Minimum investment values have increased. The minimum investment for a targeted employment area (TEA) is now $900,000 USD, while the non-TEA investment minimum is $1.8 million USD. The old values were $500,000 USD and $1 million USD, respectively.
The changes are mostly to do with the definition of targeted employment areas (TEA). TEA are regions that would benefit greatly from economic investment. They are either rural or high unemployment areas. The definition of "rural" is clarified in the new rule as an area that is both 1) not a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and 2) not within the boundary of a city or town that has 20,000 or more in population, according to the most recent decennial census.
"High unemployment area" has been redefined, as well. States will no longer have the ability to designate areas within their boundaries as high unemployment. Hence, letters from the State government doing so are no longer accepted as evidence that an area is a TEA. Instead, applicants wanting to invest in a TEA must provide unemployment data for the relevant MSA, county, or town/city. A case-specific area can also be accepted as a TEA if sufficient levels of unemployment are demonstrated. This is done by calculating the average unemployment rate of the area's and adjacent area's census tracts and demonstrating that it meets the threshold of 150% of the average national unemployment rate. Accepted unemployment data can come from U.S. Census Bureau or the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The new rule includes a section on priority dates. The priority date from a previously approved EB-5 petition can be carried over to any EB-5 petition filed on or after November 21st, 2019. Petitions filed before November 21st, 2019 will be subject to the old investment standards and definition of TEA.
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