Money and structure
Metropolitan statistical area
Also called MSA.
The county-based statistical geography that the Office of Management and Budget builds around an urban area of 50,000 or more. Land inside an MSA can never be a rural area for EB-5, however empty it looks, but a micropolitan statistical area is not an MSA and does not by itself defeat a rural claim.
What it decides
A metropolitan statistical area is a core based statistical area that OMB delineates around at least one Census Bureau urban area of 50,000 or more, made up of the central county or counties holding that core plus outlying counties tied to it by commuting, at a threshold of 25 percent of workers in either direction. It governs EB-5 because 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(D)(vii) defines a rural area as any area outside an MSA as designated by the Director of OMB and outside the outer boundary of any city or town of 20,000 or more at the most recent decennial census. Those are two independent bars. An outlying county can be nearly empty and still fail the first, while a site outside every MSA in the country still fails the second if it sits inside the boundary of a town of 20,000 or more. The mirror image matters just as much: a micropolitan statistical area, built on an urban area of at least 10,000 but under 50,000, is a CBSA but not an MSA, so its counties can still be rural. Rural status is what carries the $800,000 investment amount and the 20 percent rural visa set-aside, so a false negative here is expensive. To test a claim, find the county where the new commercial enterprise, or for a regional center petition the job-creating entity, is principally doing business in OMB Bulletin No. 23-01 of 21 July 2023, the current delineation, then check the population of any city or town whose boundary covers the site. Targeted employment area status is measured at the time of investment.
Where this is explained properly
Pages here that go into metropolitan statistical area rather than mentioning it.
Related terms
- Census tractA census tract is a Census Bureau statistical subdivision of a county or county equivalent, generally holding 1,200 to 8,000 people, and the unit from which a high unemployment targeted employment area is built.
- Minimum investment amount$800,000 for an investment in a targeted employment area or in an infrastructure project, and $1,050,000 for every other investment, set by 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(C) (INA 203(b)(5)(C)). The amount that applies is the one in force on the date the petition is filed.
- Priority processing for rural projectsThe statutory instruction that USCIS prioritise the processing and adjudication of EB-5 petitions for rural areas, which moves a case up the assignment queue and changes nothing about the standard for approval.
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