Growth in EB-5 has two sides, and they do not always move together. One side is intake: how many investors file petitions and how much capital enters the program. The other side is output: how many petitions USCIS approves and how many EB-5 visas actually get issued.

Since the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act (RIA) of 2022, most reporting on EB-5 growth has focused on the intake side, where the numbers are genuinely strong. The most recent data from IIUSA, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the State Department shows the two sides have pulled apart. Intake is setting records. Output is not keeping pace.

Filings Set Records

FY2025 was the largest year in post-RIA history, with 6,660 EB-5 petitions filed. Momentum carried into the new fiscal year. In Q1 FY2026, 1,765 investors filed petitions, a 12 percent increase over the prior quarter and a 24 percent increase year over year.

Cumulatively, roughly 18,000 EB-5 investments were filed between April 2022 and March 2026. Counting spouses and children, that points toward more than 36,000 people who will eventually need an EB-5 visa.

Capital Formation Followed

EB-5 investment inflow reached an estimated $5.3 billion in FY2025, bringing total post-RIA capital formation to roughly $12 billion. Q1 FY2026 alone added an estimated $1.4 billion.

Almost all of that capital moved through the EB-5 regional center structure, which accounted for about 96 percent of post-RIA filings. Standalone direct EB-5 remains a small share of the program by volume.

Who Is Filing

China and India together account for roughly 73 percent of post-RIA filings. In Q1 FY2026, India passed China for the first time, with 668 petitions against 649.

Rural projects have taken the largest share. Rural accounted for 57 percent of Chinese and Indian filings across the post-RIA period, and 56 percent of all filings in Q1 FY2026. Outside China and India, high unemployment area projects remain more common.

Adjudications Have Not Kept Pace

USCIS adjudicated 3,439 EB-5 petitions in FY2025, also a post-RIA record. Approvals surged late in the year, with more than 1,300 I-526E petitions approved in Q4 FY2025, a 30 percent increase over the prior quarter.

That momentum reversed. USCIS adjudicated 940 I-526E petitions in Q1 FY2026, a 34 percent decline from Q4 FY2025, and volume dipped again in Q2. Because receipts have exceeded completions for several quarters, the pending I-526E queue passed 10,000 in December 2025 and continued growing through March 2026.

Approval Rates Have Fallen

The I-526E approval rate held at 94 percent across FY2025. It fell to 81 percent in Q1 FY2026, the lowest quarterly rate since the RIA took effect, with 176 petitions denied in that quarter alone. Q2 FY2026 showed a comparable denial rate near 20 percent.

Direct EB-5 tells a harsher version of the same story. The standalone I-526 approval rate dropped to 41 percent in FY2025, and USCIS processed only 10 of those petitions in Q1 FY2026.

Visa Issuance Tells the Clearest Story

The sharpest split between intake and output shows up in visa numbers. In FY2025 the State Department issued 9,831 unreserved EB-5 visas, using 100 percent of what was available in that category.

The reserved categories went the other way. Only 922 reserved visas were issued through consular processing in FY2025, about 13 percent of what was available. September 2025 did mark one milestone, with the first three Infrastructure visas ever issued under the RIA, all to Indian applicants at the U.S. Consulate in Singapore.

Growth Is Currently One-Sided

Taken together, the data describes a program growing quickly at the front door and slowly at the back. Filings, capital, and pending inventory are all at or near record levels. Adjudication volume is falling, approval rates are down, and set-aside visa issuance is running far below availability.

This matters for anyone converting headline growth into expectations. A record filing year signals demand for the EB-5 green card. It does not signal that the pipeline is clearing at the same rate.

Key Takeaway

Post-RIA EB-5 growth is real, but it is concentrated on the intake side. Roughly 18,000 investments and $12 billion in capital have entered the program since 2022, while approvals and set-aside visa issuance have lagged well behind.

For EB-5 investors evaluating an EB-5 project today, the useful question is not whether the program is growing. It is whether the specific lane being entered has output capacity behind it. Filing volume answers the first question. Adjudication and visa issuance data answer the second.

All figures are current as of August 2026. USCIS petition data reflects Q1 and Q2 FY2026, the most recent quarterly releases. Visa issuance figures reflect full-year FY2025, the most recent complete year published by the State Department.

Sources

IIUSA, FY2025 I-526E Data Report (annual filings, adjudications, approval rates, and capital formation). https://iiusa.org/fy2025-i-526e-data-report-record-filings-surging-adjudications-high-approval-rates-and-evolving-investor-market-trends/

IIUSA, I-526E Data Analysis for Q1 FY2026 (quarterly filings, adjudications, and approval rates). https://iiusa.org/i-526e-data-analysis-for-q1-fy2026-india-leads-investor-demand-as-filings-rise-adjudications-decline-and-i-526e-approval-rates-fall/

IIUSA, EB-5 Visa Issuance in FY2025 (unreserved and reserved visa issuance by category). https://iiusa.org/eb-5-visa-issuance-in-fy2025-trends-in-unreserved-and-reserved-categories/

USCIS, Immigration and Citizenship Data (quarterly petition receipts, approvals, denials, and pending inventory). https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/immigration-and-citizenship-data

Lucid Professional Writing, FY2026 Q2 EB-5 Processing Data (pending inventory and cumulative filing totals). https://blog.lucidtext.com/2026/08/04/fy2026-q2-eb-5-processing-data-i-526-i-526e-i-829-i-956f/

U.S. Department of State, Monthly Immigrant Visa Issuance Statistics (post-level and category-level issuance data). https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/immigrant-visa-statistics/monthly-immigrant-visa-issuances.html