“Most new EB-5 Investors are H-1B or F-1 visa holders, mostly from India, and for them the real pain point is time, not price. Indian nationals filing through the standard employment-based categories are currently facing decades-long wait times because of per-country backlogs”
For those in the process of filing for an investor visa in the U.S. submitting their application by September 30, 2026 would mean that they still qualify for the grandfathering provision under the Reform and Integrity Act. Experts caution it is important to be mindful of this date as this would USCIS would process their application under the current EB-5 rules even if the law changes. The American Bazaar sits down with Chaitrali Karve, Senior Director at LCR Capital Partners, a leading global investment firm, headquartered in Connecticut to understand everything that is happening on September 30 and what could the EB-5 market look like in future.
An increasing number of Indians on H-1B and F-1 visa are now looking at EB-5 investor visas to ensure a stable stay in the U.S. For many, already working in a high-paying job, often the switch to an investor visa is based more on urgency than on the price sensitivity, experts say.
The statistics align with what immigration experts are seeing on the ground. According to IIUSA data, EB-5 filings from India have grown roughly 25-fold in three years, from about 75 in fiscal year 2022 to nearly 1,900 in fiscal year 2025.
As working professionals show a new-found interest in the EB-5 visa process that offers a unique opportunity to secure a green card and a citizenship in the U.S., experts are sounding an alarm as the investor visa program is currently undergoing a crucial timeline. Here’s everything you need to know to understand the grandfathering deadline, minimum investment required for a project in a Targeted Employment Area and much more.
American Bazaar: Let’s start with the basics. What exactly is happening on September 30, 2026, and why has it become such a focal point for EB-5 investors this year?
Chaitrali Karve: September 30, 2026 is what we call the grandfathering deadline. Investors who file their EB-5 application (I-526E petition) on or before that date lock in the current EB-5 framework: today’s minimum investment amounts, today’s source-of-funds standards, and today’s investment structure, even if the program changes after they file. That protection matters because EB-5 is a long process. An investor filing today may not reach the final green card stage for several years, and Congress or USCIS could change the rules in the meantime. Filing before the deadline means you are judged against the rules that existed on the day you filed, not whatever comes next.
AB: What are the current investment amounts for securing the EB-5 visa?
CK: Under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, the minimum investment is $800,000 for a project in a Targeted Employment Area, meaning a rural or high-unemployment area, or $1,050,000 for a project outside a TEA. Almost all of the projects we and other regional centers sponsor today qualify as TEA investments, so most of our clients are working with that $800,000 figure. Those amounts themselves were the product of a prior increase. Before the 2019 regulatory overhaul, the minimums had sat at $500,000 and $1 million since 1990. In 2019 they roughly doubled, and the 2022 law then reset them to today’s levels. So, when people talk about the amounts ‘always going up,’ they are right, this has happened before, and each time it has reshaped who can realistically participate.
AB: So what changes on January 1? Is that when the new, higher amount takes effect?
CK:That date is tied to a mechanism written directly into the law. The 2022 EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act didn’t just set today’s minimums at $800,000 and $1,050,000, it also built in a requirement that those amounts be revisited for inflation every five years. The law took effect in March 2022, so we are now coming up on that five-year mark, and the inflation adjustment is set to take effect January 1.
That is a separate moment from the September 30 filing deadline, and honestly, that gap is where I see the most confusion among investors, and some advisors too. Filing before September 30 gets you two things: today’s dollar amount, and the legal protection that comes with a locked-in priority date (the date USCIS receives your EB-5 application). An investor who waits and files between October 1 and December 31 may, depending on how the transition is implemented, still be looking at the current investment amount, but without that same grandfathering protection if the framework shifts again before their case is finalized. Once January 1 passes, the inflation-adjusted amount applies outright. So the safest position, by far, is filing before September 30. Everything after that date carries some degree of open question.
AB: Do you think the investment amount increase is actually what is driving urgency among the families you work with?
CK: Not really, and this might surprise people. Most of the families I talk to are not fixated on the dollar figure. They are H-1B or F-1 visa holders, mostly from India, and for them the real pain point is time, not price. Indian nationals filing through the standard employment-based categories are currently facing decades-long wait times because of per-country backlogs. A family that has already decided $800,000 or more is worth it for a green card is not going to be the family that walks away over a further increase of some additional amount. What keeps them up at night is the calendar: will their student visa run out, will their H-1B renewal come through, will their child age out of eligibility. The September 30 deadline speaks directly to that anxiety. A price increase is a number. A missed deadline is a plan that has to be rebuilt.