHS to conduct a fee study and set fees for EB-5 program-related immigration benefit requests to recover the full costs of administering the program and seek to attain statutory processing time goals.
For further information, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer at USCIS can be reached at 5900 Capital Gateway Drive, Camp Springs, MD 20746, or by telephone at (240) 721-3000. Individuals with hearing or speech impairments may access this number via TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Information Relay Service at 711.
The full rule is available at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/09/30/2026-20016/us-citizenship-and-immigration-services-employment-based-immigrant-visa-fifth-preference-eb-5-fee.
General information, not legal, immigration or tax advice. Confirm the details with Homeland Security Department before you act.
