Country-Specific Questions

Yes. The EB-5 program is open to nationals of any country. There is no country-based eligibility restriction. China historically dominated EB-5 filings, but the investor population has diversified significantly since 2017.

As of early 2026, the largest filing populations include India, Vietnam, South Korea, Brazil, and Taiwan, in addition to China. Investors from countries without backlogs (most countries other than China and, to a lesser extent, India in the unreserved category) benefit from immediate visa availability — meaning no wait between I-526E approval and green card issuance.

The only country-related factor that affects timing is the per-country visa limit, which currently creates backlogs for Chinese nationals (approximately nine to ten years in the unreserved category) and Indian nationals (approximately four years in the unreserved category). Investors from all countries have access to set-aside categories (Rural, HUA, Infrastructure), which have no backlog.

Visa availability depends on two factors: your country of chargeability (typically your country of birth) and the category under which you file (unreserved or one of the three set-aside types).

As of early 2026, the set-aside categories (Rural, HUA, Infrastructure) remain current for all countries, meaning visa numbers are immediately available regardless of nationality. The unreserved category has backlogs for China (final action date approximately 2016) and India (final action date approximately 2022). All other countries are current in the unreserved category.

The visa bulletin is updated monthly by the State Department. EB5Status publishes the latest bulletin data with historical context and movement analysis.

Federal law limits any single country to approximately 7 percent of the total worldwide employment-based visa allocation. The worldwide annual limit for all employment-based categories combined is approximately 140,000 visas. The per-country cap is therefore approximately 9,800 visas across all five employment-based categories (EB-1 through EB-5).

Within EB-5 specifically, the annual allocation is approximately 10,000 visas (including derivative family members). The per-country limit is applied to the total employment-based allocation, not to each category individually, which creates a complex interdependency between categories.

Unused visa numbers from undersubscribed countries can be redistributed to oversubscribed countries within the same fiscal year. This means the effective per-country limit can exceed 7 percent in practice, but the redistribution is unpredictable and depends on global demand patterns.

The set-aside categories created by the RIA have their own allocation (32 percent of EB-5 visas combined) and are not subject to the same backlog dynamics as the unreserved pool, which is why they remain current for all countries.

The EB-5 investor population has shifted substantially over the past decade. During the 2012-2017 period, Chinese nationals accounted for more than 80 percent of filings. Since then, the composition has diversified significantly.

As of fiscal year 2025 data, the top five filing countries by I-526E receipts are India, Vietnam, China, South Korea, and Brazil (approximate ordering based on USCIS quarterly statistics — exact rankings fluctuate quarter to quarter). This diversification is partly structural (the RIA set-asides attract investors from non-backlogged countries) and partly market-driven (EB-5 awareness has grown in South and Southeast Asia).

EB5Status tracks country-level filing trends using USCIS quarterly data. Historical filing data by country is available on the site.