2027 EB-5 Minimum Investment Increase: Should You Invest Now?

With minimum amounts scheduled to go up, investors could save six figures by making investments before the end of 2026, but experts say it’s not worth it if doing so means shortchanging due diligence.

As of October, 2026, the EB-5 Regional Center Program is still authorized for one more year, even as the EB-5 minimum investment 2027 increase approaches. Until September 30th, 2027, Regional Centers can still accept investment and EB-5 applicants can still file petitions for investments made through Regional Center projects.

However, the grandfathering deadline of the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA) passed on September 30th, 2026. Although it is possible to invest for the next year, it isn’t guaranteed that any petitions filed during that time will be adjudicated under the RIA’s rules without being affected by program changes or a potential lapse if the Regional Center Program isn’t reauthorized.

For some petitioners, this uncertainty is enough to make them wait until we get more clarity on the program’s future. For others, general confidence that the EB-5 Regional Center Program will eventually be reauthorized is enough for them to soldier on and look for investment projects.

Any petitioners looking to invest in the last part of 2026 need to be aware of an upcoming increase in EB-5 minimum investment amounts, as the cost of making an EB-5 investment is about to go up, potentially more than six figures. Here’s what we know about this increase and whether it makes sense to try and invest before the end of the year.

When are EB-5 minimum investment amounts set to increase?

When the RIA was passed in 2022, it included new minimum investment amounts: $800,000 for projects located in Targeted Employment Areas (TEAs), and $1,050,000 for all other (non-TEA) projects. It also scheduled mandatory increases: according to the bill, these increases will occur on January 1st, 2027, “and every 5 years thereafter.”

Critically, the bill notes that “The Secretary of Homeland Security shall update such amounts by publication of a technical amendment in the Federal Register.” It’s possible that, if the Secretary doesn’t publish the new amounts on time, it may be a matter of weeks or months before we know the official new minimum investment amounts. If that is the case, it’s likely that investors who filed in the interim will be governed by the old minimums.

2027 EB-5 minimum investment: what is the new minimum likely to be?

According to the bill text: (selections in bold added for clarity)

Beginning on January 1, 2027, and every 5 years thereafter, the amount in clause (i) [$1,050,000] shall automatically adjust for petitions filed on or after the effective date of each adjustment, based on the cumulative annual percentage change in the unadjusted consumer price index for all urban consumers (all items; U.S. city average) reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics between January 1, 2022, and the date of adjustment. The qualifying investment amounts shall be rounded down to the nearest $50,000.

For investments in a TEA, the rules are as follows:

Beginning on January 1, 2027, and every 5 years thereafter, the amount in clause (ii) [$800,000] shall automatically adjust for petitions filed on or after the effective date of each adjustment, to be equal to 75 percent of the standard investment amount.

As CanAm Enterprises explains, the final figure “depends on inflation data through the adjustment date,” which means we won’t know the exact figure until the change is published. To provide a rough estimate, CanAm says, “Independent analysts modeling the formula project a new TEA minimum in the range of roughly $900,000 and a standard minimum near $1.2 million. Those are projections, and the published amounts could land higher or lower.”

The necessary consumer price index data likely won’t be available on January 1st, meaning DHS will have a choice: wait for this data to make the change, or use data that is available at the time to publish the change earlier.

Writing for EB5Investors, Ismael Fernandez says that “Because final inflation data for December 2026 will not be available as of January 1, 2027, the adjustment date, it is reasonable to expect USCIS to rely on the most recent CPI-U data available at that time, likely the November 2026 index, rather than delay implementation or apply the new thresholds retroactively.”

Fernandez notes that if projections like those published by CanAm are correct, “the gap between TEA and non-TEA minimums is expected to widen from $250,000 today to approximately $350,000 next year, increasing the relative burden on non-TEA projects.” This would make it even more advantageous to find a project in a TEA than it already is, and would make filing before the deadline especially advantageous for non-TEA investors.

There is one more category to take note of: a 2026 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) created a new category called the EB-5 High-Employment Area, which would carry a minimum investment amount of $1,400,000. Since the final rule has not been put into place, we don’t know if this threshold will change in line with the other categories, or if it will remain at $1,400,000. Because it represents a sizeable increase over the current non-TEA amount, investors looking at non-TEA projects that could potentially fall in High-Employment Areas could greatly reduce their investment burden by investing before the category is created.

Should EB-5 petitioners try to invest before 2027?

We don’t know what the new minimum amounts will be, but if estimates are correct, investors could save six figures or more by investing before the end of 2026. There may be a slew of new projects hoping to tap into this increased demand, but those might not be the best projects available. As experts have explained, rushing into a project is a bad idea if it comes with extra risk that could impact not only the investor’s ability to have their capital returned, but their chances at gaining permanent residency as well.

“We have kind of a situation here where you’ve got investors who are maybe being tempted,” said JTC’s Jill Jones at a recent webinar, “to make a quick decision and maybe not do full due diligence.”

If an investor is worried about being priced out of the program, it could definitely be advantageous to get an investment in before the end of the year. But most EB-5 investors are not in that position: high net worth individuals (HNWI) should be able to source the additional capital, with the knowledge that by performing proper due diligence and finding the right project, there is a greater likelihood that their capital will be returned to them (and that their petitions will be successful).

It’s also important to note that there has already been a rush this year, as petitions filed before September 30th, 2026, would fall under the RIA’s grandfathering provisions. Many Regional Centers timed their projects to meet this deadline and might not have anything on offer prior to January 1st.

If an investor finds the right project, there’s no reason to wait, but investors should be reminded that any investments made between now and September 30th, 2027, aren’t guaranteed adjudication under the RIA. If the program lapses again, or if the next version of the program has new rules, these could affect how petitions are adjudicated.

Whether one invests before or after minimum investment amounts go up, there is a great deal of uncertainty in EB-5 right now. That’s why JTC is working with industry leaders to secure a permanent version of the Regional Center Program so that we won’t have to deal with these periods of uncertainty, and issuers and investors can move forward with projects confidently knowing the program will be there for them.

The Case for Permanent Authorization