For every Indian family considering a United States green card through investment, 30 September 2026 is a deadline hard to forget. Miss it, and the rules governing your application may change drastically, and the minimum investment, currently $800,000, rises by at least $100,000 from 1 January 2027.The EB-5 Investor Visa Programme allows a foreign national to invest in a qualifying US project, create 10 jobs, and get permanent residency visa in just six-to-nine months through the rural project route. Created in 1990, the programme ran, lapsed, and was reauthorised repeatedly over the years.The most vital reform came in 2022, when the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act (RIA) modernised oversight, tightened compliance, raised investment thresholds, and introduced new visa categories for rural and highunemployment projects. It also embedded three dates into the law that now define the urgency facing every Indian investor applying the programme.The grandfathering deadlineFile your application before 30 September 2026 to lock in today’s rules for the whole journey. Source-of-funds standards, investment structure, job-creation criteria, all frozen at the point of filing, regardless of what the Congress does later. Nicholas Mastroianni III, President and CMO of US Immigration Fund, an EB-5 regional centre, says filing before this date secures two forms of certainty: filing framework and investment amount.A 2022 rule stands out for Indians already in the US as it transformed EB-5 demand among H-1B holders: file the petition to get a work permit and travel authorisation within six months. No need to wait for the green card itself.Price hike on 1 January 2027The RIA has a mandatory, statutory inflation adjustment calculated from 2022. Sandeep Wadhwa, Chairperson, FAY EB-5 Investment Group, estimates the rural investment minimum to rise from $800,000 to about $900,000, with standard urban projects rising from $1,050,000 to at least $1,200,000.The programme sunsetAt present, the EB-5 Regional Centre Programme is till 30 September 2027.Investors can technically file between October 2026 and September 2027, but without grandfathering protection. Any legislative change, reauthorisation condition, or programme lapse after 30 September 2026 will apply to their case. Varun Singh, MD, XIPHIAS Immigration, says: “For highnet- worth families, unpredictability in filing framework is itself a material cost.” As per Rohit Bhardwaj, Country Head at Henley & Partners, “For families with children on student F-1 visas or professionals on H-1B visa, this date is a critical focal point.”The deadline also creates conditions in which investors make costly mistakes. Documentation bottleneck is the most immediate. With immigration attorneys overloaded, preparation for source-offunds— the forensic audit carried out by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on each dollar invested—takes 60- 90 days today, up from the earlier four-week norm. Shilpa Menon, Managing Director– Commercial, LCR Capital Partners, notes, “Anybody who wants to get into the September deadline has to start today.”Since July 2025, USCIS also requires documentation of future instalments, not just capital already deployed. “Suppose you sell a property today. You have to show the salepurchase agreement, deed, money hitting your account, capital gains tax paid. But you also have to go back to when you bought the asset, maybe 15-20 years,” explains Menon.The bad-project risk is equally real. As the filing window narrows, weaker projects rush in to capture volume from families short on time for due diligence. “There will be a lot of garbage projects out there. Just because there is a September deadline, you should not invest anywhere,” warns Menon.Treat any project marketing guaranteed returns or risk-free outcomes as a red flag. An EB-5 investment is not a fixed-income product or a guaranteed deposit. It is an investment in a business or real estate project, with annual returns typically being 0.25-2%.“The real differentiator is the quality of the sponsor, the project’s ability to preserve and return investor capital and a disciplined exit strategy,” says Wadhwa. If a project fails to create the mandated 10 jobs per investor, the visa itself can be invalidated.EB-5 Investor Visa guideThree key dates30 Sep 2026Grandfathering deadline File before this date to lock in current rules, source-of-funds standards, and minimum $800,000 investment amount1 Jan 2027Mandatory price hike Statutory inflation adjustment kicks in. Visa cost for rural projects rises to ~$930k–940k. Urban projects to ~$1.2 million.30 Sep 2027Programme sunsetEB-5 Regional Centre Programme currently authorised until this date. No grandfathering protection for filings after 30 September 2026.Rural vs urban projects