EB-5 Minimum Investment Increase: The 2027 CPI Adjustment Explained

The first EB-5 minimum investment increase under the 2022 Reform and Integrity Act takes effect for petitions filed on or after January 1, 2027, when the current minimums of $800,000 for a targeted employment area and $1,050,000 for a standard project adjust upward for cumulative inflation. As of June 25, 2026, USCIS has not published the new dollar amounts, so any specific 2027 figure you see quoted is a third-party projection, not an official number.

As of June 25, 2026. The amounts on this page are the operative minimums until the day the adjustment lands.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. Investors keep asking us "what will EB-5 cost in 2027," and the honest answer is that the law fixes the mechanism with precision while leaving the amount unknown until the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation data is final and USCIS runs the math. This article walks through how the adjustment works, why the agency has not posted a figure yet, and how the increase interacts with the other big EB-5 date on the calendar, the September 30, 2026 grandfathering cutoff.

When does the EB-5 minimum investment increase take effect?#

The Reform and Integrity Act built automatic inflation indexing into the statute. The minimums adjust beginning January 1, 2027, and every five years after that. So the next adjustment after 2027 is scheduled for 2032, then 2037, and so on. Between those dates the numbers hold flat, which is why the program has sat at $800,000 and $1,050,000 since the Act took effect on March 15, 2022.

The trigger is the filing date of your petition. A Form I-526E filed on December 31, 2026 is governed by the current minimums. The same petition filed on January 1, 2027 is governed by whatever adjusted figure USCIS has published by then. There is no grace period and no averaging window. The capital you must show as invested or actively in the process of being invested is keyed to the rules in force on the day the petition is properly filed.

This is a different deadline from the one that has dominated EB-5 headlines this year. The price adjustment is January 1, 2027. The grandfathering filing cutoff is September 30, 2026. We unpack how the two interact further down, and we compare them head to head in filing before September 2026: grandfathering versus the price increase.

How does the CPI adjustment mechanism actually work?#

The statute does not let USCIS pick a number. It prescribes a formula tied to a specific government inflation series, then rounds the result and derives the discounted amount from it.

Which inflation index does the law use?#

The adjustment is based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), all items, U.S. city average, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is the same broad-basket CPI most people mean when they say "the inflation rate." The law uses the cumulative change in that index, measured from a base date to the adjustment date, not a single year's inflation.

One technical wrinkle is worth flagging, because it affects the eventual figure at the margins. The controlling statutory text measures the cumulative CPI change from January 1, 2022, while the USCIS plain-language explainer describes the base as the Act's enactment date of March 15, 2022. The base date you use shifts the cumulative inflation factor slightly. Until the technical amendment is actually published, treat any back-of-envelope projection as approximate for this reason alone.

Why does the standard amount round down to the nearest $50,000?#

After applying the cumulative CPI-U factor to the standard minimum, the statute rounds the result down to the nearest $50,000. Rounding down, not to the nearest increment and not up, means the published standard figure will always land on a clean $50,000 boundary. That is why the current standard sits at exactly $1,050,000 rather than some odd number trailing into the hundreds.

How is the TEA amount calculated off the standard?#

Once the adjusted standard amount is set, the targeted employment area and infrastructure minimum is pegged at 75 percent of that standard. So the formula runs in one direction: compute and round the standard amount first, then take three-quarters of it for the discounted TEA and infrastructure track. The set-aside categories, rural, high-unemployment, and infrastructure, all draw on that same 75 percent figure.

Put the pieces together and the 2027 numbers are fully determined by data that does not yet exist in final form: the cumulative CPI-U reading through the measurement date, rounded down to a $50,000 step for the standard, with the TEA amount derived at 75 percent. No discretion, no negotiation, just arithmetic waiting on the inputs.

Why is there no official 2027 figure yet?#

Because the agency cannot publish a number until the inflation data the formula depends on is settled, and then it has to issue the figure through a formal channel. USCIS announces the adjusted amounts via a technical amendment in the Federal Register, which updates the regulatory text to reflect the new minimums. A technical amendment is a ministerial act, not a policy choice subject to notice and comment, precisely because the statute leaves nothing to discretion.

As of June 25, 2026, no such amendment has appeared, and no official 2027 amounts exist. This is the single most important thing to take from this article: every specific 2027 dollar figure currently circulating in marketing decks, forum posts, and webinars is a projection. Some projections are careful and clearly labeled as estimates. Others get repeated until they sound official. Neither is the law. If a regional center or promoter quotes you a hard 2027 number as settled fact, that is a signal to slow down and ask where the figure comes from. A good EB-5 immigration attorney will tell you the same thing: the mechanism is known, the amount is not.

We will update this page and our glossary the day the technical amendment posts.

