EB-5 Business Plan Requirements
If you look up the EB-5 investment threshold in the regulations, you will get the wrong number. 8 CFR 204.6(f) still prints "one million eight hundred thousand United States dollars ($1,800,000)", a figure from a rule a federal court vacated in 2021. The controlling amounts are in the statute as amended by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022: $1,050,000, or $800,000 for a targeted employment area or infrastructure project. They adjust for inflation for petitions filed on or after January 1, 2027. And 8 CFR 204.6(j)(4)(i)(B) names the document that has to carry the job creation case: a comprehensive business plan.
This is general information, not legal advice, and we are not immigration attorneys. File an EB-5 petition with qualified immigration counsel. What we write is the business plan and financial model the regulation asks for, and this page is about what that document has to prove.
How much do you have to invest for EB-5 in 2026?
$1,050,000, or $800,000 in a targeted employment area or an infrastructure project. Those figures are set by Congress in 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5)(C), not by regulation:
the amount of capital required under subparagraph (A) shall be $1,050,000
The amount of capital required under subparagraph (A) for an investment in a targeted employment area or in an infrastructure project shall be $800,000
The same subsection says the capital must be "expected to remain invested for not less than 2 years".
Why does the regulation say $1.8 million?
Because the regulation text was never rewritten after the rule behind it fell. 8 CFR 204.6(f) still states the standard amount as "one million eight hundred thousand United States dollars ($1,800,000)" and the targeted employment area amount as "nine hundred thousand United States dollars ($900,000)".
Those numbers came from the 2019 EB-5 modernization rule. USCIS's own EB-5 program page records what happened to it:
On June 22, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in Behring Regional Center LLC v. Wolf, 20-cv-09263-JSC, vacated the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization Final Rule
Congress then set the amounts directly in the statute in 2022. The stale regulation disagrees with the statute in three places, which makes it a useful test of any source you are relying on:
| Point | 8 CFR 204.6(f), still printed | 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5)(C), controlling |
|---|---|---|
| Standard amount | $1,800,000 | $1,050,000 |
| Targeted employment area | $900,000 | $800,000 |
| Inflation adjustment starts | "Beginning on October 1, 2024, and every five years thereafter" | January 1, 2027, then every 5 years |
| Targeted area ratio after adjustment | "to be equal to 50 percent of the standard minimum investment amount" | "to be equal to 75 percent of the standard investment amount" |
If a provider quotes you $1,800,000 or $900,000, they are reading the regulation rather than the statute. It is a fair indicator of how current the rest of their material is.
Are the EB-5 investment amounts going up in 2027?
Yes, automatically. The statute provides:
Beginning on January 1, 2027, and every 5 years thereafter, the amount in clause (i) shall automatically adjust for petitions filed on or after the effective date of each adjustment
The adjustment tracks consumer price inflation measured from January 1, 2022, and "The qualifying investment amounts shall be rounded down to the nearest $50,000". The new figures have not been published as we write this, so nobody can honestly quote you the 2027 number yet.
Read the trigger carefully. It applies to petitions filed on or after the effective date. The filing date is what counts, not the date you decided to invest or the date funds moved. The business plan is usually the slowest document in an EB-5 filing, which is the practical reason this deadline belongs on a page about business plans.
What are the two regional center dates in the statute?
If you are investing through a regional center rather than directly, two more dates sit in the same section, and one of them has just passed.
First, the program itself is time-limited: "Visas under this subparagraph shall be made available through September 30, 2027". Whether Congress extends it is not something anyone can promise you.
Second, the statute protects certain investors if the program does lapse. Under subparagraph (S), the Secretary of Homeland Security "shall continue processing petitions" based on regional center investments "that were filed on or before September 30, 2026". That date was five days ago. A regional center petition filed now sits outside the wording of that protection, which is a question to put to your immigration attorney before you commit funds, not after.
Does EB-5 require a business plan?
Yes, by name. To show that the enterprise will create the required jobs, 8 CFR 204.6(j)(4)(i) asks for either evidence of ten qualifying employees already hired, or:
A copy of a comprehensive business plan showing that, due to the nature and projected size of the new commercial enterprise, the need for not fewer than ten (10) qualifying employees will result, including approximate dates, within the next two years, and when such employees will be hired
Every clause in that sentence is a drafting instruction, and weak plans usually fail on one of them:
- Comprehensive. Not a summary and not a pitch deck. The plan has to stand on its own for a reader who knows nothing about your business.
- Due to the nature and projected size. The hiring has to follow from what the business does and how large it becomes. Ten jobs asserted at the end of a plan that describes a two-person operation do not follow.
