EB-5 Cost

EB-5 cost is not just about the investment amount. The real budget usually includes both the immigration filing costs and the larger practical costs of building and carrying the investor case.

That is why a useful EB-5 budget separates government filing fees from the investment itself and from the supporting costs needed to structure the case well.

The current EB-5 visa entry includes these main filing figures (verified 2026-05-14):

This is one reason EB-5 cost answers are often misunderstood. The petition filing fees are real, but they are still only one part of the total cost of the overall EB-5 path.

One of the biggest EB-5 misunderstandings is mixing the investment amount with the immigration-case cost.

The investment amount — $800,000 for a Targeted Employment Area (TEA) project or $1,050,000 for a non-TEA project — is part of the category's eligibility structure. It is capital placed at risk in a qualifying enterprise, not a fee paid to the government. The filing fees and practical case expenses are a completely different budgeting question.

That means an applicant should usually separate:

• the investment itself ($800,000 or $1,050,000 depending on TEA status),
• regional center administrative and project fees, which typically range from $50,000 to $75,000 or more on top of the investment amount,
• immigration filing fees (I-526/I-526E, I-485, and related government costs),
• legal fees, which commonly run $15,000 to $50,000 or more for EB-5 due to source-of-funds documentation complexity,
• later permanent-residence-stage costs, including the I-829 petition to remove conditions.

This split makes the EB-5 budget much easier to understand and prevents the common mistake of thinking the investment amount is the only major expense.

The biggest EB-5 cost drivers beyond the government filing fees are:

• the investment amount itself, which must be placed at risk in a qualifying enterprise
• regional center administrative fees and project-level subscription or setup fees, often $50,000 to $75,000 or more depending on the project
• legal fees for preparing the I-526 petition, documenting lawful source of funds, and navigating the investment structure — commonly $15,000 to $50,000+
• evidence-building and source-of-funds documentation work, which may require forensic accountants, foreign-document translations, and expert opinions
• the later permanent-residence stage after the investor petition, including the I-829 petition to remove conditions on residence (filing fee $920, plus legal fees for demonstrating that job-creation requirements were met)

That is why the practical EB-5 budget is usually much larger than the filing-fee summary alone would suggest. It is not unusual for the total non-investment costs — filing fees, legal fees, regional center fees, and related expenses — to reach $80,000 to $150,000 or more before the investment amount itself is counted.

The most common EB-5 budgeting mistakes are:

• treating filing fees and investment amount as if they are the same thing
• budgeting only for the petition filing and forgetting the later green-card stage
• underestimating the practical support cost of building a strong investor case

The cleanest EB-5 budget is usually built by separating investment, filing, and later-stage costs into distinct buckets.