The Department of Homeland Security has published a major Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would reshape the EB-5 immigrant investor program. The proposal appeared in the Federal Register on July 2, 2026 (91 FR 40676, RIN 1615-AC94) and is now open for public comment through August 31, 2026.
The rule is designed to fully implement the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA), which President signed into law on March 15, 2022. While the RIA restructured the program by statute, this is the first comprehensive regulatory package translating those reforms into binding rules for investors, regional centers, and the professionals who promote projects.
Key changes in the proposal:
- Mandatory project pre-approval. Regional centers would be required to obtain approval of each project through Form I-956F before investors may file EB-5 petitions tied to that project. This is intended to protect investors from committing capital to projects that later fail USCIS review.
- Stronger regional-center oversight. The rule adds audits, recordkeeping obligations, annual reporting, and site visits to police compliance.
- Elimination of certain job-creation methodologies. The proposal would end reliance on visitor-spending projections and troubled-business job-retention models, tightening how the required jobs are counted.
- Formal promoter registration. For the first time, direct and third-party promoters would have to register, adding a layer of accountability to how EB-5 projects are marketed.
- Automatic revocation provisions for certain petitions where integrity requirements are not met.
What it means for applicants. For prospective EB-5 investors, the direction is clear: more integrity checks and more upfront scrutiny of projects, which should reduce fraud risk but may lengthen timelines and raise the bar for regional centers. Because this is only a proposed rule, nothing is final yet — the public comment window runs until August 31, 2026, and the final rule could change. Investors currently evaluating projects should watch the rulemaking closely and factor the coming compliance regime into their due diligence.
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Source: Federal Register / DHS