EB5 Affiliate Network Announces Redesigned Free Interactive Targeted Employment Area (TEA) Map

NEW YORK, Jan. 31, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Leading EB-5 service provider EB5 Affiliate Network (EB5AN) has redesigned its interactive targeted employment area (TEA) map to improve functionality and increase user value. The EB5AN national TEA map has been updated to reflect the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rules regarding the designation of targeted employment areas (TEAs) that came into effect on November 21, 2019. It further provides users with three calculation methods to determine whether their project sites qualify as TEAs.

For a project site to qualify as a TEA, it must be in a rural or high unemployment area. A rural area falls outside a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and a city or town with a population of 20,000 people or more, according to the latest census count. A high unemployment area has an unemployment rate of at least 150% of the national average. The EB5AN TEA map allows users to toggle between one rural TEA data set and calculation method and two separate high unemployment TEA data sets and calculation methods, namely (i) current American Community Survey (ACS) five-year data by census tract and (ii) the census-share methodology. A project site can qualify as a TEA using the rural data method or either of the two high unemployment calculation methods. A project site needs to qualify as a TEA under only one of the three.

Moreover, the EB5AN TEA Map allows users to group census tracts to create custom TEA designation areas, as allowed under the current USCIS rules. To qualify as adjacent census tracts, each tract must have a border that touches that of the census tract in which the project site is located. To determine if the combined census tract qualifies as a high unemployment TEA, the weighted average unemployment rate of the entire group of tracts can be considered.

Under the updated EB-5 rules, all TEA designations now require USCIS approval. Although USCIS has claimed that applicants can find the required data perform TEA calculations without professional assistance or special qualifications, the process is immensely complex. Most people do need assistance with TEA designation. Thus, EB5AN created its interactive TEA map as a user-friendly tool that allows EB-5 developers and investors to assess within minutes whether sites qualify as TEAs.

According to EB5AN Managing Partner Sam Silverman, "Instead of spending hours trying to find the correct sets of data that meet the USCIS requirements in terms of validity, verifiability, and internal consistency and then performing the complex calculations, users can see within minutes whether their sites qualify as TEAs, and the EB5AN TEA map covers all of the United States."

The EB5AN national TEA map can be accessed through the EB5AffiliateNetwork.com website free of charge. EB5AN also offers an independent EB-5 Project TEA Qualification Report service, with a guaranteed 72-hour turnaround time, to further streamline the EB-5 application process.

About EB5 Affiliate Network, LLC: EB5AN is a leading provider of EB-5 project consulting and regional center affiliation services. The company has worked on more than 200 EB-5 transactions across the country and has completed applications for more than 75 new regional centers. Additionally, the company owns and operates 15 USCIS-approved regional centers across 27 states with an international team from a diverse set of institutional backgrounds in both law and finance, including business strategy, private equity, securities, and real estate.

SOURCE EB5 Affiliate Network