You are hereFrequently Asked Questions / EB-5 Law & Related U.S. Law / [Q] What type of EB-5 project permits $500,000 USD investment rather than $1 Million USD?
[Q] What type of EB-5 project permits $500,000 USD investment rather than $1 Million USD?
Under the EB-5 law, the EB-5 project has to be either Targeted Employment Area or Rural Area, to permit only $500,000 USD investment. Definitions of these terms are as follows:
Rural area
means any area not within either a metropolitan statistical area (as designated by the Office of Management and Budget) or the outer boundary of any city or town having a population of 20,000 or more.
Targeted employment area
means an area which, at the time of investment, is a rural area or an area which has experienced unemployment of at least 150 per cent of the national average rate.
Since the TEA concept includes rural area concept, the simple answer is that the EB-5 project has to be a TEA area project. Note being a Regional Center EB-5 project has nothing to do with the amount of investment required; it has to do with the way the requisite jobs can be created.
A targeted employment area is one of two things: 1.) an area of high unemployment (150% or higher of national average) OR 2.) a rural area which is and area that is BOTH outside an MSA and outside any community (city/town/village/whatever)with a population of 20,000 or more.
NOTE: Numerous small communities exist inside MSAs and they do not qualify as rural because of that fact. Some small Maryland or Virginia suburb of DC may have a population under 20K but it certainly is NOT rural.
Yes, I agree. Because of this definition of TEA (which some would argue is outdated), many deserving areas or pockets of areas within MSA area or city or county that need economic development cannot be classified as TEA area. Rather unfortunate, because we all know pockets of areas even within relatively affluent areas which need economic development.