EB-5 NPRM 2026 Changes: New Investment Minimums, Infrastructure Rules and Sustainment Requirements

The Department of Homeland Security has proposed significant EB-5 NPRM 2026 changes, including a new high-employment investment tier, clearer infrastructure project rules, sustainment period guidance and expanded Regional Center compliance measures.

Here is what investors, developers and Regional Centers need to know before the public comment deadline.

When the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA) was passed, it left significant gaps in understanding. The bill included many brief statements that didn’t fully explain how some of the new rules would be implemented or how language in the bill was to be interpreted. Those details were relegated to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to address in formal regulations.

Unfortunately, that clarification didn’t come as quickly as anticipated. The law stipulated that regulations were to be issued “not later than 270 days” after enactment, but those 270 days came and went. While we received periodic updates regarding the sustainment period and USCIS audits, there was plenty of confusion and debate, and four years later, the majority of those subjects were still unclear.

On July 1st, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to the Federal Register. While these are only proposed rules, if implemented, they could have a significant impact on the EB-5 industry.

What Changed in the EB-5 NPRM 2026

The 358-page document deals with a number of procedural and programme-integrity issues. The following are among the most significant EB-5 NPRM 2026 changes for investors, developers, Regional Centers, new commercial enterprises and job-creating entities.

EB-5 Investment Minimums Restructured: Three-Tier Framework

The NPRM creates a “high employment area” category for any area that “is not in a TEA, and is experiencing unemployment significantly below the national average rate.” For investments in high employment areas, the proposed minimum investment amount is $1,400,000.

These areas are defined as “a census tract in a metropolitan statistical area where the new commercial enterprise is principally doing business, or contiguous census tracts where the new commercial enterprise is principally doing business in two or more contiguous census tracts, and where the national average rate of unemployment is at least 150 percent of the unemployment being experienced in that area where the investment is being made.”

This is a significant change, as it involves the creation of a third minimum investment tier. Investments in rural areas and high-unemployment TEAs are currently at $800,000, with non-TEA investments at $1,050,000. Investors who are unable or unwilling to pay the high-employment premium will now need to make sure their projects don’t fall in these newly-designated areas.

EB-5 Infrastructure Project Rules Clarified

The EB-5 NPRM 2026 contains substantial guidance on what qualifies as an EB-5 infrastructure project, including the following proposed clarifications:

• “Only DHS may determine whether a project qualifies as an infrastructure project.”
• “USCIS would make this determination when adjudicating the regional center’s project application.”
• “A standalone investor is not eligible to receive a visa reserved for investment in an infrastructure project.”
• “the investment project to be administered by a governmental entity that is the job-creating entity”
• “DHS generally expects qualifying infrastructure projects to involve the maintenance, improvement, or construction of any physical assets that are designed to provide or support services to the general public through projects in sectors such as those generally identified by relevant statutes, regulations, and executive orders, including aviation, broadband internet, drinking water infrastructure, electricity transmission, energy production and generation, pipelines, ports (including navigational channels), stormwater and sewer infrastructure, surface transportation (including roadways, bridges, railroads, and transit), and water resources projects.”
• “DHS proposes to preclude a regional center, new commercial enterprise, or job-creating entity from divulging critical project specifics to a regional center investor, unless such disclosure is explicitly authorized by the government agency administering the infrastructure project.”
• DHS proposes “to include a tribal agency or authority as a potential job-creating entity whose project may qualify as an infrastructure project.”

EB-5 Sustainment Period: When the Capital Clock Starts

The RIA changed the EB-5 investment sustainment period so that all investments must be put at risk for at least two years. The issue the industry had with this change was a lack of clarity on when this two-year period would actually begin.

In the NPRM, “DHS proposes that an investor may invest in accordance with all applicable requirements any time prior to filing his or her EB-5 immigrant visa petition and the requirement to remain invested for at least two years begins on that date of investment.” However, it also suggests that “the investment would also have to remain at risk and available to the job-creating entity on the date the investor files his or her EB-5 immigrant visa petition.”

What this means for timing: the EB-5 sustainment period clock would begin when capital is deployed, not when the investor files the EB-5 petition. This could create practical planning issues for projects with multiple investor closing dates, delayed filings or changing capital needs during the two-year sustainment period.

Sanctions and Regional Center Compliance

The NPRM expands on USCIS’s ability to terminate or sanction Regional Centers for violating the terms of the RIA, listing potential consequences such as “Monetary penalties equal to not more than 10 percent of the total capital invested by immigrant investors in the regional center’s new commercial enterprises or job-creating entities directly involved in such violations.”

For a Regional Center with substantial active immigrant investor capital, a penalty of up to 10 percent could be material. This elevated enforcement posture reflects DHS’s focus on investor protection, job creation and programme integrity under the RIA.

How to Respond During the EB-5 NPRM 2026 Public Comment Period

It’s important to understand that these are proposed changes, and have not been finalized. The public has 60 days from the publication of the NPRM to submit comments. Stakeholders can submit comments online, or get in touch with IIUSA regarding the organization’s stance on the proposed rules.

The NPRM covers many other topics, including priority dates, petition evidentiary requirements, bridge financing, biometric collection, and the use of digital assets as EB-5 capital. The full document has more information, and we will keep you updated with further analysis as the industry responds.

Read the full NPRM here