- Not fewer than ten qualifying employees. Ten is the floor, and they must be qualifying employees, which is a defined term.
- Including approximate dates. A hiring schedule with months against it. This is the element most often missing.
- Within the next two years, and when. The schedule has to land inside the window and say when each hire happens.
Who counts as a qualifying employee?
Fewer people than most first drafts assume. The regulation defines full-time employment as employment "in a position that requires a minimum of 35 working hours per week".
The definition of a qualifying employee carves out the investor's own household:
This definition does not include the alien investor, the alien investor's spouse, sons, or daughters, or any nonimmigrant alien
And the definition of employee closes the contractor route: "This definition shall not include independent contractors".
Three consequences for the plan. Part-time roles do not count as full-time positions on their own. Family members on the payroll do not count toward the ten. And a staffing model built on freelancers has to be restructured before it is modeled, not after.
What does a credible EB-5 business plan contain?
Working backward from what the regulation asks the plan to show:
- A month-by-month hiring schedule across the two-year window, with role, start month and weekly hours, reconciling to at least ten qualifying employees.
- Revenue and cost projections that carry that payroll. Jobs the business cannot afford are not credible jobs.
- A description of the new commercial enterprise, its operations, premises and market, deep enough that the headcount reads as a consequence rather than an assertion.
- Use of funds tying the investment amount to what it buys.
- Market evidence for the demand that supports the revenue that supports the jobs. The chain has to hold at every link.
- Internal consistency. The most common failure we see is a plan whose narrative, financial model and hiring schedule each describe a slightly different business.
What does an EB-5 business plan cost?
Our immigration business plans are published at $1,900 Essential, $2,400 Standard and $3,200 Premium, fixed. We never charge a percentage of anything you invest or raise. We write the plan and the financial model to the structure the regulation describes and work alongside your immigration attorney, not instead of one.
If your route is an E-2 treaty investor visa instead, the test is a different one: see our E-2 visa business plan guide. For other routes, start with our immigration business plan overview.
Business Plan Firm is the US practice of Avvale, a London consultancy. We have written 1,000+ plans for 500+ founders across 30+ countries, and our clients have raised $500M+.
How we verified this
Every quotation on this page was checked character for character against the source text on 5 October 2026, using the raw documents rather than summaries of them.
- 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5), as amended by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (Pub. L. 117-103), for the investment amounts, the 2027 adjustment, the rounding rule, and the regional center dates. Read at the Legal Information Institute.
- 8 CFR 204.6, most recent annual edition, for the business plan requirement and the employee definitions, and for the superseded amounts still printed in paragraph (f). Read at govinfo.gov.
- USCIS, EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, for the vacatur of the 2019 rule. Read at uscis.gov.
Where the regulation and the statute disagree, the statute controls, and we have shown both so you can see the difference for yourself. We will revise this page when the adjusted 2027 amounts are published.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum EB-5 investment in 2026?
$1,050,000, or $800,000 for an investment in a targeted employment area or an infrastructure project, under 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5)(C). The $1,800,000 and $900,000 figures still printed in 8 CFR 204.6(f) come from a 2019 rule that a federal court vacated in 2021.
When do the EB-5 investment amounts increase?
The statute adjusts the standard amount for inflation beginning January 1, 2027, and every five years after that, for petitions filed on or after the effective date. The targeted employment area amount is then set at 75 percent of the standard amount. Amounts are rounded down to the nearest $50,000.
Is a business plan required for an EB-5 petition?
Yes. 8 CFR 204.6(j)(4)(i)(B) asks for a copy of a comprehensive business plan showing that the need for not fewer than ten qualifying employees will result, including approximate dates, within the next two years, and when those employees will be hired.
How many jobs must an EB-5 investment create?
Full-time positions for not fewer than ten qualifying employees. Full-time means a position requiring a minimum of 35 working hours per week. The investor, the investor's spouse, sons and daughters, nonimmigrants and independent contractors do not count.
Is the EB-5 regional center program ending?
The statute makes regional center visas available through September 30, 2027. It also protects regional center petitions filed on or before September 30, 2026 if the program lapses. Whether Congress extends the program is unknown, so ask your immigration attorney how those dates affect you.
Can Business Plan Firm file my EB-5 petition?
No. We are not immigration attorneys and we do not give immigration advice. We write the comprehensive business plan and financial model the regulation calls for, working with your counsel.
This page summarizes 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5) and 8 CFR 204.6 as retrieved on 5 October 2026. It is general information and not legal or immigration advice, and no attorney-client relationship arises from reading it. Immigration law changes and adjudication turns on individual facts. Retain qualified immigration counsel and confirm current requirements with USCIS before acting.