EB-5 Targeted Employment Area Requirements

A TEA is a rural area or a high unemployment area designated under the current statutory framework.

The relevant classification should be established under the definitions applicable to the post-RIA filing.

Under current INA section 203(b)(5), a targeted employment area is, at the time of investment, either a rural area or a high unemployment area designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security under the statutory framework. The definition matters for the reduced investment threshold and reserved visa categories, but the rural and high unemployment tests are different. A project should identify which TEA basis it claims and preserve the data supporting that classification. Marketing descriptions, state letters, or older pre RIA designation practices should not be substituted for the current federal statutory criteria.

The reduced amount is established in INA §203(b)(5)(C).

Current amounts are scheduled for statutory inflation adjustment beginning January 1, 2027.

For petitions subject to the current 2026 amounts, an investment in a qualifying targeted employment area uses the $800,000 threshold rather than the $1,050,000 standard amount. Congress also provided for automatic inflation based adjustments beginning January 1, 2027, so the applicable amount should always be checked against the petition filing date. A project cannot obtain the reduced threshold merely by describing itself as a TEA. The geographic facts and Form I-956F record should support the classification, and the investor's subscription and capital contribution should match the amount required on the relevant filing date.

The current statute defines rural area by reference to metropolitan statistical area boundaries and the outer boundary of a city or town with 20,000 or more people based on the most recent decennial census.

A rural area is defined as an area outside a metropolitan statistical area and outside the outer boundary of any city or town with a population of 20,000 or more based on the most recent decennial census. Both conditions must be evaluated from authoritative geographic data. The project should identify the exact address, applicable MSA status, municipal boundary, and population source. A small county population or rural marketing description does not establish eligibility. Form I-956F should present the rural analysis consistently with the project location and supporting Census and OMB materials.

The RIA removed state and local authority to make the controlling post-RIA high unemployment designation.

USCIS applies the statutory census-tract and unemployment methodology.

For a high unemployment TEA, DHS determines whether the qualifying tract or tract combination meets the statutory unemployment test. The weighted average unemployment rate must be at least 150 percent of the national average using the required labor force measures. Current law restricts the geographic configuration and permits directly adjacent tracts as specified by statute. State or local officials do not make the controlling post RIA designation. The project should preserve census tract identifiers, adjacency maps, labor force data, calculations, source dates, and methodology so USCIS can reproduce the claimed designation.

Twenty percent of EB-5 visas are reserved for rural investments and 10 percent for high unemployment area investments.

Those reserved categories are distinct from the $800,000 investment threshold itself.

TEA classification also affects visa allocation. Twenty percent of annual EB-5 visas are reserved for qualifying rural investments and ten percent for qualifying high unemployment investments. Those reserved lines are distinct from the reduced investment amount even though both may arise from the same TEA classification. An investor must still satisfy all other EB-5 requirements and should monitor the current Visa Bulletin for the applicable reserved category. The project filing and investor petition should identify the classification consistently so visa planning is based on the same rural or high unemployment facts submitted to USCIS.

• Project address
• Census tract data
• OMB MSA data
• Decennial census population
• Unemployment data
• USCIS TEA analysis
• I-956F project record

A TEA file should preserve enough evidence for USCIS to reproduce the classification as of the relevant time. Rural evidence can include the project address, OMB metropolitan statistical area data, Census maps, municipal boundaries, and decennial census population. High unemployment evidence can include census tract numbers, adjacency maps, labor force and unemployment data, the national benchmark, weighted calculations, and the source date. Form I-956F should identify the same project location and TEA basis. Because investment amounts and data can change over time, the record should preserve the law and geographic evidence relied upon for the filing.