Today, January 13, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will expand upon the notice of proposed rulemaking released on January 11, 2017 by publishing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register, titled ‘EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization,’ addressing a variety of policy issues including Targeted Employment Area (TEA) designation and minimum investment amounts.  Notably, minimum investment amounts may increase from $500,000 to $1.35 million for TEA investments, and from $1 million to $1.8 million for non-TEA investments.

Changes to TEA designation include eliminating the method of designation by which states designate areas of high unemployment, and limiting how census tracts can be aggregated to qualify for high unemployment designation.  These regulatory changes will impact both EB-5 Regional Center projects and EB-5 Direct projects.  The deadline for stakeholders to submit comments on the proposals is April 11, 2017.  EB-5 investors or those interested in pursuing an EB-5 investment opportunity should consider acting quickly.