Introduction
USCIS data released for fiscal year 2026 shows that Chinese-born investors are filing the biggest share of I-526 standalone investor filings in the United States. They account for 93 of the 238 total filings recorded through the third quarter of the fiscal year. The agency’s three-month breakdown by country of birth and investment type offers a close look at I-526 standalone petition volume — a key early step in the EB-5 immigrant investor visa process. It shows how demand spreads across countries, investment set-asides, and location-based categories. For investors, attorneys, and regional centers tracking EB-5 activity, these figures matter. They provide meaningful context about the current competitive landscape for this pathway to a U.S. green card.
Understanding the I-526 Standalone Petition
The I-526, known by its full name as the Immigrant Petition by Standalone Investor, is the core filing in the EB-5 process. It applies to investors who are not going through a USCIS-named regional center. Filing the I-526 is the investor’s first step in showing that their investment meets the legal requirements of the EB-5 program. It requires a valid capital investment in a new commercial enterprise that creates at least ten full-time jobs for U.S. workers.
The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 rebuilt the program in major ways. It set up saved visa slots for investments in rural areas, high unemployment areas, and infrastructure projects. These categories now compete on their own, apart from the traditional open pool. This affects both visa supply and wait times depending on an investor’s country of birth. Investors born in countries with long-standing high EB-5 demand — particularly China and India — face longer visa waitlists. This is because the government gives out green card numbers per country of birth, not per country where someone is a citizen.
I-526 Standalone Petition Filing Patterns Through Q3 FY2026
USCIS recorded a total of 238 I-526 standalone petition filings through the first nine months of fiscal year 2026. This period covers October 2025 through June 2026. Three-month data is not yet available for the fourth quarter. Chinese-born investors filed 93 of those petitions, making China by far the leading country of birth in the dataset. India ranked second with 88 petitions. Vietnam recorded 2 petitions, while South Korea and Taiwan each recorded zero. A combined “rest of the world” category made up the remaining 55 petitions.
The high unemployment area set-aside drew the largest volume overall, with 171 of 238 total filings falling into that category. China led there as well, with 78 of the 171 high unemployment area filings. India followed with 67. Rural area petitions totaled 25, led by India with 13 and China with 9. The combined rural and high unemployment area label drew only 2 filings across all countries. Infrastructure set-aside petitions recorded zero filings across all countries of birth for the entire reported period. The open category made up 35 petitions. The rest-of-the-world grouping led with 24, followed by India at 6 and China at 4.
USCIS sorted a small number of petitions — 5 total — with an unknown investment type. It spread them across the rest-of-the-world, China, and India categories.
Investors, Practitioners, and Regional Center Groups
The investors most directly represented in this data are foreign nationals seeking U.S. permanent residence. They are doing so through standalone EB-5 investments. Chinese and Indian investors together represent the overwhelming majority of I-526 standalone filings. This reflects long-running patterns in EB-5 demand from those countries. Investors born in other countries — grouped here as “rest of the world” — together filed 55 petitions across all categories. They appear to cluster in the open set-aside rather than the location-based categories.
These figures also touch immigration lawyers guiding EB-5 clients, regional centers reviewing investor pipelines, and employers tracking employment-based immigration trends. The lack of infrastructure set-aside filings is especially notable for those in that segment of the market. It suggests either little investor awareness of the category or built-in obstacles to its use in the standalone context. USCIS tracks I-526E petitions for regional center investors on its own. This dataset covers only the I-526 standalone petition, and readers should not use it to draw conclusions about the wider EB-5 program’s total volume.
What These Numbers Mean for EB-5 Planning
The concentration of standalone I-526 filings in the high unemployment area category carries strategic significance. Investors who qualify for the high unemployment area set-aside benefit from a lower minimum investment level — currently $800,000 rather than the standard $1,050,000. They also compete within a saved visa pool that in theory carries less crowding than the open category. However, the data shows that Chinese and Indian investors are filing mostly in this set-aside. This means the per-country waitlist issue still applies within it. Investors born in those countries should not assume that picking a saved category removes wait times.
The near-absence of rural area filings compared to high unemployment area filings suggests that valid rural projects may be harder to find or set up in the standalone context. Or investors may have limited awareness of the rural category’s possible advantages. Rural set-aside visas have their own saved pool. Depending on demand, this could offer faster processing for investors whose projects truly qualify.
Form I-526 and I-526E Receipts — FY2026 Q3 Infographics
The four charts below break down EB-5 immigrant investor petition receipts for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, covering both Form I-526 and Form I-526E, each with a summary and a breakdown by country of birth. Swipe or scroll the charts sideways, or use the arrows and dots below to move between them. Each chart can be opened at full size in a new tab.
Source: DHS / USCIS, Office of Performance and Quality — CLAIMS3 and ELIS data, queried July 2026. The underlying quarterly reports are published on the USCIS Immigration and Citizenship Data page.
The zero-filing record for the infrastructure category across all nine reported months raises open questions. It is not clear from the data whether this reflects a built-in obstacle in the standalone filing context. It could instead reflect a lack of valid projects, or simply investor preference for other set-asides. Practitioners working in this space should monitor USCIS. They should watch for more guidance on what project types qualify in the standalone infrastructure category.
One important limit of this dataset: filing counts reflect petitions filed, not approvals. Monthly variation ranged from a low of 16 in both April and June to a high of 44 in December. This likely reflects natural fluctuation rather than any specific policy event. Counts may also shift in future releases as USCIS applies system updates and after-review corrections to the data.
What to Watch For Next in I-526 Standalone Petition Trends
Fourth-quarter figures for July through September 2026 are not yet available in this dataset. USCIS expects to publish updated three-month data reflecting Q4 filings in a later release. Interested parties should also watch USCIS for any coming guidance on the infrastructure set-aside category. This category has produced minimal standalone petition activity since the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act rebuilt the program. Also, movement on the Visa Bulletin from the Department of State will remain important context. It helps explain how current filing volumes turn into real wait times for Chinese and Indian investors in particular.
How Immigration Professional Association Can Help
Immigration Professional Association works directly with EB-5 investors moving through the standalone petition process. This includes reviewing valid investments, choosing an investment type, and preparing and filing the I-526. The patterns seen in this data include the waitlist exposure for Chinese and Indian investors, the key differences between rural and high unemployment area projects, and the cost effects of the open versus saved categories. These are exactly the factors that matter most when setting up an EB-5 investment that fits both an investor's financial goals and their immigration timeline.
Our team understands how country of birth affects visa supply and how set-aside categories work with the per-country priority date system. We also know what paperwork USCIS expects at the I-526 stage. If you are a Chinese, Indian, or international investor weighing the standalone EB-5 path, or an employer or advisor helping someone who is, Immigration Professional Association invites you to reach out. We offer a consultation focused on how these FY2026 filing trends and program setup apply to your situation.
