How the RIA Improved EB-5

The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 changed EB-5 for the better. Now it’s time to convince Congress to let the Regional Center Program continue to help American communities.

March 15th, 2022, marked a new era for the EB-5 program with the passage of the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022. Along with reauthorizing the Regional Center Program for five years, this legislation introduced a host of changes to protect immigrant investors and direct more investment toward distressed communities.

We’ve now had more than three years of EB-5 under the RIA, and have seen how these changes have affected the program. With authorization for the Regional Center Program set to expire again on September 30th, 2027, the success of the RIA’s provisions will determine whether Congress chooses to allow the current version of the program to continue.

Industry leaders concerned about the future of EB-5 have analyzed data on some of the biggest changes that came as a result of the RIA. Here’s what they’re saying about how the RIA has improved EB-5 and what we need to do to make sure this success continues.

The return of EB-5 job creation

EB-5 existed before the Regional Center Program, and when the RC program’s authorization has expired in the past, EB-5 was still an option for immigrants via direct investment. However, the vast majority of EB-5 investment (and therefore, the majority of EB-5 job creation) comes through the Regional Center Program.

Data from Invest In the USA estimates that each EB-5 investment creates 45 jobs. U.S. communities lose out on those jobs when the RC program lapses. The RIA not only brought back Regional Center investment, but caused a huge surge.

In a new white paper from CanAm Enterprises, IIUSA Director of Policy Research & Data Analytics Lee Y. Li explains that since the RIA was passed in 2022, “investment inflows rebounded significantly,” with recent data showing that “in FY2024, EB-5 capital investment had surged to nearly $3.9 billion, and in only the first half of FY2025 alone, the EB-5 Program had already attracted over $2.7 billion in capital investment.”

While EB-5 is often thought of as an immigration initiative, as CanAm COO Christine Chen explains in the white paper, “The EB-5 Program was designed to connect global investment with shovel-ready projects that would expressly create American jobs at no cost to U.S. taxpayers.” The RIA improved the distribution of those projects throughout the country, with capital “reaching regions that only five years ago were beyond the Program’s reach.”

Set-aside categories and rural investment

One of the RIA’s most important provisions was the creation of reserved visa categories: under the law, 20% of annual allocated EB-5 visas are set aside for investors in projects in rural areas, 10% set aside for investments in urban high-unemployment areas, and 2% set aside for investments in infrastructure projects. These set-aside visas carry the benefit of priority processing, allowing investors to receive faster adjudication and creating new opportunities for investors from China and India who previously faced long wait times and backlogs.

By incentivizing investment in rural areas and those with high unemployment, the RIA ensured EB-5 capital (and the job creation that comes with it) would be more likely to reach areas of the country that have traditionally seen a lack of investment. According to Li, “In just the first three years after the RIA became law, over $2.2 billion in EB-5 investment has already been raised for job-creating projects in various rural communities.”

Basing his information on data from IIUSA, Li writes that “the number of EB-5 projects in rural areas has grown by more than 700% since the RIA was enacted, with the amount of EB-5 investment in rural communities increasing by nearly 1,500%.” In the first 32 years of the EB-5 program, IIUSA found fewer than 15 EB-5 projects located in rural areas, but “in just three years under the RIA, nearly 100 rural EB-5 projects have already been initiated, raising at least $5.5 billion in EB-5 investment and creating more than 133,000 jobs.”

If the RIA’s goal was to bring more investment to rural areas, it has succeeded and continues to do so. In CanAm’s white paper, Suzanne Lazicki states that “In FY2024 alone, nearly 5,000 EB-5 investments were made in Rural and High Unemployment projects,” and between “2022 and June 2025, 6,089 Rural investors and 6,389 High Unemployment investors filed I-526(E) petitions.”

So many investments are being made in rural projects that these categories may soon reach their limits for visa allocation, meaning there will be backlogs unless USCIS allocates more visas to EB-5. In short, the program is becoming so popular that demand is exceeding supply.

Investor protections and Regional Center compliance responsibilities

It’s no secret that previous iterations of EB-5 were beset by fraudulent activity that marred the reputation of the program. Incidents like the infamous Jay Peak case showed that changes needed to be made to remove bad actors, root out misconduct, and protect petitioners who were investing in good faith.

The RIA responded to this need with new integrity measures, including requirements for third-party fund administration, audits from USCIS, and termination of Regional Centers or debarment of individuals who violate the RIA’s rules.

As Mariza McKee of Kutak Rock LLP explains in the CanAm white paper, “Courts and regulators have long confirmed that EB-5 investments are securities, and the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA) codified that reality by embedding securities compliance directly into statutory requirements.” Perhaps most importantly, “Congress recognized that investor protection is inseparable from EB-5 Program credibility.”

