Identifying Qualified Targeted Employment Areas in Iowa

This outline and accompanying lists are provided to help immigrant-investors, regional centers, developers and others interested in the EB-5 program to identify areas where the $500,000 per immigrant-investor applies. This listing is posted only as a reference tool. Official certifications will be issued on an individual basis.

Option 1: Rural Qualification

A rural area is defined in the Immigration Act of 1990 as “any area not within either a metropolitan statistical area (as designated by the Office of Management and Budget) or the outer boundary of any city or town having a population of 20,000 or more.” No TEA designation of “rural areas” is required.

The following is a list of counties qualifying as “rural.” (Cities with populations of 20,000 or more are listed in parentheses.)

Adair, Adams, Allamakee, Appanoose, Audubon, Boone, Buchanan, Buena Vista, Butler, Calhoun, Carroll, Cass, Cedar, Cerro Gordo (Not Mason City), Cherokee, Chickasaw, Clarke, Clay, Clayton, Clinton (Not Clinton City), Crawford, Davis, Decatur, Delaware, Des Moines (Not Burlington City), Dickinson, Emmet, Fayette Floyd, Franklin, Fremont, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Howard, Humboldt, Ida, Iowa, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Keokuk, Kossuth, Lee, Louisa, Lucas, Lyon, Mahaska, Marion, Marshall (Not Marshalltown City), Mitchell, Monona, Monroe, Montgomery, Muscatine (Not Muscatine City), O'Brien, Osceola, Page, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Poweshiek, Ringgold, Sac, Shelby, Sioux, Tama, Taylor, Union, Van Buren, Wapello (Not Ottumwa), Wayne, Webster (Not Fort Dodge), Winnebago, Winneshiek, Worth, Wright

Updated data on MSAs by the Office of Management and Budget are located on the U.S. Census Bureau website and information on current city and town populations.

Option 2: Qualifying Cities and Counties

If a project does not qualify under the rural designation, it might qualify as a TEA based on local unemployment data. The following is a list of areas that automatically qualify as high unemployment. The data used for this analysis comes from the 2016 American Community Survey 5-year averages produced by the Bureau Economic Analysis and the 2017 Local Area Unemployment Statistics produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, using the census share method. Certifications will be issued on an individual basis.

Option 3: Qualifying Census Tracts

If an entire city or county doesn’t qualify, projects in certain census tracts with high unemployment may. The 2016 American Community Survey 5-year averages produced by the Bureau Economic Analysis and the 2017 Local Area Unemployment Statistics produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are the data sources also used for this determination. To learn if your project is in a qualifying census tract, first determine which census tract (based on 2010 mapping) in which your project is located. To do this, follow these instructions:

Instructions for locating your Census Tract

  1. Visit the American FactFinder website
  2. Select Geographies, then click the “Map” tab
  3. From the drop down menu of “Display Boundaries and Features from”, select 2010 and then click on “2010 Census Tract” for the “Boundary” and “Label” column. Click “Update”.
  4. Search for your address or city in the “Find a Location” tab.

Once the Census Tract in which your project is located has been found, search the list to see if the Census Tract qualifies.

Listing of Qualifying Census Tracts

Option 4: Combining Areas to Qualify

If a project doesn’t qualify using any of the above methods, it may be designated a TEA if it is part of a geographic or political subdivision of a county or city, made up of a contiguous combination of census tracts. To learn if a project may qualify in this manner, please contact us directly for a thorough analysis of the project location.

To learn more:

Lisa Connell
515.348.6163

IOWA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITYPage | 1