EB5AN Releases 2022 Updated EB-5 TEA Map with Instant TEA Letter Report

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, July 29, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — EB5 Affiliate Network (EB5AN), a leading EB-5 regional center operator, consultancy, and fund manager, has released a new version of its Targeted Employment Area (TEA) Map. This free tool has been updated with the latest demographic statistics, providing EB-5 investors and project developers with an easy way to determine whether any location in the United States qualifies as a TEA and instantly order an EB-5 TEA analysis and qualification report.

In the EB-5 industry, businesses located in TEAs are eligible to receive a reduced investment amount of $800,000 as opposed to the standard amount of $1,050,000. This arrangement propels demand for the EB-5 visa while increasing the amount of funding available to U.S. businesses and construction projects. Moreover, under the recently-enacted EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, new investors in TEA projects may now be eligible for a reserved EB-5 visa, which can help investors from certain countries immigrate to the United States significantly faster than before. (Certain kinds of public infrastructure projects also qualify for the reduced investment amount and for reserved visas.)

There are two categories of TEAs: rural and high unemployment. A location is considered a rural TEA if it is not within a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) or on the border of a municipality with a population of 20,000 or more. This TEA classification grants investors the added benefit of faster processing for Form I-526, the first application in the visa process.

High-unemployment TEAs must have an unemployment rate that is at least 150% of the national average.

A project site qualifies as a TEA if its census tract—the statistical subdivision in which it is located—meets the above criteria for either rural or high-unemployment status. In some cases, contiguous and adjacent census tracts can be combined to form a larger high-unemployment TEA if the single tract in which the project is located does not qualify.

EB-5 applicants who would like to invest only $800,000 will have to submit evidence to USCIS that their project is in a TEA. Calculating TEA eligibility can be time-consuming, as USCIS requires the information to be up to date, extracted from reliable sources, and internally consistent.

The EB5AN TEA Map simplifies this process, using USCIS-approved methodologies for calculating TEA eligibility. For rural areas, the TEA Map uses MSA data from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and the 2020 U.S. census to verify the area’s population.

For high-unemployment TEAs, the EB5AN TEA Map draws on five-year data from the American Community Survey (ACS), which collects unemployment statistics by census tract. ACS data is also combined with county-level Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) to create a one-year unemployment rate average.

In its latest version, our map has been updated with ACS statistics released in March 2022 and LAUS data published in April. USCIS requires investors to use the latest available data to justify their project’s TEA designation, so these updates will help many more projects obtain TEA designation. In addition, the EB5AN TEA Map automatically combines census tracts when possible and calculates the resulting unemployment average.

Users will enjoy our map’s straightforward, fast interface. In a matter of seconds, they can find out whether their project is in a TEA by typing any U.S. address into the search bar. Unlike other TEA databases, the map loads instantly, is free to use, and does not require user registration.

The EB5AN TEA Map also gives users the option of instantly ordering a detailed TEA analysis and qualification report that explains the calculations behind a site’s TEA designation and displays a map of the census tract(s) along with relevant statistics. This is an ideal document to submit as proof of TEA status.

Investors, business owners, and other members of the EB-5 industry are encouraged to use the EB5AN TEA Map to plan their EB-5 projects and qualify for the many benefits of TEA designation.

Enquiries should be sent by e-mail to info@eb5an.com.

Sam Silverman
EB5 Affiliate Network
+1 8002889138
email us here