Programme overview
EB-5 is the only direct US residency-by-investment route — and one of the most heavily reformed since the 2022 Reform & Integrity Act (RIA). The pre-RIA programme suffered from regional center sunsets, programme lapses, and erosion of investor confidence; the RIA reauthorised regional centers through September 2027, codified integrity measures (mandatory annual audits, source-of-funds standards, indemnity), and — most consequentially — created three new visa set-asides: 20% for rural projects, 10% for high-unemployment areas, and 2% for infrastructure projects. For investors from backlogged nationalities (notably India and China), these set-asides are the single most important strategic variable; they are currently “current” for all countries while the unreserved category sits in years of backlog.
The 2022 reforms also cut wait times by permitting concurrent filing of the I-526E investor petition and Form I-485 adjustment-of-status if the investor is already in the US — this delivers an Employment Authorization Document and Advance Parole in roughly 6-12 months, allowing the family to work and travel as if green-carded while the petition processes. For families with US-based principals on H-1B or L-1 visas, this is transformative.
Investment thresholds (USD 800K TEA / USD 1.05M standard) are expected to hold through fiscal year 2026, with the next inflation adjustment scheduled for 1 January 2027.
Investment routes
EB-5 has one investment commitment shape — capital “at risk” in a New Commercial Enterprise that creates at least 10 full-time US jobs — but four practical lanes:
Rural TEA — USD 800,000 · 20% set-aside. Projects outside any Metropolitan Statistical Area and outside any city or town with population of 20,000 or more. Highest visa-allocation priority and currently with no backlog for India or China — the strategic sweet spot for those nationalities. The supply of well-structured rural projects has expanded sharply since 2022; due diligence on operator and exit plan remains paramount.
High-Unemployment Area TEA — USD 800,000 · 10% set-aside. Project location with unemployment of at least 150% of the national average. Common for urban infill projects (hotels, mixed-use, multifamily) in qualifying tracts. Currently “current” across all countries on the May 2026 Visa Bulletin, though India is showing demand pressure that may push retrogression later in fiscal 2026.
Infrastructure TEA — USD 800,000 · 2% set-aside. Reserved for government- administered public works. Rare in practice; relatively few qualifying projects in market.
Standard / Non-TEA — USD 1,050,000. Any qualifying NCE outside a TEA. Subject to the unreserved EB-5 backlog. As of the May 2026 Visa Bulletin: India is at a priority date of 1 May 2022 and showing retrogression risk; China is at 22 September 2016 (≈ 10-year backlog).
Across all four lanes, investors choose between Direct EB-5 (active business operation, investor manages job-creation directly) and Regional Center EB-5 (passive pooled investment, indirect/induced jobs counted via econometric model). Regional center deals dominate (~95% of market) due to the simplicity of meeting the 10-job rule via indirect job-counting.
Process: I-526E investor petition → conditional permanent residence (2 years) → I-829 to remove conditions ≈ 5y after I-526E (jobs and capital still at risk verified) → unconditional permanent residence → naturalisation eligible 5 years from green card.
Tax architecture
A green card is the trigger for US worldwide income taxation — full stop. From the day of admission (or date of conditional approval, whichever is earlier in calendar year), the principal and dependants are US tax residents on global income, with no territorial-source carveout.
Federal income tax is progressive 10%-37%; state tax adds 0% (Texas, Florida, Washington, Nevada, Tennessee) to 13.3% top (California). Long-term capital gains 0-20% federal plus 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax for high earners. Federal estate tax is 40% above the unified credit (USD 13.99M individual exemption for 2025, sunsetting at end-2025 absent legislative extension — a hard planning watchpoint for Q4 2025/2026 grants).
Foreign-account reporting is dense and unforgiving: FBAR (FinCEN 114) for non-US accounts aggregating > USD 10,000 at any point in the year; FATCA (Form 8938) thresholds layered on top; PFIC rules can punitively tax non-US mutual funds and many ETFs; CFC rules attribute earnings of certain controlled foreign companies. Pre-immigration tax planning is mandatory, not optional. Common interventions: realising pre-arrival gains in zero-CGT jurisdictions; restructuring foreign trusts and PFICs; gifting offshore assets pre-arrival to non-US relatives.
State residency election deserves equal attention. Florida and Texas are the most-chosen state-of-residence anchors for new EB-5 families, primarily for the 0% state income tax.
What it gets you
A two-year conditional permanent resident card for the principal, spouse, and unmarried children under 21 — concurrent on the same petition, no separate applications. After job creation and continued capital-at-risk are evidenced via I-829, conversion to unconditional permanent residence. After 5 years from the original conditional grant (less time abroad), eligibility for naturalisation on satisfaction of physical presence (≥ 30 months in any 5y period), residence in state of application for 3 months, English language and civics tests, and character.
US citizenship enables visa-free travel to ≈ 184 jurisdictions on the US passport, US-citizen sponsorship of family for green cards, and full federal political rights. The trade-off is non-trivial: US citizenship is one of the world’s two citizenship-based taxation regimes — citizens are taxed on worldwide income regardless of where they live, indefinitely, until renunciation (which itself triggers an exit tax for “covered expatriates”).
For families using EB-5 primarily as an education / lifestyle play (children through US universities at in-state-equivalent rates, professional licensing access), green-card-holder status without ever proceeding to citizenship is a common landing point.
Our role on a US EB-5 file
EB-5 is the most due-diligence-heavy programme in the global RBI universe. Project selection drives outcomes: we work only with regional centers and direct EB-5 project sponsors that meet a strict bar on operator track record, audited historical job creation, capital structure, exit plan, and fund administration. The Indian and Chinese investor experience over 2018-2022 (programme lapses, project failures, redeployment disputes) is fresh in market memory; project selection mistakes are not recoverable.
Our file workflow: pre-immigration tax mapping (state residency selection, foreign-account restructuring, PFIC unwind); source-of-funds documentation (USCIS gold-standard documentation depth — typically 200+ pages of bank, business, tax, and inheritance evidence); project selection and subscription; I-526E and (if in US) concurrent I-485 filing; conditional residence grant; employment authorisation; the I-829 removal-of-conditions five years out; and ultimately the N-400 naturalisation file. Two-year + five-year + ten-year horizon, planned from day one.