U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has finalized a new fee schedule for the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program which will take effect on November 30, 2026. USCIS states that the adjustment in fees are intended to ensure EB-5 fees fully recover the cost of operating the program, allow the agency to meet statutory processing time...
EB-5 Filing Fees to Increase November 30, 2026
DHS has now turned to OPT. In a proposed rule published October 8, 2026, ICE would require schools to pay $70,000 for every F-1 student who receives initial OPT, and another $30,000 for any subsequent OPT period, including the 24-month STEM extension. If the school doesn’t pay, the DSO can’t enter the OPT recommendation in...
Many people assume you need millions of dollars or a green card to own and run a business in the United States. You don’t. We recently helped an entrepreneur from Canada get an E-2 Treaty Investor visa for himself, his spouse and their two children, so the family can move to Texas and build his...
If you’re a U.S. citizen engaged to or married to someone who lives abroad, there are two main ways to bring your partner to the United States. The K-1 fiancé(e) visa lets your partner enter the U.S. to marry you. The spousal visa is for couples who marry first, and then your spouse arrives as...
We get this question a lot from employers. The certified LCA lists $85,000. The employee has been paid $100,000 for two years. Business slows, a major account goes away, and the employer asks the obvious question: can we go back down to the $85,000 we certified? Usually the answer is no. The LCA wage is...
Last October I wrote about the Supreme Court declining to hear Save Jobs USA v. DHS, and I said at the time that the decision did nothing to stop a future administration from revisiting the program through new regulatory action. That is exactly what is now happening. DHS has placed a rule on the Unified...
For EB-5 investors pursuing permanent residence through the Regional Center Program, September 30, 2026, is an important date. It is tied to the statutory grandfathering protection created by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA). This does not mean that the entire EB-5 Regional Center Program automatically disappears on September 30, 2026. The...
Over the past several days, immigrant visa applicants around the world have reported that their long-awaited consular interviews were cancelled or postponed often with little notice and no new date. The cancellations are not isolated to one embassy or one region. According to reporting by The New York Times on August 24, 2026, the U.S....