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published a proposed rulemaking notice on July 2, 2026. The draft finally codifies the EB-5 of 2022. EB5 Base breaks down the 358-page rule in plain English for investors, and helps you build an LLM prompt you can use to write your public comment.
Draft rule
TLDR: This is a draft of new EB-5 house rules. It is not final. As an investor, you have a right and a responsibility to comment on the draft before the deadline. Your comment can influence what gets finalized.
Time left—
Think of EB-5 as an apartment building. Congress passed a big renovation law in 2022 (the ). Since then, the building manager () has been enforcing the new rules with memos. Now the manager published a formal draft of the new rulebook: , 358-page PDF. You have a chance to comment on this draft. After the comment period, they will publish the final rulebook.
This draft impacts your EB-5 journey:
Before August 31
Commenting can help protect your investment whether you already filed or plan to file. A finalized 2-year sustainment rule, bridge financing treatment, and stronger good-faith protections matter most if your capital would otherwise sit through a long backlog or forced redeployment (especially India and China waits). Future filers should also watch the proposed $1.4M high employment tier and the Jan 1, 2027 inflation hike.
Action: Read the , then use our to draft a personal comment for regulations.gov. It takes about 10 minutes. You can submit anonymously.
Your voice
Stakeholder comments have moved EB-5 before. In the last major modernization (2019), answered hundreds of comments and lowered the proposed amount from $1.35M to $900K. That is real money for families. Because people spoke up before the rule was final.
Under the , agencies must consider significant comments. A survey found most program offices reported that comments led to substantive changes in final rules, and the Office of the Federal Register says persuasive comments can reshape a proposal. Even though this is not a vote, unique investor stories put concrete harms on the record so they must be addressed— including how the proposal affects families already in the process. Add yours to the record.
Sources: GAO · FR primer · 2019 EB-5 final rule.
Tracker
Volume
Last updated …. Data is not real-time; it updates daily. For real-time data, visit regulations.gov.
Key points
1.You may get your investment back after about 2 years, not after many years
Old practice often kept your money stuck until the green card path moved, which for India and China backlogs could mean years of redeployment risk. The draft says capital only needs to stay invested for about 2 years after it is made available to the , once the required jobs are created. That is the sustainment clock investors have been waiting to see written into regulation. If finalized this way, many post- investors can plan for return of capital even before getting .
Read IV.D.6 Duration of Investment in the Federal Register · PDF
2.Repaid bridge financing may no longer count toward proving your 10 jobs
Today, under the USCIS Policy Manual (not a final regulation), investors can often still claim jobs created with short-term bridge financing that EB-5 capital later repays. The would change that: jobs from financing repaid with EB-5 money would not count as jobs created by that EB-5 capital. That is draft language only. It is not law yet, and itself did not ban bridge financing. also says the rule would generally apply prospectively to petitions filed on or after the final rule's effective date, not automatically to every post- filing from March 2022 onward.
Read IV.D.7 Job Creation Requirements and Bridge Financing in the Federal Register · PDF
3.If your regional center fails, you keep your place in line for about 180 days
When a regional center is terminated, good-faith investors have historically faced chaos over whether their petition and priority date survive. The draft formalizes a roughly 180-day window to re-associate with a compliant sponsor, keep your place in the visa line, and use Form where needed. If you already finished 2 years of sustainment and job creation, you may not need to reinvest just because the center later fails.
Read IV.D.9.c Terminations and Debarments (good-faith protections) in the Federal Register · PDF
4.$800K stays for now; a new $1.4M tier and Jan 1, 2027 inflation hike are proposed
Rural and high-unemployment projects stay at $800K today and the standard minimum investment amount stays at $1.05M, matching post- practice. The draft also adds a new high-employment area tier around $1.4M for projects in areas with unusually low unemployment. Automatic inflation adjustments are proposed for Jan 1, 2027 and every 5 years after. Future filers should treat those dates as hard planning points; people already in should confirm their tier is locked and watch how grandfathering is written in the final rule.
Read IV.D.4 Investment Amounts in the Federal Register · PDF
5., not states, decides if a project qualifies for the lower amount
Whether a project gets the $800K amount is decided centrally by under proposed methodology for high-unemployment and rural designations, not primarily by state designation letters. That can make outcomes more consistent nationwide, but it also means investors and developers need the data sources and census boundaries to be transparent and challengeable. A wrong call is the difference between $800K and a higher tier, so methodology comments matter before the rule locks in.
Read IV.E Targeted Employment Areas in the Federal Register · PDF
6.More audits and fines for regional centers
The draft expands audits, site visits, reporting duties, and tiered penalties, including examples like late annual statement fines and sanctions up to a percentage of capital. Stronger oversight can protect investors from weak sponsors, but fixed compliance costs land hardest on small and single-project centers. That may shrink the pool of sponsors, raise fees passed through to investors, or push more capital into larger multi-project operators.
Read IV.H.8 Enforcement (penalties, terminations) and Audits in the Federal Register · PDF
Process
Agencies publish a draft, you submit a comment on regulations.gov with docket USCIS-2026-0100 explaining your concern, data, and a better approach if you have one. The agency reads all comments before issuing a final rule. A clear personal experience with specific section numbers is useful.
If enough investors flag the same data gap, must publish a reasoned response or risk reversal on judicial review under the . File on regulations.gov.