EB-5 is a US immigrant investor visa that grants permanent residency to a foreign national and their immediate family in exchange for investing at least $800,000 in a project that creates at least ten full-time American jobs.
In plain terms
It is the closest thing the United States has to a formal “invest here, get a green card” program. The applicant does not need an employer sponsor, a special skill, or a family tie — just enough capital, a qualifying project, and a paper trail proving the money was earned legally. In exchange, the investor and their spouse and unmarried children under 21 all receive permanent residency.
How it works
An applicant invests in a “new commercial enterprise” that must create or preserve at least ten full-time US jobs within two years. Most investors do this through a regional center — a USCIS-designated entity that pools money from many investors into a single large project, such as a hotel or an apartment development, and counts the jobs that project generates toward each investor’s requirement. The investor files Form I-526E to petition on the investment, and if approved, receives conditional permanent residency; two years later, after proving the jobs materialized, the condition is removed.
The investment amount depends on location. A project inside a “targeted employment area” — a rural area or one with unemployment at least 150% of the national average — qualifies at the lower threshold; a project anywhere else requires more. Separately, every applicant must document the lawful source of the invested funds, often across years of bank records, tax filings, and business records, a process USCIS treats as seriously as the investment itself.
The numbers
- Minimum investment: $800,000 in a targeted employment area, or $1,050,000 elsewhere, set by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 and unchanged since.
- Jobs required: at least 10 full-time US jobs per investor, created or preserved within two years.
- Next scheduled increase: the thresholds are indexed to inflation, with the next adjustment due in January 2027.
- Processing backlog: as of 2026, mainland-Chinese applicants in the standard (unreserved) category face a final action date years in the past — a wait that can run close to a decade — while most other countries’ applicants remain current.
- Reserved set-asides: 20% of EB-5 visas are reserved for rural projects, 10% for high-unemployment areas, and 2% for infrastructure, carved out by the 2022 reform to give newer applicants a faster lane.
What people get wrong
That the investment is a deposit that comes back once the green card is issued. It isn’t. The capital has to be genuinely “at risk” in a real project — a hotel that underperforms, a developer that mismanages funds, or a regional center that mishandles the offering can cost an investor both the money and the visa. The SEC has repeatedly warned that EB-5’s mix of unsophisticated foreign investors and lightly scrutinized projects is a known target for fraud. The other common error is treating EB-5 as a path to citizenship on a timeline; it only ever buys a green card. Naturalization still requires years of continuous residence afterward, exactly as it does for any other immigrant.
Related
Read more: The US Wealth Visa: EB-5, EB-1, and Inbound Millionaire Immigration · Residency and Citizenship: Why the Wealthy Buy Options Across Borders
See also: Golden visa · Expatriation / exit tax · Domicile vs. residency