The U.S. immigration landscape continues to evolve. Recent policy adjustments and other changes by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have significant implications for the future of EB-5 and for other visa holders seeking to transition to this investor visa.
USCIs intensifies efforts against fraud and criminal violations
Current and new EB-5 investors seeking U.S. permanent residency already face new vetting procedures due to national security concerns, fraud, and misrepresentation.
USCIS recently issued a warning to Green Card holders, stating that it is intensifying efforts against fraud and criminal violations in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
This increased scrutiny is part of a wider effort by immigration authorities to signal that enforcement and compliance are top priorities.
Impact on EB-5: This heightened vigilance signals a more rigorous approach to scrutinizing immigration cases, including EB-5 visas. It may prompt additional reviews of past cases and applications.
“Public USCIS materials do not isolate an EB-5-only ‘fraud review delay’ metric. What they do show is a much tougher agency posture,” Renata Duarte of Duarte Law said. “USCIS reported making 13,225 referrals to ICE for fraud, public safety, and national security concerns since January 20, 2025. That is not an EB-5 specific statistic, but it is the policy environment in which EB-5 petitions are now being adjudicated.”
The agency is closely reviewing application documents and conducting thorough background checks, audits, and investigations under the EB-5 Integrity framework.
“For EB-5 investors, the practical pressure points are the same places where the law already imposes heavy proof burdens,” Duarte added. “Lawful source of funds, path of funds, tracing through gifts and loans, project integrity, and the conduct of the regional center, NCE, JCE, and their principals.”
Jimena Cabrera from Cabrera Law has also observed that processing items has slowed down due to increased scrutiny.
“Intensified fraud prevention efforts have resulted in longer and less predictable processing times,” she said. “The reintroduction of multi-layered screening has slowed adjudications.”
At the same time, scrutiny has increased significantly, especially regarding the source of funds (SOF) and all parties involved.
“In recent months, we’ve seen increased scrutiny in source of funds adjudications,” says Hallie Schechter of KLDP. “USCIS is raising issues that may not have come up in prior years, so it’s more important than ever to thoroughly document and address any potential concerns before filing.”
According to Tammy Fox-Isicoff of Rifkin & Fox-Isicoff PA, the extended fraud prevention efforts are not causing any additional delays in processing times.
“I think USCIS processing times are absolutely outrageous,” she added. “The only thing that is really extending processing times is inquiries into matters that are no longer even at issue, like source of funds at the I- 829 stage and unnecessary [Requests for Evidence] RFEs.”
Charles Kuck of Kuck Baxter noted there is very little fraud overall in the EB-5 program. “USCIS wasting resources to look for fraud where it does not exist does no one any favors but does meet the USCIS goal of slow walking legal immigration and reducing overall legal immigration numbers.”
According to EB-5 attorney David Raft of Global Immigration Partners, his clients have yet to experience any significant impact from USCIS’s expanded screening and vetting of applicants.
“However, this is something we do envision, particularly during the interview process, and especially during consular interviews,” Raft said. “This will generate additional stress and follow-up questions from EB-5 investors and presumably further delays by the USCIS and potentially consular posts. “
“Overall, investors should expect slower processing and far more demanding evidentiary standards, particularly with respect to financial transparency and credibility,” said Cabrera.
Raft added, “I tell clients that when we are documenting the case, we need to do so as though it will receive a forensic-level source-of-funds review. This means clean tracing, translations, tax records, gift/loan documentation, business records, and a consistent narrative across the petition, and, as applicable, being able to provide this narrative during the interview.”
He also noted that some of his clients are worried about how this change might affect the timing of their cases and are considering filing a mandamus, a legal action used to compel a government agency to decide when it has unreasonably delayed.
“We are working to navigate between client expectations and making appropriate case inquiries with the USCIS to satisfy our clients’ needs and to build a record should they decide to file a Writ of Mandamus,” Raft added.
Duarte also expects complications, rather than EB-5 application processing, to slow down uniformly.
“I would describe it as complicated cases becoming materially more vulnerable to RFEs, NOIDs, interview selection, or project-related collateral damage,” she said. “Cases with messy fund flows, exchange intermediaries, weak tax records, unexplained wealth jumps, promoter issues, or regional center compliance problems now carry more downside than they did even a year ago.”
Schechter concluded:” Our advice to applicants is to provide their counsel with complete and organized documentation, and to remain flexible in strategy and timeline given the current adjudication environment.”
Elimination of Automatic Extensions for Work Permit Renewals
In addition to the above, changes to work authorization policies have introduced further complications for EB-5 applicants.
The automatic extension of Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) for foreign nationals has been discontinued since November. This includes EB-5 investors and other U.S. visa holders who timely request renewal of their permits. Also, the validity period has been shortened from 5 years to 18 months.
“This means more frequent renewals and possible gaps in employment authorization while the renewal is pending,” said Schechter.
H-1 B or L visa holders awaiting processing of their EB-5 visa renewal applications could face significant challenges due to the elimination of EADs. If their work authorization expires before their EB-5 visa is approved, they may lose their legal work status, leading to uncertainty, disruptions, and potential financial difficulties. This situation creates a gap in work authorization, complicating long-term residency transitions for those affected.
