Washington — The United States has finalized steep fee increases for its EB-5 immigrant investor program, more than doubling the cost of filing some petitions in a move likely to affect applicants from India seeking permanent residence through investment.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the revised fee schedule Tuesday, with the new charges set to take effect Nov. 30.
The filing fee for Form I-526, used by standalone investors, will increase from $3,675 to $7,615.
The fee for an initial Form I-526E petition, used by investors participating through an approved regional center, will rise from $3,675 to $7,850. Initial I-526 and I-526E petitions will also carry a $75 technology fee, while regional-center investors must pay an additional investor integrity fee.
The cost of filing Form I-829, used by investors seeking to remove conditions on their permanent resident status, will increase from $3,750 to $5,000.
Fees for regional centers will rise more sharply.
The cost of an initial Form I-956 application for regional-center designation will increase from $17,795 to $44,115, while the fee for Form I-956F, used to seek approval of an investment in a commercial enterprise, will rise to $42,675.
The annual fee for Form I-956G will decline from $3,035 to $2,165.
The final rule also creates Form I-527 for certain investors seeking to amend older Form I-526 petitions. That filing will carry a fee of $10,330.
USCIS said the changes are intended to fully cover the cost of administering the EB-5 program, support statutory processing goals and fund stronger integrity and compliance measures.
Those efforts include audits, site visits, compliance reviews and measures aimed at detecting fraud and abuse.
USCIS is funded primarily through application and petition fees rather than direct taxpayer appropriations. The agency said the cost of reviewing applications, conducting background checks, verifying eligibility and operating the program therefore must be covered by users of the immigration system.
The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 required USCIS to conduct a separate review of the program’s costs and set fees at levels sufficient to recover the full expense of administering it.
The law also expanded oversight of regional centers, promoters and investment projects and established processing targets.
Under the new rule, the annual EB-5 Integrity Fund fee will increase from $10,000 to $11,000 for regional centers with 20 or fewer investors. Larger regional centers will see the fee rise from $20,000 to $22,000.
The rule also introduces penalties for late payments. A regional center that pays in November after the deadline could face a 10% penalty, while payments made in December could trigger a 20% penalty. Continued nonpayment could result in termination.
Congress created the EB-5 program in 1990 to encourage foreign investment and job creation in the United States. Eligible investors can obtain conditional permanent residence for themselves, their spouses and qualifying children by investing in a U.S. commercial enterprise and meeting job-creation requirements.
The program generally requires an investment of $800,000 in a targeted employment area or qualifying infrastructure project, or $1.05 million elsewhere.
For Indian applicants, the government filing fees are separate from the required investment amount, legal costs and administrative fees charged by individual regional-center projects. (Source: IANS)
