Can you use a loan for an EB-5 investment? What USCIS requires
5 mins read | Aug 25, 2026
The EB-5 minimum investment is $800,000 if the business that creates the jobs sits in a targeted employment area or qualifies as an infrastructure project, and $1,050,000 if it doesn't. Location is the only thing that moves the number. Nationality, net worth, and project size leave the threshold where it is.
Both amounts have applied to every petition filed since March 15, 2022, when the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 reset the program, and they're scheduled to rise on January 1, 2027. Below is what qualifies as a targeted employment area, how a project's status gets established, and what your money has to do. Our EB-5 visa guide covers the category end to end.
What decides the EB-5 investment amount: $800,000 or $1,050,000
The lower threshold applies when the new commercial enterprise, or the job-creating entity in a regional center deal, is principally doing business in a targeted employment area. It's a geographic test that turns on where the jobs and the capital land.
| Where the job-creating business is principally doing business | EB-5 minimum investment |
|---|---|
| Targeted employment area: a rural area | $800,000 |
| Targeted employment area: a high-unemployment area | $800,000 |
| A qualifying infrastructure project | $800,000 |
| Anywhere else | $1,050,000 |
The amount in effect on the day USCIS receives your petition is the amount you have to meet. The $250,000 gap is why so much EB-5 diligence goes into a question that sounds administrative: is this specific project, at this moment, inside a qualifying area?
The minimum is capital that reaches the business creating the jobs, so filing fees, regional center administration and management fees, and attorney fees all sit on top. Fees that erode the amount made available to the job-creating business don't count, and budgeting $800,000 flat leaves you short.
Investment amounts are current as of August 2026. USCIS updates these periodically, so check the linked official page for the latest figures.
What counts as an EB-5 targeted employment area?
An EB-5 targeted employment area is either a rural area or an area of high unemployment, measured at the time of investment. Infrastructure projects reach the same $800,000 threshold separately. Everything else is a $1,050,000 case.
Rural areas
A rural area falls outside any metropolitan statistical area, as designated by the Office of Management and Budget. It also falls outside the outer boundary of any city or town of 20,000 or more in the most recent decennial census. Both conditions have to hold, so a town of 8,000 inside a metropolitan statistical area isn't rural for EB-5 purposes.
High-unemployment areas
USCIS measures a high-unemployment area in census tracts rather than counties or cities. It consists of the tract or contiguous tracts where the business is principally doing business, plus any or all directly adjacent tracts. Across that combined area, the weighted average unemployment rate has to be at least 150% of the national average.
Because sponsors draw the tract combination themselves, two projects a few blocks apart can land on opposite sides of the line.
Qualifying infrastructure projects
An infrastructure project reaches the $800,000 threshold on its own terms, without sitting in a rural or high-unemployment area. USCIS defines it as a capital investment project administered by a governmental entity, where that government body is the job-creating entity contracting with a regional center or new commercial enterprise to finance a public works project. Only regional center investors can use this route.
How a project's TEA status gets established, and why you verify it
For petitions filed on or after March 15, 2022, USCIS makes the targeted employment area designation, and state governments no longer issue TEA certification letters. For a standalone investor, USCIS designates the area based on the Form I-526 filing, the Immigrant Petition by Standalone Investor. For a regional center project, it happens as part of Form I-956F, the Application for Approval of an Investment in a Commercial Enterprise.
Those designations have a shelf life. A TEA designation is valid for two years from the date of investment for standalone investors, or from the date the regional center properly files the Form I-956F, and it can be renewed for additional two-year periods.
Areas change too, so a tract that qualified in 2023 may not qualify now. USCIS is explicit that you can't lean on a determination made for an earlier investor once the underlying facts have shifted.
If the area doesn't qualify on the relevant date, you've invested $250,000 below the standard EB-5 minimum investment, and the petition can be denied on that basis alone. Ask the sponsor for the census tract analysis or rural evidence, the designation date, and the expiration date, then have an immigration attorney read them against the project you're funding.
