An EB-5 project sitting inside a High Unemployment Area (HUA) one day can find itself outside of one the next — and that is exactly what may have happened to some projects this week.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics just dropped its 2025 county-level labor data, and with it, the EB-5 landscape shifted. Some locations that qualified as HUAs lost that status overnight. Others that previously didn’t qualify may now be in play. For investors, developers, and regional centers with skin in the game, the implications are immediate.
Targeted Employment Areas (TEAs) are the gateway to reserved EB-5 visa set-asides, lower investment thresholds, and faster processing, which make projects more competitive for foreign capital. When the data changes, eligibility changes with it, and the legal compliance of any Form I-526E filed on or after May 19, 2026, must be measured against the new numbers.
“While this is a significant data update, many EB-5 projects will not be impacted,” said Michael Kester, economist at Impact DataSource. “This data is typically released in mid-April but was delayed due to the impacts of the 2025 government shutdown.”
The delay —consequence of the 2025 government shutdown — means the industry had less runway than usual to prepare. The data is now live, and the clock is running.
In response, Impact DataSource has immediately updated the TEA Mapping App, created in partnership with EB5 Investors Magazine, to reflect the new HUA designations.
Impact of current and future investors who chose an EB-5 project in a HUA location
Since May 19, to qualify as an HUA, a project location must have an unemployment rate at least 150% of the national average.
HUAs are one of three types of TEAs that have reserved EB-5 visas, known as set-aside categories, alongside Rural areas and Infrastructure projects. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) assesses TEA and set-aside eligibility when an EB-5 application is filed or when a project seeks official USCIS endorsement.
Applications submitted before that date are still valid. If the project’s Form I-956F has been approved, but the location’s data status changed before the investor applies, individual investors are usually protected if the main conditions of the economic project stay the same.
The update influences only those investors who file their Form I-526E on or after May 19, 2026. It also immediately impacts regional centers, developers, and project sponsors whose projects use county-level BLS “census-share” data to determine their rates.
“This update only impacts ‘census-share’ calculations for high unemployment TEAs– there is no change to ‘Rural’ TEAs and also no change to high unemployment TEAs that are based on a ‘straight ACS’ calculation,” Kester said.
The ACS survey by the U.S. Census Bureau offers detailed data on people, jobs, and housing, which is used to calculate unemployment rates and select HUAs.
Foreign investors should review their EB-5 project documents for refund clauses in the event the project loses its TEA status before filing. It’s also important to check with the project sponsor about the validity of the TEA status under the new dataset, effective May 19, 2026.
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