While strict rules, audits, and Regional Center termination will help to remove bad actors, the investors who risk investing in an EB-5 project shouldn’t be punished along with them. That’s why the RIA instituted innocent investor protections that allow those investors to redeploy to other EB-5 projects so they can continue the application process.

“The effect is that the petitions and the permanent residencies of affected investors will remain valid, and they will continue to be authorized,” said Carolyn Lee in a recent webinar. Investors have now begun receiving notices that trigger these investor remedies. While investors do need to take certain actions for their petitions to remain valid, this means their hope for permanent residency won’t be lost because of someone else’s actions.

As for how strict USCIS plans to be with Regional Center compliance, we need to look no further than a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that estimates 457 annual receipts of Form I-527, filed by investors after they receive notice of Regional Center termination. USCIS expects to terminate enough Regional Centers each year to cause 457 amendments to investor petitions, which shows the agency is serious about upholding strict standards and enforcing them.

Thanks to the RIA, not only will investors be given a lifeline, but bad actors will be prevented from causing further harm. To those who claim EB-5 is full of fraud, the evidence we’ve seen shows that thanks to the RIA, this is no longer the case.

Concurrent filing of Adjustment of Status

While many EB-5 investors reside outside of the United States at the time their I-526 petitions are filed, a large number already reside in the U.S. on other visa types such as H-1B or F-1 visas. For these investors, the goal is to continue living and working in the U.S., and being forced to leave while applications were in process was an unnecessary burden.

As Joey Barnett, Partner at WR Immigration, explains in the CanAm white paper: “Before the RIA, EB-5 investors in the U.S. had to wait until their I-526 petition (or I-526E for regional center investors) was approved (and wait for visa availability) before they could file for adjustment of status (Form I-485) to get a green card. During that time, investors already in the U.S. could make the EB-5 investment, but if they lost their underlying visa status, would need to leave”

The RIA changed this by allowing investors to file I-485 Adjustment of Status petitions concurrently with their I-526 petitions, along with Form I-765 work authorization and Form I-131 applications. This way, applicants already residing in the U.S. could continue to live and work in the U.S. and travel freely, without being forced to wait for I-526 approval. This encourages applicants to take new jobs, start businesses, and better participate in the economy of the country they choose to call home.

As CanAm CEO Peter Calabrese explained at a recent webinar, “Being able to concurrently file and getting those benefits that go with their I-485 is a huge, huge benefit for people, and one that we’ve seen many people take advantage of.”

“Even if a final action date is imposed at some point, the people that have filed in the U.S. are able to stay in the U.S. until their case becomes eligible for final action,” explained Charlie Oppenheim of WR immigration.

The move has been popular, especially for investors from India, many of whom are pursuing EB-5 after originally coming to the U.S. on H-1B visas. According to Mike Xenick of InvestAmerica, a recent survey indicated that “82% of Indian-born investors documented were in the U.S.” This is yet another RIA provision that has made EB-5 work better for investors and for the communities that benefit from EB-5 investment. The RIA has made the program safer and more popular, and these improvements shouldn’t be ignored or tossed away just because lawmakers are unaware of them.

What will happen if the RIA expires?

The RIA era has undoubtedly been a success for the EB-5 industry, immigrant investors, the U.S. economy, and communities throughout the country. As Chen puts it, “Given the tremendous EB-5 investment since the passage of the RIA, it is imperative that the hard-won improvements to the EB-5 Program introduced by the RIA be preserved to allow for further investment and ensure that the Congressional intent of the Program is fully realized.”

Two dates loom that could threaten the RIA’s momentum. The first is September 30th, 2026, the grandfathering deadline for investment under the RIA. Any investment made before this date is guaranteed to be adjudicated under the rules of the RIA. The second is September 30th, 2027, when the RIA officially expires and the Regional Center program loses its authorization.

Some believe that “the mismatched dates were likely an error,” resulting in a lame-duck year where investors will be unlikely to commit to projects or file petitions because they won’t know if the RC program will exist in the future, or what its rules will be. Just about everyone involved in EB-5 agrees that this makes little sense. “They should protect anybody who files as long as the law is in effect,” said Joey Barnett.

There is a push within the industry to correct this by encouraging Congress to extend the grandfathering deadline to September 30th, 2027, so it matches the date authorization expires. But even if that is accomplished, there is still the issue of reauthorization, hopefully through a permanent form of the RC program that would end the cycle of periodic reauthorizations and provide stability for investors so they can feel confident that the rug won’t be pulled out from under them after they’ve already committed and taken on so much risk.

Because of our position as a fund administration leader in the EB-5 industry, JTC consistently takes part in advocacy efforts in Washington to ensure lawmakers understand just what EB-5 brings to their communities and what we stand to lose if the Regional Center Program goes away, even if only temporarily. The RIA has changed EB-5 for the better, and it would be a shame to let that momentum fizzle out. For the good of our country, we need to ensure the success of the RIA is allowed to continue.