EB-5 Visas for Indian Investors

Navigating retrogression, priority dates, visa wait times, and other concerns for Indian nationals interested in EB-5.

Despite the turmoil you often see in the news, 2025 remains a good time to invest in the United States, and the country remains an attractive destination for immigrants from around the world. The twin advantages of the United States as both an immigration and investment destination come together in the EB-5 program, which combines investment opportunities and the ability to move one’s family to the U.S.

Indian nationals interested in living in America often apply for the H-1B program, but competition for the limited number of visas has become fierce, with India accounting for nearly 75% of all petitions in 2019. To avoid having to put their faith in visa lotteries, many Indian nationals are looking for other pathways to U.S. residency.

For those who can meet the program’s requirements, EB-5 can be the fastest way for investors from India to achieve permanent U.S. residency. The program has some special advantages for Indian investors that may not be available in the future, so now is the perfect time to learn how EB-5 works, how it may change, and why it is a great idea to invest this year.

How EB-5 works and what makes it attractive for Indian investors in 2025

Created in 1990, the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program allows foreign nationals to apply for permanent U.S. residency when they invest in qualifying job-creating projects. This can be done through direct investment in a business or through the EB-5 Regional Center Program, in which investor capital can be pooled for deployment to larger-scale development projects.

EB-5 is a popular program that is responsible for driving billions of dollars of investment capital toward underserved communities throughout the United States. The minimum amount for an EB-5 investment in 2025 is $800,000 if the project is located in a high-unemployment or rural area, or if it qualifies as an infrastructure project. For all other projects, the minimum is $1,050,000. Invested capital must remain at risk for at least two years and be used to create at least ten full-time jobs per petitioner. If all EB-5 requirements are met, the petitioner and any dependents will be issued visas, meaning it only requires one EB-5 investment for an entire family to move to the U.S.

EB-5 differs from “golden visa” or citizenship-by-investment programs because capital is not paid to the government, but invested in job-creating enterprises that will hopefully repay their investors. Investor capital must be put at risk, which means there is the possibility of earning or losing money. Good EB-5 projects are able to return invested capital to their investors along with whatever returns have been achieved.

In other words, you’re not buying a green card: this is a real investment that must be evaluated on its own financial merits, as the government doesn’t guarantee that you will get your money back or that your petition will be successful.

Unlike non-immigrant visas like H-1B, the E-2 visa for treaty investors, or the F-1 student visa, EB-5 is an immigrant visa program that provides permanent residency for those with successful petitions. EB-5 investors come from all over the world, with some of the most popular countries being China, India, Vietnam, and South Korea. Investors can begin the petition process from their home countries or from the U.S. if they are already in the country on another visa type.

It is this method of applying for EB-5 that has attracted many Indian investors in recent years. Large numbers of workers came to the U.S. on H-1B visas to work in the tech industry, but because of macro-economic changes, many workers in this sector have faced the possibility of unemployment, which could lead to deportation for H-1B holders and their families.

H-1B holders who find themselves unemployed (or who wish to escape the cycle of worry that comes from their immigration status being tied to their employment) can apply for EB-5 by making a qualifying investment. While an EB-5 petition is in progress, the investor can concurrently file for adjustment of status, allowing them to remain in the country, work, and travel as they await adjudication.

Priority dates and retrogression for Indian EB-5 investors

There are only a certain number of visas allotted to the EB-5 program each year, amounting to 7.1% of the worldwide employment visa limit. Once those visas have been issued, petitioners have to wait until the following fiscal year, even if they’ve already met all requirements and had their applications adjudicated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). EB-5’s popularity, coupled with an understaffed agency, can result in frustratingly long wait times to receive an EB-5 visa.

Indian investors also have another issue to worry about, which is the per-country cap. To prevent any one country from being overly represented, each country of origin is capped at 7% of the EB-5 visa total. Over the years, countries like China and India have seen many more applicants than this 7%, which has resulted in retrogression, with long backlogs that can stretch years before a visa becomes available.

The April 2025 visa bulletin puts the priority date for I-526 petitions filed by Indian petitioners at November 1, 2019, meaning petitions filed after that date have not yet been issued visas. Under old program rules, a petition filed today would be put at the end of that queue, and it would take several years before petitions filed in 2025 would finally get to the front of the line. Retrogression for China and India led to such lengthy backlogs that some investors avoided EB-5 because the wait times were just too long.

Thankfully, the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022  (RIA) included a carve-out for three set-aside categories: 20% of the annual allotment of EB-5 visas go to projects in rural areas, 10% for projects in high-unemployment areas, and 2% for infrastructure projects. I-526E petitions filed in these categories receive priority processing, and petitioners can effectively skip to the front of the line, avoiding their country’s backlogs. This brought Chinese and Indian investors back to EB-5 in a big way, but it may not last forever.

Why Indian investors may want to act now on EB-5

While EB-5 is an established program that can only be repealed through an act of Congress, the Regional Center Program requires periodic reauthorization through legislation. The most recent renewal came with the passage of the RIA, which reauthorized the program through September 30, 2027, and incorporated a grandfathering provision to protect any petitions filed on or before September 30, 2026.

Investors from India who want to take advantage of reserved visa categories and the current minimum investment amounts must invest before September 30, 2026, in order for their petitions to be adjudicated under the rules of the RIA. After that, petitions could fall under whatever rules are passed with the next authorization of the program, which may include increased minimum investment amounts or changes to the reserved visa categories.

If the program isn’t reauthorized, investors could lose their chance to participate in EB-5 through a Regional Center altogether, which would be bad for petitioners and for the country. That’s why JTC and others in the industry continue to lobby for a permanent version of the program so EB-5 petitioners can invest with confidence in the program’s future. Indian nationals interested in EB-5 should begin learning more about the program now if they want to get their investments in before the cutoff date, though it’s important to perform proper due diligence before making any investment.

Ultimately, 2025 is a terrific time for Indian nationals to seize the opportunity to secure permanent U.S. residency through the EB-5 program. The combination of projects coming to market ahead of the sunset date, set-aside categories that have not retrogressed, and USCIS priority processing have created a perfect storm of opportunity.

To learn more about choosing an EB-5 investment project, read our full guide.