California Targeted Employment Area Designation

In accordance with Title 8, Code of Federal Regulations Section 204.6(i), the California Employment Development Department has been delegated the authority by the State of California to designate the cities, counties, metropolitan statistical areas, and geopolitical subdivisions (census tracts) that meet the “high unemployment” definition and therefore qualify for the $500,000 minimum investment threshold as TEAs for EB-5 program purposes.  Unemployment rates for cities, counties and census tracts are published annually.

The State of California has decided to use the most recent calendar year labor force and unemployment estimates to establish high unemployment rates and high unemployment areas; therefore, the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency is currently using data for 2009 in these determinations.

If you have a specific address in mind, you will need to determine your census tract number.

For California areas and cities see attached documents.

Once you have selected an area, you can either request a State issued determination or submit the data with the petition to USCIS and USCIS can make the determination on TEA.