The 2026 EB-5 Deadline: What Grandfathering Locks In

The short answer: An investor who files an I-526 petition on or before September 30, 2026 is grandfathered under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act. That petition continues to be adjudicated under current law even if the Regional Center program is not reauthorized after September 2027. Petitions filed after September 30, 2026 do not carry this protection. Because EB-5 filings often take six to fourteen months to complete, the deadline functions as a date to finish by, not a date to begin.

Most EB-5 conversations start with money. The current minimum investment, the project, the expected return. But for anyone weighing the EB-5 path right now, the more consequential number is a date: September 30, 2026. That is the deadline to file an I-526 petition and secure what the industry calls grandfathering, a protection written into the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 that follows the petition for the life of the case.

Grandfathering is one of the most valuable features of the current program, and one of the least understood by investors who are still early in their decision. This piece explains what the protection actually secures, who it applies to, and why the investors who benefit most are the ones who start well before the deadline rather than at it.

What Grandfathering Actually Protects

The EB-5 Regional Center program operates under a fixed authorization period. It is currently authorized through September 30, 2027. The grandfathering deadline sits a full year earlier, on September 30, 2026, and the gap between those two dates is where the protection lives.

Here is the mechanism in plain terms. An investor who files an I-526 petition on or before September 30, 2026 is grandfathered under the Reform and Integrity Act. That means the petition continues to be adjudicated under current law even if Congress does not reauthorize the Regional Center program after September 2027. The filing keeps its standing, and the investor remains eligible for the immigration benefit, regardless of what happens to the program later.

On a recent CanAm podcast, Galati Law principal Matthew Galati put the eligibility point directly: petitions filed by the deadline are "grandfathered under the Reform and Integrity Act," while those filed after are not. His follow-up question was the one every prospective investor should sit with: filing before the date preserves the protection, so why give it up voluntarily?

This is not a discount or a promotion. It is a structural protection that attaches to the petition based on a single factor: the filing date. File before the cutoff and the protection is locked in. File after, and it is gone, even though the program itself continues for another year.

Who This Matters Most For

Grandfathering applies to any investor who files an I-526 before the deadline, but the stakes are not identical across the board. For investors from countries with high EB-5 demand, notably China and India, there is a second consideration layered on top: the priority date.

Grandfathering protects the petition itself. It does not move an investor forward in the visa queue. Visa availability still depends on priority date and country of birth. The practical implication is that filing date does double duty for investors from backlogged countries. It secures grandfathering, and it sets the priority date that governs how long the wait for a visa will be. An earlier filing means a better place in line.

Galati framed this with a useful contrast on the podcast: an investor born in a low-demand country has little to worry about on the backlog, but for investors from China and India the timing is significant, and filing today produces a meaningfully better position than filing close to the deadline. For these investors, waiting carries a cost that has nothing to do with the law changing and everything to do with the queue getting longer.

Why the Deadline Is a Practical One, Not Just a Legal One

The most common mistake is treating September 30, 2026 as a date to file by rather than a date to be finished by. Those are different things, and the difference is months.

An EB-5 filing is not a same-day decision. Selecting an immigration attorney, evaluating regional centers, choosing a specific project, and then preparing the source-of-funds documentation all take time. Timelines of six to fourteen months from first conversation to completed filing are common, depending on how complex an investor's finances are. Source of funds is usually the heaviest lift, because most investors are moving a portion of their net worth and have real decisions to make about which assets to use, each carrying its own tax and documentation implications.

There is also a history worth knowing. EB-5 has seen filing surges ahead of past deadlines, and they create bottlenecks across the entire system. Ahead of the 2015 deadline, quarterly petition volume roughly doubled. Law firms, regional centers, and the projects themselves all hit capacity at once. The investors who waited until the final weeks found that the attorneys they wanted, the projects they preferred, and the administrative bandwidth they needed were all in short supply. Last-minute filing also removes any margin for the ordinary things that go wrong: a rejected mailroom filing, a delayed shipment, a reversed wire. None of those matter when there is time to recover. All of them matter when there is not.

What Happens After the Deadline

It is worth being clear about what the deadline is not. It is not the end of the EB-5 program. The Regional Center program remains authorized through September 30, 2027, and petitions filed after the grandfathering date will still be accepted during that window. What changes is the protection. Petitions filed after September 30, 2026 do not carry the grandfathering provision, which means they depend on the program being reauthorized to keep their footing.

The program has been extended many times across its history, and there is active advocacy to extend it again. The point is not alarm. As CanAm Investor Services CEO Peter Calabrese put it on the podcast, the goal is "not to create alarm" but to make sure investors understand the different rights that come with filing before versus after the deadline. Filing early is simply the prudent course. It secures a protection that is available now, at no additional cost, for anyone who acts in time.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is EB-5 grandfathering?

Grandfathering is a provision in the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022. A petition filed on or before September 30, 2026 continues to be adjudicated under current law even if the Regional Center program is not reauthorized after September 2027. The protection attaches to the petition based on its filing date.

What happens to the EB-5 program after September 30, 2026?

The program does not end. The Regional Center program is authorized through September 30, 2027, and petitions can still be filed during that window. What changes is the protection: petitions filed after September 30, 2026 do not carry grandfathering and depend on the program being reauthorized to keep their standing.

Do I need to file my EB-5 petition before September 2026?

To secure grandfathering, the I-526 must be filed on or before September 30, 2026. Because the EB-5 application process commonly takes six to fourteen months once source-of-funds preparation is included, an investor who wants to file before the deadline should begin the process well ahead of it.

Does grandfathering move me forward in the visa line?

No. Grandfathering protects the petition, but it does not affect visa availability. The wait for a visa still depends on priority date and country of birth. For investors from China and India, an earlier filing date secures grandfathering and also sets an earlier priority date, which shortens the wait.

How long does the EB-5 visa process take to file?

The timeline from first conversation to a completed I-526 filing is commonly six to fourteen months, depending on the complexity of an investor's finances. Source-of-funds documentation is usually the most time-consuming part of the EB-5 visa process, which is why preparation should start well before any deadline.

Ready to Start Before the Deadline?

At CanAm Enterprises, we have spent more than 20 years guiding EB-5 investors through the program, and we understand that the months before a deadline like this are when preparation matters most. Our track record reflects that experience: over $4 billion raised from more than 8,400 investors, more than $2.5 billion repaid, and more than 9,300 permanent green cards facilitated across 75-plus financed projects.

For a fuller discussion of the September 30, 2026 deadline, including the history behind it and the practical steps to prepare, listen to our podcast with Matthew Galati and Peter Calabrese: The 2026 EB-5 Deadline: What Investors Must Know.

To discuss whether EB-5 fits your timeline, contact us at [email protected] or +1 (212) 668-0690. The investors with the most options are the ones who start early.