What changed
On March 15, 2022, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, Public Law 117-103, which incorporated the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA) as Division BB. The RIA reauthorized the regional-center program through September 30, 2027, reset every operative number in the EB-5 statute, and added integrity provisions that materially changed how the program runs.
The statutory base is INA § 203(b)(5), 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5). USCIS implements the program through 8 CFR 204.6 (I-526 / I-526E petitions), 8 CFR 216.6 (I-829 removal of conditions), and the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part G.
Key RIA-era numbers:
- Standard minimum investment: $1,050,000. Up from $1,000,000 pre-RIA. Adjusts every five years for CPI under the new statutory mechanism at INA § 203(b)(5)(C)(i).
- Targeted Employment Area (TEA) minimum investment: $800,000. Down from the pre-RIA $1,800,000 (which DHS had set in the 2019 modernization rule that was later vacated by Behring Regional Center LLC v. Mayorkas). TEAs are rural areas (defined as outside any MSA AND outside any city or town with population ≥ 20,000) and high-unemployment areas (areas with unemployment ≥ 150% of the national average).
- Job-creation requirement: 10 full-time positions per investor. Unchanged. For regional-center investments, both direct and indirect jobs count under accepted economic methodologies; for direct (non-regional-center) investments, only direct W-2 jobs count.
- Set-asides. The RIA created three permanent set-asides within the annual EB-5 visa allocation: 20% for rural-TEA investments, 10% for high-unemployment-TEA investments, and 2% for infrastructure-project investments. Unused set-aside visas roll to the next fiscal year for the same set-aside category for one year, then return to the unreserved pool.
The RIA also rewrote integrity provisions at INA § 203(b)(5)(K), creating the EB-5 Integrity Fund, mandating annual audits of regional centers, requiring background checks on regional-center principals, requiring annual statements under penalty of perjury, and authorizing site visits at any time. The RIA implementing-Policy-Manual update is reflected in USCIS Policy Alert PA-2022-15 and subsequent updates.
Why it matters
The RIA changed EB-5 from a niche, slow-moving program into a meaningfully larger and faster pathway — but with substantial trade-offs around set-aside availability and country-of-chargeability dynamics.
The $800K TEA price is the operative number. For most investors, the practical minimum investment under the RIA is $800,000 — almost every viable regional-center project is structured as a TEA investment (rural or high-unemployment). Direct (non-regional-center) investments are still occasionally done at the $1,050,000 standard, particularly for founder-operator immigration in family businesses, but the regional-center route dominates by an order of magnitude.
Set-asides create reserved-priority pathways for backlogged countries. Investors from India and China — long-backlogged in the standard EB-5 queue — have used the rural and high-unemployment set-asides to obtain visa numbers that would otherwise have been years away. The current DOS Visa Bulletin lists separate columns for the unreserved EB-5 pool, the rural set-aside, the high-unemployment set-aside, and the infrastructure set-aside. The rural set-aside, in particular, has been consistently current or near-current for India and China through most of the post-RIA period, making it the most strategically valuable EB-5 pathway for investors from those countries. That said, set-aside availability can change month to month — practitioners should not assume current availability persists for the full I-526E processing window.
Concurrent I-526E / I-485 filing is available when a visa number is available. USCIS confirmed in March 2022 guidance that I-526E and I-485 may be filed concurrently when the investor’s chargeability area / set-aside category is current. This is a material change from the historical EB-5 pathway, where investors had to wait for I-526 approval (often 18–60 months) before filing I-485. Concurrent filing gives the investor and family work and travel authorization (via I-765 EAD and I-131 advance parole) within several months of filing, while the I-526E itself processes in the background.
Regional-center oversight is meaningfully tighter. Under the RIA’s integrity provisions, regional centers must (a) certify annually that they have complied with securities laws, (b) submit audited financial statements, (c) pay an annual EB-5 Integrity Fund fee, and (d) submit to background checks of principals. The 2022 program reauthorization is paired with a USCIS Form I-956 regional-center designation regime and Form I-956F per-project certification, replacing the pre-RIA I-924 / I-924A regime. Investors filing on a regional-center project should verify the regional center’s current good standing and the project’s I-956F approval before committing capital.
A note on Behring Regional Center LLC v. Mayorkas. The 2019 DHS modernization rule (which had set the TEA minimum at $1.8M and tightened TEA definitions) was vacated in June 2021 by the Northern District of California, on the ground that the rule had been promulgated by an Acting Secretary whose appointment violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. The RIA superseded the pre-2019 thresholds nine months later, so the vacatur has limited continuing operative effect — but it explains why the operative TEA threshold dropped from $1.8M back to $800K between July 2021 and March 2022.
Way forward
For investors and practitioners working on EB-5 in 2026:
- Confirm TEA designation in real time. TEA designation is now made by DHS at the I-526E filing stage, not by state agencies. For rural designations, confirm the project is outside any MSA and outside any city/town with population ≥ 20,000. For high-unemployment designations, the project area’s unemployment must be ≥ 150% of the national average using Bureau of Labor Statistics data at the census-tract or county level. The Policy Manual at Volume 6, Part G, Chapter 2 walks through the designation methodology USCIS expects.
- Pick a set-aside affirmatively. Rural set-aside currently offers the best chargeability flexibility for backlogged-country investors. High-unemployment set-aside is the second-best. The unreserved pool — and the standard $1.05M direct-investment pathway — is the slowest for India and China and is roughly comparable to EB-2 India backlog dynamics.
- Vet the regional center under the RIA regime. Verify the regional center holds a current Form I-956 designation, that the project holds a Form I-956F approval (or has an I-956F pending in a credible posture), and that the regional center has filed its annual I-956G statements. The USCIS regional-center list is the source of truth for current designations.
- File I-526E and I-485 concurrently where eligible. If the investor’s chargeability area / set-aside is current, file concurrently to obtain EAD and advance parole during the I-526E processing window. This is the single largest operational improvement of the RIA-era program.
- Track set-aside movement monthly. A set-aside that is current at filing may retrogress before the I-485 approval. Concurrent-filing investors who have already obtained EAD and advance parole maintain those benefits during retrogression but cannot adjust status until the set-aside becomes current again.
- Plan for the 2027 reauthorization sunset. The regional-center program currently sunsets on September 30, 2027. Practitioners should monitor congressional action on reauthorization and advise clients about the political risk of a lapse, though Congress has reauthorized the program every prior cycle.
The anchoring authorities are the statute at INA § 203(b)(5), the RIA itself (Pub. L. 117-103, Division BB), the regulations at 8 CFR 204.6 and 8 CFR 216.6, and the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part G.
Disclaimer
We’re a software company, not a law firm. Nothing here is legal advice. EB-5 investments are securities transactions as well as immigration filings, and turn heavily on the regional center’s structure, the project’s job-creation model, and the investor’s source-of-funds documentation. Consult both a licensed immigration attorney and an experienced securities attorney before relying on any of the above, and verify every citation against the primary source — INA § 203(b)(5), Pub. L. 117-103, Division BB, 8 CFR 204.6, and the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part G.