Impact on EB-5: Losing the safety net provided by automatic EADs may add stress and instability to the already intricate EB-5 visa application process.
“It’s a nightmare, intentionally designed to dissuade individuals from applying,” Kuck said.
“For the nationals impacted, this has drastically hurt their lives,” Fox-Isicoff noted. “Young people can’t get jobs, or have had to give up jobs. It is really cruel. Why we are pausing benefits under the fear that somebody will become a public charge when they obtain their residence through EB-5 should be very questionable.”
In-person attorney representation at USCIS interviews is no longer an option
Alongside the focus on fraud prevention, procedural changes could also influence the EB-5 process.
Starting May 18, 2026, USCIS will require attorneys and accredited representatives to attend interviews at field offices and asylum interviews in person, with few exceptions. Remote or telephonic participation will no longer be allowed. This change may necessitate additional travel, time commitments, and potential security-related obstacles for individuals seeking legal guidance during the visa application process.
Impact on EB-5: While there may be challenges, they are manageable and can be mitigated.
“Not every EB-5 adjustment case will be scheduled for an interview. But once USCIS does schedule one at a field office, the remote attorney participation option is gone,” Duarte explained.
Schechter added, “We do not expect the in-person attorney requirement at USCIS interviews to have any impact on EB-5 cases, as adjustment interviews for EB-5 applicants are relatively uncommon.
“I don’t see that as a problem,” Kuck said. “People will just have to either get used to traveling or hire available local counsel.”
“We dealt with this before COVID, when things became possible to do remotely; we will deal with it again,” Fox-Isicoff said.
However, Duarte cautions EB-5 investors to prepare well for the interviews, in case issues with the source of funds, eligibility, the project, or discrepancies in the application arise. “For EB-5 applicants specifically, that matters because the interview, when it happens, is often not just a standard identity and admissibility interview. It can become the place where source of funds, maintenance of eligibility, project issues, or discrepancies in the record surface in real time. A remote participation ban therefore does not just change logistics, it increases the risk that a sophisticated file is handled less efficiently if lead counsel is not physically present.”
Other updates affecting EB-5
Beyond these headline policy shifts, several other significant practice changes are also impacting EB-5 applicants.
According to Schechter, “More broadly, processing times continue to vary and are inconsistent. We are also seeing increased resistance from the government in mandamus litigation.”
Raft cautioned that the most significant update to the EB-5 visa program is the potential expiration of the Regional Center component in September 2027 if Congress fails to extend it.
Another update affecting the EB-5 application process is that USCIS has tightened the rules on when visa applicants may travel without abandoning their applications and has reduced the validity period of travel documents to 18 months, requiring more frequent, expensive renewals for EB-5 investors.
“Again, designed to dissuade legal immigration,” said Kuck.
In this regard, Raft advises clients who hold a U.S non-immigrant visa to maintain their past status, if possible, and not to assume that the EAD they plan to apply for is the only way they can work in the U.S.
“So, if we have clients that hold H-1B status, the mantra is to ask their employers to renew it, even if they travel pursuant to [AP]. In line with this, file for the renewal of their EAD/AP cards as soon as possible.”
Another change in the U.S. immigration landscape is that, since August last year, USCIS has been using only the final action dates chart from the Visa Bulletin to determine the ages of children in EB-5 and other visa applications.
This update to the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) uses the Final Action Date as the cut-off calendar day for processing a visa application based on the applicant’s priority date and the availability of visa numbers. This change affects how a child’s age is “frozen” for green card eligibility. Immigration attorneys cautioned at the time that this could increase the risk of some children aging out, which means turning 21 before the green card is secured and thus losing eligibility as a dependent.
Raft is advising EB-5 families to act quickly if their child is nearing 21. “The CSPA change makes timing more unforgiving, so those families should model age-out risk using the Final Action Dates framework, not the more generous assumptions many practitioners previously used.”
The looming retrogression projected since last year for the set-aside EB-5 categories—specifically created to encourage employment and economic growth in regions that need it the most, known as Targeted Employment Areas (TEA)—by authorities and industry alike is also a potential change to the U.S. landscape that directly impacts this investor visa program. Retrogression refers to the backward movement of visa availability dates, which can lead to longer wait times for applicants from oversubscribed countries.
“We need to make sure clients are aware of the potential retrogression of the set-aside EB5 categories in the future,” Raft concluded. “EB-5 is no longer a category where every nationality can safely assume smooth visa availability at every step; the May 2026 bulletin’s India warning is a reminder that filing windows and visa availability can shift quickly.”
Attorneys agree that EB-5 applicants should be flexible and patient during their application process in these changing times.
“We are living in a time when things change from day-to-day,” Fox-Isicoff concluded. “If they can’t be flexible at this point, this is not the program for them, nor is U.S. immigration. No one can reliably conduct their lives with any degree of certainty if they are a foreign national right now in the U.S.”
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