The July 2026 EB-5 Rule Would Put Your Money on Two Clocks

Short answer. DHS published a 358-page proposed EB-5 rule on July 2, 2026. Comments close August 31, 2026. It would codify the two-year sustainment period, put redeployment on a three-month clock, add a penalty regime reaching ten percent of invested capital, and create a higher investment tier for low-unemployment metropolitan tracts. None of it is law yet.

Start with the thing everyone reports backwards

Promoter registration already exists. Since the 2022 Act, direct and third-party promoters have been required to register with USCIS on Form I-956K and to certify compliance. The registration carries no filing fee. What has been missing is consequence, and the proposed rule supplies it by pairing the obligation with the penalty regime below.

Two things follow for an investor. If you have never been shown documentation of how the person recruiting you is compensated and whether he is registered, ask for it. And know that an I-956K registration with USCIS does not satisfy or excuse broker-dealer registration under the securities laws. Those are separate regimes at separate agencies, and the SEC has brought cases against people who thought otherwise. That analysis is in When Your Investment Is a Security.

Where a proposed rule ends and a real one begins

In EB-5, the gap between a proposed rule and an effective one has repeatedly decided who got in at which price. That is why a proposal deserves reading now rather than when it is final. The rule is at 91 Fed. Reg. 40676, July 2, 2026, RIN 1615-AC94, DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0100.

The three changes that would move money

Redeployment on a three-month clock. Repaid capital would generally need to be redeployed within three months absent a justification.

That sounds procedural. It is not. Right now a fund can hold returned capital while it looks for the next deal, and the investor’s I-829 waits on whatever the fund eventually finds. A client showed me a subscription agreement last year describing redeployment as “at the manager’s discretion, as opportunities warrant,” which in practice meant capital could sit uninvested for as long as the manager liked, with the investor’s conditional residence riding on it. A three-month clock ends that. It also forces managers into whatever deal is available in month three, which is a different risk that nobody is discussing yet.

Sustainment, codified. The rule would fix the two-year sustainment period in regulation, measured from the point all required capital has been contributed to the new commercial enterprise and placed at risk, not from conditional residence. It would also state that capital may be returned once sustainment and job creation are satisfied, even with visas still pending. Both positions are already USCIS policy. What codification buys is durability: Policy Manual guidance can change without notice and comment, and a regulation cannot.

A new investment tier. A higher-investment tier for projects in low-unemployment census tracts within metropolitan areas, sitting above the current standard amount and the targeted employment area amount. Specialist commentators describe that tier at $1.4 million. Read the figure and the qualifying trigger in the rule text instead of in summaries, because published descriptions of how an area would qualify do not agree with one another.

The secondary changes

A graduated sanctions regime, including monetary penalties of up to ten percent of total invested capital, plus suspension, termination, and debarment, and a flat $10,000 penalty for a late Form I-956G. Job creation would no longer be creditable where bridge financing has been repaid. Cryptocurrency would be accepted as a lawful source of funds. The rule would apply prospectively to petitions filed on or after its effective date.

Comment periods are open to anyone

This one closes August 31, 2026. Any investor, project sponsor, or business owner who would be affected can file a comment through the federal docket. Regulators count them and courts read them later. If you are reading this afterward, the docket stays public, and the comments that were filed are the best available preview of the objections that shape a final rule. They are worth reading before you sign a subscription agreement.

How this firm helps, and where the line is

We review EB-5 offering documents for immigration compliance: whether the structure, deployment terms, job-creation methodology, and sustainment and redeployment provisions can support an I-526E and later an I-829. We also advise on the securities exemptions that apply to an investment structure, which is ordinary work for a firm that practices business law alongside immigration.

What we do not do is evaluate the investment. We give no investment or suitability advice, we do not opine on whether a project is a good deal, and we accept no compensation, referral fees, or other consideration from regional centers, issuers, or promoters. For the investment question, retain independent financial advice.

Send us the private placement memorandum and the subscription agreement before you sign. We will read them against the current rule and the proposed one. Call or text 512.761.8479.

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