EB-5's First Inflation Adjustment Lands January 1, 2027. The Trigger Is Your Filing Date.

The EB-5 minimum investment has been $1,050,000, or $800,000 in a targeted employment area or infrastructure project, since the Reform and Integrity Act of 2022.

On January 1, 2027, those numbers change for the first time: automatically, by operation of statute, and every five years thereafter.

The statute is unambiguous about what controls: the adjusted amount applies to petitions filed on or after the effective date. Not to investments made before it. Not to funds already escrowed. To petitions filed.

That is roughly four months from today, and it makes the filing calendar the entire planning question for anyone contemplating EB-5.

How the adjustment works

Under 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5)(C), the increase is driven by the cumulative annual percentage change in the unadjusted Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, all items, U.S. city average, measured across the five-year period. The result is rounded down to the nearest $50,000.

We are not going to give you a projected figure, and you should be skeptical of anyone who does. Several regional centers and law firm blogs are circulating specific 2027 numbers. No government source has published one. The mechanism and the date are certain; the amount is not, until it is.

What is certain is direction and rough magnitude. Cumulative CPI-U growth since 2022 has been substantial. The increase will not be trivial, and the $50,000 rounding means it will land in a meaningful increment.

Why this is not a reason to rush badly

The obvious reading is "file before January 1." That is the right instinct and the wrong instruction if taken alone.

An EB-5 petition filed to beat a deadline, on a project that has not been diligenced, is the most expensive mistake available in this practice area. The investment is at risk, the immigration benefit is at risk, and the capital is typically locked for years. We have seen investors lose both.

The correct framing is that the deadline compresses the diligence timeline, not the diligence itself. If a family is seriously considering EB-5, the work that ordinarily occupies six to nine months now needs to be underway. That means:

• Source-of-funds documentation. This is almost always the long pole. Tracing lawful source across jurisdictions, currencies, and years of transactions is not a four-week exercise, particularly where funds moved through family businesses, real estate sales, or gifts.
• Project diligence. The RIA's integrity provisions improved the landscape considerably, but they did not eliminate the need to evaluate the underlying business, the job-creation methodology, the developer's track record, and the exit.
• Structuring for the set-asides. See below; this is where the real advantage sits.

The set-asides remain the most valuable feature of the program

This is the point that matters most for Chinese and Indian investors, and it is underappreciated.

In the September 2026 Visa Bulletin, all three set-aside categories, rural (20%), high unemployment (10%), and infrastructure (2%), are current for every country of chargeability, in both the Final Action Dates and Dates for Filing charts. Including China. Including India.

Meanwhile, the unreserved category tells a very different story. EB-5 unreserved for India is unavailable. The State Department announced that as of June 5, 2026, all FY2026 EB-5 unreserved visas for Indian nationals were exhausted, and posts may not issue in that category for the remainder of the fiscal year. EB-5 unreserved for China sits at a December 1, 2016 final action date, a wait measured in years.

The practical consequence for an Indian or Chinese investor is stark. A qualifying rural or high-unemployment project offers a path with no visa backlog at all, at the same $800,000 investment level. An unreserved investment offers a decade-long queue, or no availability at all.

Annual limits reset with the new fiscal year on October 1, 2026, which will restore some unreserved availability for India, but the structural backlog does not disappear with a calendar flip, and the State Department has already warned that unreserved demand may force retrogression or unavailability again.

If you are chargeable to India or China, the set-aside question is more consequential than the price increase.

What else is in motion

DHS published its first comprehensive RIA implementing rule as a proposed rule on July 2, 2026 (RIN 1615-AC94, Docket USCIS-2026-0100). The comment period closed August 31. The rule is not final and not in effect.

What it proposes to codify: the statutory minimums; concurrent filing of adjustment of status with or after the EB-5 petition; grandfathering for petitions filed before the March 15, 2022 RIA enactment date, with exceptions for fraud and national security; and the Integrity Fund's annual payment obligation, with its October 1 to 31 window.

Notably, DHS solicited comment on redeployment rather than resolving it, meaning the redeployment rules remain unsettled by regulation. For investors whose capital may need to be redeployed during a lengthy conditional period, that uncertainty is real and should be addressed in the offering documents rather than assumed away.

Regional centers remain subject to audit at least once every five years, and to the Integrity Fund's annual fee ($20,000, or $10,000 for centers with twenty or fewer investors in the preceding fiscal year), with designation terminating if unpaid within ninety days. Confirming a center's Integrity Fund standing is a basic diligence item and takes one question.

What to do

1. Decide by October. If EB-5 is under serious consideration, the go/no-go decision needs to be made this fall to leave time for source-of-funds work before year end.
2. Start source-of-funds documentation immediately, in parallel with project selection rather than after it. This is the step that determines whether a January deadline is achievable.
3. For Indian and Chinese investors, prioritize qualifying rural or high-unemployment projects. The visa availability difference is worth more than the price difference.
4. Confirm the regional center's Integrity Fund payment status and audit history before committing capital.
5. Read the redeployment provisions in the offering documents closely. The regulation does not resolve this; your contract has to.
6. Do not file an unready petition to beat the date. A denial costs more than the increase.