On Nov. 12, 2025, a federal court determined that USCIS unlawfully increased EB-5 filing fees without completing a fee study that was required to be completed under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA). The RIA, passed in April 2022, required USCIS to complete a fee study and to set USCIS filing fees according to the amount of time required to adjudicate the different types of EB-5 cases, including Form I-526E Petitions, Form I-829 Petitions, and Form I-956/I-956F Applications. However, USCIS did not timely complete the fee study; instead in April 2024, USCIS increased EB-5 filing fees significantly and without first completing the required fee study.
Following a recent lawsuit, a federal court determined that USCIS’ April 2024 fee increase was unlawful and arbitrary. The court also held that the fees should revert to the pre-April 2024 fees until USCIS finalizes the fee study. While the USCIS website on fees has yet to be updated, parties to the litigation have confirmed informally that USCIS will accept new applications, including Form I-526E Petitions, Form I-829 Petitions, and Form I-956/I-956F Applications, with the older fees. New guidance may be forthcoming from USCIS on the fees.
Importantly, USCIS now has completed its fee study as part of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which is currently in a 60-day comment period. Once the NPRM is published in final, the EB-5 filing fees may increase to the amounts listed in the completed fee study. The result is a short window of time where EB-5 filing fees for various applications are reduced to pre-April 2024 amounts.
EB-5 stakeholders who are filing cases presently should discuss with their lawyer regarding the USCIS filing fees to be paid.