EB-5 Visa Usage vs Allocation: How Many Visas Actually Get Used

Introduction The EB-5 program receives approximately 10,000 immigrant visas per fiscal year. That number, set by statute as 7.1% of the total worldwide employment based allocation of roughly 140,000, has remained essentially unchanged since the program's creation in 1990. Yet in most years, the EB-5 category does not use all of the visas allocated to it. This gap between allocation and actual usage has profound consequences. For investors from countries without backlogs, unused visas represent wasted capacity that could have accelerated processing. For investors from backlogged countries like India and China, unused visas are a missed opportunity that prolongs already lengthy wait times. For the program as a whole, chronic underutilization undermines the case for maintaining or expanding the EB-5 allocation. This article examines the historical data on EB-5 visa usage, explains why visas go unused, analyzes how the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act (RIA) has affected utilization, and...#