EB-5 Green Card 2026: What Investors Must Know
You invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into a US business, expecting a green card in return. But the EB-5 program comes with rules that go far beyond immigration — and breaking them can cost you everything. Here is what every investor needs to understand before filing in 2026.
What is the EB-5 program?
The EB-5 program lets foreign investors apply for a green card (permanent US residency) by investing in a US business that creates jobs. But the program has strict rules. Your investment must create at least 10 full-time jobs for qualifying workers. A qualifying worker can be a US citizen, a lawful permanent resident, or another immigrant who is legally allowed to work in the US. The investor, their spouse, and their children do NOT count as qualifying employees.
One important detail: each family member — the investor, their spouse, and each child — uses a separate visa number. This matters because visa numbers are limited. When demand for EB-5 visas is higher than the number available for a given country, a waiting list (called a "backlog") forms. The US Department of State publishes a monthly Visa Bulletin that tells you where you stand. Your "priority date" — the date USCIS received your properly filed Form I-526 or Form I-526E (the EB-5 immigrant investor petition) — must be earlier than the cut-off date in the Visa Bulletin before you can move forward with your green card application.
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Securities law: a separate risk investors often miss
Many EB-5 investors put money into a "regional center" — a government-approved fund that pools investor money for large projects. What many people do not realize is that these investments may also be considered securities under US federal law. That means the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may have authority over the offering. If the project does not follow SEC rules, investors and project managers can face serious legal liability — completely separate from any immigration consequences. Before investing, lawyers strongly recommend reviewing whether the offering complies with federal securities laws.
Filing your green card application from inside the US
If you are already in the US, you may be able to apply for a green card from inside the country — a process called "adjustment of status" — at the same time your EB-5 petition is approved, if a visa is immediately available to you. This was made possible by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act (RIA), signed into law in 2022. As of May 2025, USCIS still had approximately 1,500 pending Form I-526 petitions filed before March 15, 2022, so processing times remain a factor to plan around.
What to do
- Check the latest Visa Bulletin on the State Department website to find your priority date cut-off before filing any green card application.
- Make sure your investment project has a solid, detailed business plan — USCIS requires it to include descriptions of the business, products or services, objectives, and financial projections.
- Ask a securities attorney (in addition to an immigration attorney) whether your EB-5 investment involves a security under federal law and whether the offering is properly registered or exempt.
- If you are inside the US and a visa is immediately available, ask your immigration attorney whether you can file for adjustment of status at the same time as your I-526E petition is approved.
Fishkin Law Firm, New York
EB-5 investors often focus only on the immigration side and overlook SEC compliance — but a securities violation can result in civil or criminal liability that no immigration approval can fix. If your priority date is not yet current, you can still prepare your adjustment of status package (Form I-485, the application for a green card from inside the US) so you are ready to file the moment your date becomes current. Given the complexity of both the immigration and securities requirements, consulting both an immigration attorney and a securities attorney before committing funds is strongly advisable.