What Are Targeted Employment Areas?

If you’ve done any reading on the EB-5 program then no doubt you’ve heard of Targeted Employment Areas (also known as TEAs) and wondered what they are. TEAs are areas within the United States that are either rural, or have a high unemployment rate. Investing in an TEA is almost always in a prospective EB-5 investor’s best interest, as doing so will cut the required investment in half.

WHAT ARE TEAS?

In the past, USCIS permitted individual states to designate their own TEAs.  Recent regulations changed this. As of July 24, 2019 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) controls the designation of TEAs and requires investors to provide proof that their investment meets the standard for TEA designation. For a rural area to be designated as a TEA it must be “any area other than an area within a standard metropolitan statistical area (MSA) (as designated by the Office of Management and Budget) or within the outer boundary of any city or town having a population of 20,000 or more based on the most recent decennial census of the United States.” For an area to qualify as a TEA based on high unemployment, it needs to be an “area that has experienced unemployment of at least 150 percent of the national average rate”.

WHY INVEST IN A TEA?

As you might already know, EB-5 investment now requires a significant amount of capital. Prior to the regulatory changes of 2019, investors were only required to invest $1million to qualify for an EB-5 visa ($500,000 if their investment was in a TEA). However, in 2019 these requirements were raised to a minimum investment of $1.8million. By investing in a TEA investors will only be required to invest $900,000, a much smaller burden.

WHAT EVIDENCE DO I NEED TO QUALIFY?

EB-5 investors who wish to have their chosen investment designated as being within a TEA must submit evidence of this as part of their I-526 application.  As per USCIS guidelines, this evidence must be reliable and verifiable, and can consist of the following.

• Location where the project principally does business
• Maps that clearly demonstrate the census tract or tracts included in the proposed TEA
• Details of the calculations for the weighted average unemployment rate of the proposed TEA
• The source of the unemployment statistics for the proposed TEA (data and methods must be “reliable and verifiable”)

The good news for most potential EB-5 investors is that if you invest through an EB-5 regional center, your chosen regional center will likely provide you proof that their project has been designated as located with a TEA and handle the complexities involved.  

Fill out our quick evaluation form now and get started on the path to receive your EB-5 visa today.