What might a projected 2027 amount look like, and why should you not bank on it?#

We are not going to print a specific projected figure here, because doing so is exactly the behavior the previous section warns against. What we can say honestly is directional: cumulative CPI-U inflation from the 2022 base through the measurement window has been meaningful, so the adjusted minimums are expected to rise, not fall, and the standard amount will round down to a $50,000 step above its current $1,050,000.

The reasons not to plan around any precise estimate are concrete:

• The measurement window is not closed. The cumulative CPI-U factor depends on inflation readings that are still being finalized and, in some months, revised by BLS.
• The base date ambiguity moves the result. As noted above, January 1, 2022 versus March 15, 2022 changes the cumulative factor.
• Rounding compresses or expands the gap. Because the standard rounds down to $50,000 increments, two different inflation assumptions can produce the same published number, or land on opposite sides of a $50,000 line.
• The TEA figure is derivative. Any error in the standard amount is inherited, then multiplied by 0.75, in the TEA number.

The practical takeaway: budget for an increase, keep a cushion, and do not let a borrowed projection drive a filing decision that the actual deadline structure should drive instead.

How does the price increase interact with the September 2026 grandfathering deadline?#

These are two separate clocks, and conflating them is the most common mistake we see.

The September 30, 2026 grandfathering cutoff is about program continuity. Petitions filed on or before that date are protected: USCIS may not deny them solely because the Regional Center Program lapses after its September 30, 2027 sunset. Petitions filed after September 30, 2026 carry no such statutory protection. We cover that mechanism in full in the EB-5 grandfathering deadline guide.

The January 1, 2027 CPI adjustment is about price. It changes how much capital a new petition must deploy, nothing more.

Now line them up. An investor who files in, say, October 2026 has missed the grandfathering window but still files at the current $800,000 or $1,050,000 minimums, because the price increase has not yet hit. An investor who waits until January 2027 misses both advantages: no grandfathering protection and the higher adjusted amount. So the strongest position by a wide margin is to file on or before September 30, 2026, which secures grandfathering and locks the current price in the same stroke. The roughly three-month gap between the two deadlines is real, but it is the weaker of the two windows.

For high-demand nationalities the calculus tightens further, because visa availability is its own constraint layered on top of price. India's unreserved EB-5 category, for example, reached its annual limit and went unavailable for the remainder of FY 2026 in the July 2026 Visa Bulletin, while the set-aside categories stayed current. If you are weighing timing from India or another backlogged country, the interplay of price, grandfathering, and bulletin movement deserves a closer look than the headline date alone.

Who is affected, and what should you do before 2027?#

The increase touches anyone whose petition is filed on or after January 1, 2027. It does not claw back or revalue petitions already on file. If your I-526E is properly filed before the adjustment date, you are measured against the minimum in force on your filing date, full stop.

A short, honest checklist for the months ahead:

1. Confirm your real deadline. For almost everyone, the binding date is September 30, 2026 for grandfathering, not January 1, 2027 for price. Solve the harder constraint first.
2. Pressure-test your source-of-funds timeline. A clean source-of-funds paper trail is usually the long pole. Our filing checklist tool lays out what has to be assembled before a petition is fileable.
3. Do not file a thin petition just to beat a date. A rushed, deficient I-526E invites a request for evidence and can cost more time than it saves. Speed only helps if the petition holds up.
4. Budget for the higher number anyway. Even if you file in 2026, build a cushion in case timing slips into 2027. Plan around an increase, not a specific projected figure.
5. Watch processing alongside price. Current I-526E processing times shape when capital is actually at work and when conditional residency follows.

For investors who genuinely cannot file until 2027, the increase is a cost input, not a disqualifier. The program continues, the math is knowable once published, and the set-aside categories remain the most reliable path to current visa numbers. What changes is the size of the check, and you will want the official figure, not a guess, before you write it.

Frequently asked questions#

Is the 2027 EB-5 investment amount confirmed? No. As of June 25, 2026, USCIS has not published the adjusted 2027 amounts. The statute fixes the formula, but the dollar figures are not official until USCIS issues a technical amendment in the Federal Register. Any specific 2027 number circulating now is a projection.

Will the EB-5 minimums go up or down in 2027? They are expected to rise. The adjustment applies cumulative CPI-U inflation since 2022, and inflation over that period has been positive, so the indexed minimums move upward. The standard amount rounds down to the nearest $50,000, and the TEA amount is set at 75 percent of the standard.

Does the increase affect petitions already on file? No. The minimum is keyed to your petition's filing date. A Form I-526E properly filed before January 1, 2027 is governed by the current $800,000 or $1,050,000 amounts and is not revalued by the adjustment.

How often do the EB-5 minimums adjust? Every five years. The first adjustment is January 1, 2027, with the next scheduled for 2032, then 2037, and so on. Between those dates the amounts stay flat.

Sources#

• USCIS, About the EB-5 Visa Classification
• 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5) (statute, including the CPI adjustment at subsection (C))
• USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part G
• Congress, P.L. 117-103 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, Div. BB)
• DOS Visa Bulletin (July 2026)