EB-5 Program - Targeted Employment Areas

EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) administers the Immigrant Investor Program, also known as “EB-5,” which was created by Congress in an effort to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. All EB-5 investors must invest the required capital in a commercial enterprise, which creates or preserves a set number of full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers within a defined period following the investment.

The immigrant’s capital investment can be in the form of cash, equipment, inventory, other tangible property, cash equivalents and indebtedness secured by assets owned by the investor. The minimum qualifying investment in the United States is dependent on the date of application and the geographic location of the commercial enterprise. Lower minimum qualifying investments are available within a high-unemployment areas or rural areas, designated as Targeted Employment Areas (TEA).

A Targeted Employment Area designated on the basis of high unemployment is a geographic area that, at the time of application and investment, is experiencing an unemployment rate of at least 150 percent of the national average rate. A Targeted Employment Area qualified based on the classification as a rural area is an area outside of a metropolitan statistical area (as designated by the Office of Management and Budget) or outside of the boundary of any city or town having a population of 20,000 or more according to the most recent decennial census.

The United States Department of Homeland Security is the sole authority for the designation of Targeted Employment Areas. Please see the link below for additional information from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website.

https://www.uscis.gov/eb-5

Please direct all questions regarding the Immigrant Investor Program to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Additional information about the EB-5 program, as well as other temporary and permanent worker programs, can be found on the USCIS website at http://www.uscis.gov.