Why a TEA project changes more than the EB-5 minimum investment
Choosing a qualifying project also changes which pool of visas you draw from. The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act reserved a share of EB-5 immigrant visas each fiscal year: 20% for rural investors, 10% for high-unemployment investors, and 2% for infrastructure investors. Unused set-aside visas stay in the same category for one more fiscal year before releasing into the unreserved pool.
Because the reserved categories are less subscribed, they have generally stayed current for nationals of every country. For investors born in backlogged countries, that queue difference can matter as much as the $250,000. The EB-5 visa guide covers how the reserved categories and country backlogs work.
Everything about the EB-5 visa in one placeInvestment amounts, job creation, processing times, and the path from conditional to permanent green card.
What "at risk" means for your EB-5 capital
At risk means there has to be a real risk of loss and a real chance of gain. Capital placed with a guaranteed rate of return isn't at risk to the extent of that guarantee. Money contributed in exchange for a note, bond, or any other debt arrangement with the new commercial enterprise doesn't count as capital at all.
USCIS treats a mandatory redemption, or a put option you hold that lets you demand your money back, as an impermissible debt arrangement, though a buy-back option only the enterprise can exercise is permitted.
Three more mechanics matter. The capital must be expected to remain invested for at least two years. The enterprise has to undertake actual business activity, since forming the entity and signing a lease don't show capital at risk. The full amount also has to reach the business most closely responsible for creating the jobs.
You can still receive a distribution of profits, including during the two-year conditional green card period and before the jobs exist, as long as it doesn't come out of your minimum qualifying investment and isn't guaranteed.
The enterprise also has to create at least 10 full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers, and the capital has to stay exposed while that happens.
If the project underdelivers, two things can go wrong at once. The business can lose some or all of your money with no contractual claim to get it back. USCIS can also decline to remove the conditions on your green card when you file Form I-829, the Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status. The project's structure, job-creation model, and timeline decide how likely either outcome is.
Is the EB-5 minimum investment going up on January 1, 2027?
Yes. The amounts adjust for inflation for the first time on January 1, 2027, and every five years after that. The adjustment tracks the change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers since March 15, 2022, and applies to petitions filed on or after that date.
USCIS hasn't published the new figures yet and will announce them before they apply. What matters for planning is the date USCIS receives your petition, not the date you wire funds, so a case built around the current EB-5 investment amount needs the right filing date.
EB-5 direct investment vs regional center: how the capital is deployed
An EB-5 direct investment, which USCIS calls the standalone route, means you invest in your own new commercial enterprise, and that enterprise or a wholly owned subsidiary has to employ all 10 qualifying workers. Only direct jobs count, and since March 15, 2022 pooled investments are permitted only under the regional center program. You file Form I-526.
A regional center investment changes the job math. Up to 90% of the required full-time positions can be created indirectly, through employees of the job-creating entity or the project's suppliers and contractors, and through induced jobs when those workers spend their wages. You file Form I-526E, the Immigrant Petition by Regional Center Investor, and the TEA test runs against the job-creating entity.
A full-time position means at least 35 hours a week on both routes, and a qualifying employee is a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or other work-authorized immigrant. You, your spouse, your children, and anyone in nonimmigrant status don't count.
| EB-5 direct investment | Regional center | |
|---|---|---|
| Petition | Form I-526 | Form I-526E |
| Who employs the workers | The enterprise or its wholly owned subsidiaries | The enterprise and its job-creating entities |
| Indirect jobs | Not counted | Up to 90% of the 10 positions |
| Multiple investors in one enterprise | Not permitted | Permitted |
| Whose location sets the TEA | The new commercial enterprise | The job-creating entity |
If you're weighing the EB-5 against a smaller, nonimmigrant route, the E-2 treaty investor visa has no fixed dollar minimum, though it's limited to treaty-country nationals and doesn't lead to a green card by itself. Our comparison of the EB-5 and E-2 visas and our breakdown of E-2 minimum investment requirements cover that trade-off, and the visa match tool shows which categories are open to you.
Tukki is a U.S. immigration services provider that helps investors size and document an EB-5 case, from confirming whether a project meets the $800,000 threshold and the at-risk test to building the source-of-funds record, with dedicated immigration attorney support.