EB-5: USCIS to Begin Deferring to States’ Designations on Targeted Employment Areas

Effective immediately, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) will defer to a state’s designation of the boundaries of the geographic or political subdivision that will be a targeted employment area (“TEA”). Director Alejandro Mayorkas announced in a public teleconference this past week that although USCIS will now defer to the state’s designation, it still must ensure compliance with the statutory requirement that the proposed TEA has an unemployment rate of at least 150 percent of the national average rate.

A TEA is a rural area or a non-rural area that has experienced high unemployment (150 percent of the national average unemployment rate during a comparable 12-month period). If an EB-5 Regional Center project is located in a TEA, the alien investor may invest $500,000 rather than a $1,000,000 investment, in the project to pursue conditional residence status.

The public teleconference was made in relation to the Director’s well placed efforts to improve the EB-5 Investor Program. These efforts are furthered by the newly released draft memorandum, “A Work in Progress: Towards a New Draft Policy Memorandum Guiding EB-5 Adjudications.” USCIS is seeking review and comments on the draft memorandum from EB-5 stakeholders, attorneys and interested parties who would like to share their ideas to better the program. The draft memorandum may be found here, and comments may be submitted to public.engagement@dhs.gov. Comments will be accepted through December 9, 2011.

Sarah D. Monty is a partner and the lead immigration attorney for the immigration section at Monty & Ramirez LLP.

Contact Information:
Email: smonty@montyramirezlaw.com
Telephone: 281.493.5529
Website: http://www.montyramirezlaw.com/