EB-5 Fees More Than Double on November 30. The Binding Deadline Is No Longer January 1.

USCIS published its EB-5 fee rule in final form on September 30, 2026. It takes effect November 30, 2026, and the trigger is the postmark: "Any application, petition, or request postmarked on or after this date must be accompanied by the fees established by this final rule." Form I-526E, the initial regional center investor petition, goes from $3,675 to $7,850, an increase of $4,175, or 114 percent.

Why this changes your calendar

Every EB-5 family in the market is planning around January 1, 2027, the date the statutory minimum investment adjusts for inflation for the first time since the 2022 Reform and Integrity Act. That is no longer the first deadline you face. The fee increase lands 32 days earlier, and for an investor whose source of funds file is already built, the money is on the November date.

For regional centers the rule runs the other way. Two of the filings you make most often get cheaper on November 30. File them in November and you pay more than if you wait.

What the postmark controls, and what it does not

The rule keys the fee to the postmark, not to the day USCIS opens the envelope, not to the receipt date, and not to the date you wire capital into escrow. A package postmarked November 29 or earlier pays today's fee. November 29, 2026 is a Sunday. Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26. The last ordinary business day to get a postmark under the current schedule is Friday, November 27, the day after the holiday, in the week when mailrooms and courier counters are thinnest.

The statute keys the investment amount to something slightly different. Under 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(C), the required capital is $1,050,000, or $800,000 for a targeted employment area or an infrastructure project. Clause (iii) provides that "beginning on January 1, 2027, and every 5 years thereafter," the standard amount adjusts automatically "for petitions filed on or after the effective date of each adjustment," based on the cumulative CPI-U change since January 1, 2022, rounded down to the nearest $50,000. The targeted employment area figure then resets to 75 percent of the standard amount.

So two documents govern two dates, and they use two different words: postmarked, and filed. Both reward the same behavior. Only one of them is two months away.

The investor arithmetic

Current fee first, then the fee for a package postmarked November 30 or later, as published in the rule:

• Form I-526E, regional center investor, initial: $3,675 to $7,850, up 114 percent.
• Form I-526, standalone investor: $3,675 to $7,615, up 107 percent.
• Form I-526E, amendment: $3,675 to $7,775, up 112 percent.
• EB-5 Integrity Fund fee filed with a Form I-526E: $1,000 to $1,100, up 10 percent.
• Form I-829, removal of conditions: $3,750 to $5,000, up 33 percent.
• Form I-527, amendment to a legacy Form I-526: no fee today, $10,330 after November 30.

The rule publishes the I-526 and initial I-526E figures inclusive of the EB-5 technology fee. The Integrity Fund increases are a 10 percent inflation adjustment under 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(J), based on CPI-U data from 2022 through 2025.

Two things to notice. First, USCIS has moved its cost recovery to the front of the case. The entry petition is up 114 percent while the exit petition is up 33 percent. Adding the published figures, a regional center investor filing after November 30 faces $7,850 on the I-526E, $1,100 to the Integrity Fund, and $5,000 on the I-829 at the end of the conditional period.

Second, these are fees per petition, not per person. A family of five pays the same $4,175 increase as an investor filing alone. That inverts how the rest of EB-5 behaves, where the capital requirement attaches to the investor and visa numbers are rationed per beneficiary. For a large family the fee change is a modest share of the total; for a single filer it is the largest cost movement in this rule.

Regional centers: the deadline points the other way

Current fee, then the fee on or after November 30:

• Form I-956, initial regional center designation: $17,795 to $44,115, up 148 percent.
• Form I-956F, investment approval: $17,795 to $42,675, up 140 percent.
• Form I-956, amendment: $17,795 to $9,835, down 45 percent.
• Form I-956G, annual statement: $3,035 to $2,165, down 29 percent.
• Form I-956H, bona fides of persons: no fee today, $65 after November 30.
• Form I-956K, direct and third party promoters: no fee today, $2,165 after November 30.
• Regional center Integrity Fund fee: $10,000 to $11,000 for a center with 20 or fewer investors, $20,000 to $22,000 otherwise.

The rule publishes the initial I-956 and the I-956F figures inclusive of a termination cost component.

Read that list as an operating instruction. If you hold an I-956 amendment or an I-956G annual statement that you can lawfully file on or after November 30, waiting saves $7,960 and $870 respectively. If you hold an I-956F project application that is ready, every day past November 29 costs $24,880.

The increase that lands on the investor, not the sponsor

In most regional center offerings the sponsor recovers its filing costs through the investor's administrative fee rather than out of its own margin. A $24,880 increase on an I-956F, divided among the investors in a project, is a line item that someone pays. Ask the sponsor two questions in writing: is my administrative fee fixed by the subscription documents or can it rise, and has this project's I-956F already been filed. A project that has not filed is quoting you a cost structure with a November 30 expiry.

The new I-956K promoter fee is worth a separate look. Registration costs nothing today and $2,165 afterward. That is immaterial to a real marketing operation and material to the long tail of finders who register nominally. Some of them will simply stop.

A rejected package carries a new postmark

This is the failure that will cost clients the most money, and it is entirely avoidable. A filing USCIS rejects at intake was never filed. Mail an I-526E on November 20 with a superseded form edition, a missing signature, or a payment method USCIS will not accept, and the rejection arrives in December. The refiling carries a December postmark and the new fee. The $4,175 you were protecting becomes the price of the defect, and you have lost three weeks of processing position as well.

What to do

1. Set your internal filing cutoff at Friday, November 20, not November 29. That leaves one full week of margin for a rejection, a courier failure, or a bank that will not cut a cashier's check on demand during a holiday week.
2. Make the go or no go decision on filing before November 30 now, this month. Source of funds tracing is almost always the long lead item, and it does not compress.
3. Regional centers: move any I-956 amendment or I-956G annual statement you can lawfully defer to a date on or after November 30. Move any ready I-956F to a date before it.
4. If you are an investor in a project whose I-956F has not been filed, get the intended filing date and written confirmation of whether your administrative fee can increase.
5. Confirm the exact fee, the payment method, and the current form edition on uscis.gov on the day the check is cut. Fee rules and form editions change independently of each other.
6. Do not file an unready petition to beat either date. A denial costs far more than $4,175, and nothing in this rule gives you a second postmark.

Authorities

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Employment-Based Immigrant Visa, Fifth Preference (EB-5) Fee Rule, 91 FR 61940 (Sept. 30, 2026), DHS Docket No. USCIS-2025-0139, CIS No. 2846-26, RIN 1615-AC93, final rule, effective November 30, 2026. Fee figures taken from Table 1 of the rule.
• 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5), subparagraph (C) for the capital amounts and the January 1, 2027 inflation adjustment, subparagraph (J) for the EB-5 Integrity Fund.
• USCIS filing fees, uscis.gov/forms/filing-fees, to confirm the fee and the form edition on the day of filing.