Money and structure

High unemployment area

Also called high unemployment TEA, 150 percent area.

One of the two routes into a targeted employment area: a census tract, or contiguous census tracts, that the Secretary of Homeland Security designates as a high unemployment area because the weighted average unemployment rate across them is at least 150 percent of the national average. The other route is a rural area.

What it decides

Since 15 March 2022 only the Secretary of Homeland Security, or a designee who is a DHS employee, can make this designation, so state certification letters no longer work. The area is the census tract or contiguous census tracts where the new commercial enterprise is principally doing business, and USCIS may add any or all directly adjacent tracts. In a regional center case counting indirect jobs it is the job-creating entity, not the new commercial enterprise, whose location has to sit in the area. A designation runs two years from the date the regional center files Form I-956F, or from the time of investment for a standalone investor, and may be renewed for one or more further two-year periods. An investor who put in the $800,000 while the designation was live need not top up when it expires. The set-aside here is 10 percent, not the rural 20 percent.

Governed by 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(B)(ii): criteria at (ii)(I), bar on state and other federal designation at (ii)(II), adjacent tracts at (ii)(III), two year duration and renewal at (ii)(IV), no additional investment on expiry at (ii)(V). Set-aside at 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(B)(i)(I)(bb); targeted employment area defined at 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(D)(viii); $800,000 at 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(C)(ii). Effective date from Pub. L. 117-103, div. BB, sec. 102(a)(2) and 102(e). USCIS Policy Manual Volume 6, Part G, Chapter 2, Section A, subsection 5 (https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-6-part-g-chapter-2)

Where this is explained properly

Pages here that go into high unemployment area rather than mentioning it.

Related terms

Targeted employment areaA targeted employment area, or TEA, is a rural area or an area the Secretary of Homeland Security has designated as a high unemployment area, and an EB-5 investment placed in one requires $800,000 of capital rather than $1,050,000. An investment in an infrastructure project reaches the same $800,000 by a separate route without being a TEA.
Rural areaOne of the two routes into a targeted employment area: an area that is both outside every metropolitan statistical area and outside the outer boundary of any city or town of 20,000 or more people.
High employment areaA high employment area is a part of a metropolitan statistical area that, at the time of investment, is not a targeted employment area and has an unemployment rate significantly below the national average. It is the statutory opposite of a high unemployment area, but it carries no price premium today: an investment there requires the standard $1,050,000, the same as any investment outside a targeted employment area or infrastructure project.
Visa set-asidesThe reserved slices of each fiscal year's EB-5 visa numbers: 20 percent for investment in a rural area, 10 percent for a high unemployment area and 2 percent for infrastructure projects, so 32 percent reserved and 68 percent unreserved.
Form I-956FForm I-956F, Application for Approval of an Investment in a Commercial Enterprise, is the application a designated regional center must file for each particular investment offering before any investor may petition on that offering.

Checked against primary sources on 6 August 2026. Back to the glossary