What Does an EB5 Lawyer Do?
The work runs in five stages, each tied to a USCIS form or an evidence trail (forms named on USCIS's EB-5 page, checked 26 Sep 2026):
Petition: Form I-526E for an investment through a regional centre, or Form I-526 for a standalone investment.
Source of funds: USCIS requires you to show the capital was obtained through lawful means and to document the path of the funds into the enterprise (USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part G, Chapter 2). Loans count only if secured by your own assets and you are personally and primarily liable.
Project due diligence: the offering documents, the regional centre's designation, the fees charged to investors and how the capital is meant to create the required jobs.
Green card stage: if you are in the United States and a visa is immediately available, Form I-485 can be filed at the same time as the petition (USCIS EB-5 questions and answers). Otherwise the approved petition goes to the National Visa Center and you interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate (State Department, checked 26 Sep 2026).
Condition removal: Form I-829, filed in the 90 days immediately before the two-year conditional residence expires. Missing that window ends your conditional status unless USCIS accepts good cause for a late filing (USCIS Form I-829, checked 26 Sep 2026).
How Much Do You Need to Invest for EB-5?
For petitions filed since 15 March 2022, EB-5 requires $1,050,000 in a standard project, or $800,000 in a targeted employment area (TEA) or infrastructure project.
Both amounts rise automatically on 1 January 2027 and every five years after that, so confirm which figure applies to your filing date (USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part G, Chapter 2, checked 26 Sep 2026).
The EB-5 capital must be at risk, must be expected to stay invested for at least two years, and must create full-time positions for at least 10 qualifying employees (USCIS).
What Did the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act Change?
The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 reauthorised the regional centre programme through 30 September 2027 and added integrity rules a lawyer should check against your specific regional centre (USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part G, Chapter 1, checked 26 Sep 2026):
Annual statement: each regional centre files Form I-956G every fiscal year, including the fees collected from investors, who received them and why (USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part G, Chapter 4).
Audits: USCIS audits each regional centre at least once every five years.
Bars: anyone with a fraud or deceit offence in the previous 10 years, among other disqualifications, cannot be involved in a regional centre.
Promoters: regional centres must keep written agreements with the promoters acting for them.
Integrity Fund: regional centres pay $20,000 a year, or $10,000 with 20 or fewer investors, which funds audits, site visits and fraud investigations (USCIS, checked 26 Sep 2026).
Set-asides: 20% of EB-5 visas are reserved for rural projects, 10% for high-unemployment areas and 2% for infrastructure projects (USCIS).
Why Do Investors From India and China Wait Longer?
EB-5 visas are subject to visa availability and per-country limits, and the State Department's monthly Visa Bulletin sets the cut-off dates (Visa Bulletin for September 2026, checked 26 Sep 2026).
Unreserved EB-5, September 2026 final action dates: mainland China-born 1 December 2016; India unavailable; every other country current.
Rural, high-unemployment and infrastructure set-asides: current for every country, China and India included.
India's unreserved EB-5 visas for fiscal year 2026 were all issued by 5 June 2026, and the limits reset on 1 October 2026 (State Department notice). Check the latest bulletin with your lawyer before you commit to a project.
How to Vet an EB5 Lawyer
Only a lawyer in good standing with the bar of a U.S. state or territory, or an accredited representative, can give U.S. immigration legal advice. USCIS tells applicants to ask for the lawyer's current licence and verify it with the state agency that licenses them (USCIS, find legal services, checked 26 Sep 2026).
That licence comes from a state bar, not from USCIS, so look the lawyer up on their state bar's own register rather than relying on a claimed USCIS approval.
Many investment-migration advisories listed here are not U.S. law firms and may work alongside U.S.-admitted counsel. Ask which arrangement you are buying, whether the lawyer also acts for the regional centre or project, and for an itemised quote in writing.
What About the Gold Card?
Executive Order 14351 was signed on 19 September 2025 and the programme opened to applications in December 2025. The gift itself is made to the Department of Commerce; the Department of Homeland Security takes a $15,000 processing fee and runs the vetting. The petition is filed with USCIS on Form I-140G.
Both figures are per person. An individual applicant gives $1,000,000 and pays $15,000, and each family member (a spouse and unmarried children under 21) needs their own $1,000,000 gift and their own $15,000 fee. The Form I-140G filing fee is that same $15,000 processing fee, one fee rather than two. A family of four is therefore around $4,000,000 plus $60,000, not $1,015,000. Department of State visa fees and a required medical examination sit on top of both figures, again per applicant. The corporate route is $2,000,000 per employee, with a 1% annual maintenance fee and a 5% transfer fee on top (trumpcard.gov, checked 26 Sep 2026).
The $15,000 fee is non-refundable and paid up front; the $1,000,000 gift is requested only once vetting is complete. It is a gift, not an investment, and no part of it is structured to return.
The order treats the gift as evidence of eligibility. Subject to visa availability, a successful applicant receives lawful permanent residence in the EB-1 or EB-2 category, unconditional, with no two-year conditional period to remove. Uptake has been very low: according to a DHS court filing reported by CNBC on 8 May 2026, 338 people had applied and 165 processing fees had been paid, and the Commerce Secretary testified in April 2026 that one applicant had been approved.
The Gold Card was created by executive order, not by an act of Congress. A future administration can end it and its legal basis is open to challenge in court, whereas EB-5 sits in statute. The government also names national-security and significant criminal risks as a basis for revoking a Gold Card once granted. Permanent residence on either route makes you a U.S. tax resident, taxed on worldwide income (trumpcard.gov).