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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 t he 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.
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