#               I-526, Immigrant Petition by Standalone Investor

**ALERT:** On Jan. 31, 2024, we published a final rule in the Federal Register that adjusts the fees required for most immigration applications and petitions. The new fees will be effective April 1, 2024.

Applications and petitions postmarked on or after April 1, 2024, must include the new fees or we will not accept them.

What to Know About Sending Us Your Form

The new filing fee is effective for filings postmarked April 1, 2024, and later. If you are filing an acceptable prior form edition on or after April 1, 2024, you must include the new filing fee.

**ALERT:** Beginning Sept. 1, 2022, we will no longer accept a single, combined fee payment when an applicant or petitioner files Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Standalone Investor, or Form I-526E, Immigrant Petition by Regional Center Investor, **together** with Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, Form 131, Application for Travel Document, or Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. Petitioners must send a separate fee payment for each form.

If a petitioner or applicant submits a single, combined fee payment for Forms I-526 or I-526E and the other forms, we will reject the forms for improper fee payment and return the fee.

**ALERT:** Starting July 12, 2022, we are accepting the new Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by a Standalone Investor.

Starting July 12, 2022, we are accepting the new Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by a Standalone Investor.

We will adjudicate all Forms I-526 filed before March 15, 2022 (the date of the enactment of the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022), according to the applicable eligibility requirements at the time the petition was filed. We will continue to process Forms I-526 under the visa availability approach, prioritizing petitions for investors with an available visa or a visa that will be available soon.

EB-5 Investors Associated with a Regional Center

If you are filing a petition based on the new EB-5 Regional Center Program, then you must submit Form I-526E.

**USCIS Announces Changes to the EB-5 Program**

On March 15, 2022, President Biden signed the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, which revised INA 203(b)(5).

If you filed Form I-526 before March 15, 2022, we will adjudicate your form under the regulations in effect before Nov. 21, 2019. Please see USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part G, Investors, for an explanation of those regulations. On June 22, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in Behring Regional Center LLC v. Wolf, 20-cv-09263-JSC, vacated (voided) the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization Final Rule. Because that rule was voided, the following changes are in effect for petitions filed before March 15, 2022: there is no priority date retention (previously provided in the voided rule), state designations of targeted employment areas are permitted, and the investment amounts are $1 million for standard cases and $500,000 for targeted employment areas. However, for petitions filed after March 15, 2022, the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 raises the investment amounts to $1,050,000 for standard cases and $800,000 for targeted employment areas. The same statute redefines those targeted employment areas.

The form is used by a standalone investor to petition USCIS for status as an immigrant to the United States under section 203(b)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended.

## Forms and Document Downloads

Form I-526  (PDF, 686.33 KB)

Instructions for Form I-526  (PDF, 345.77 KB)

## Form Details

04/01/24. Starting June 3, 2024, we will accept only the 04/01/24 edition. Until then, you can also use the 07/24/23 edition. You can find the edition date at the bottom of the page on the form and instructions. The new filing fee is effective for filings postmarked April 1, 2024, and later. If you are filing an acceptable prior form edition, you must include the new filing fee.

Dates are listed in mm/dd/yy format.

If you complete and print this form to mail it, make sure that the form edition date and page numbers are visible at the bottom of all pages and that all pages are from the same form edition. If any of the form’s pages are missing or are from a different form edition, we may reject your form.

If you need help downloading and printing forms, read our instructions. 

Please check our Direct Filing Addresses for Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Standalone Investor, and Form I-526E, Immigrant Petition by Regional Center Investor, page for information on where to mail your petition. Petitions that are not submitted to the correct address may experience processing delays.

You can find the filing fee for Form I-526 by visiting our Fee Schedule page.  

The fee is effective for filings postmarked April 1, 2024, and later.

You can pay the fee with a money order, personal check, cashier’s check, or pay by credit card or debit card using Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions. If you pay by check, you must make your check payable to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 

**When you send a payment, you agree to pay for a government service. Filing fees are final and nonrefundable, regardless of any action we take on your application, petition, or request, or if you withdraw your request.** If you pay by credit card or debit card, you cannot later dispute the payment. Use our Fee Calculator to help determine your fee.

If you are submitting multiple forms, pay each filing fee separately. We are transitioning to electronically processing immigration requests, which requires us to use multiple systems to process your package. We may reject your entire package if you submit a single, combined payment for multiple forms.

**Filing Tips:**Review our Tips for Filing Forms by Mail page for information on how to ensure we will accept your form.

**Don’t forget to sign your form.** We will reject any unsigned form.

You will receive separate receipt notices for a properly filed Form I-526 and Form I-526E. The first notice you should expect to receive will be from the USCIS lockbox, acknowledging receipt of your Form I-526 or Form I-526E and the total fee amount received and processed.

We will then issue a formal receipt notice that includes the assigned receipt number for the application when data entry has been completed.

04/01/2024

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