Before the Reform and Integrity Act, rural America was largely absent from the EB-5 story. The program’s capital flowed primarily to major metropolitan markets, New York above all others, while rural communities received a fraction of the investment Congress had always hoped EB-5 could deliver. The RIA changed that, deliberately and decisively.
In Part 5 of CanAm Enterprises’ six-part webinar series, EB-5 After the RIA, CanAm COO Christine Chen, Aaron Grau, IIUSA’s Executive Director, and Lee Li, IIUSA’s Director of Policy Research and Data Analytics, walk through the numbers behind rural EB-5’s remarkable post-RIA growth. The data tells a story of transformation: six to seven times more rural projects, $354 million in historical rural investment growing to more than $5 billion in just three years, and 133,000 jobs created in communities that had never before benefited from this program.
For investors, for Congress, and for the long-term case for EB-5 reauthorization, these numbers matter enormously.
Priority Processing in Practice: Rural vs. Urban TEA Adjudication Times
One of the RIA’s most significant incentives for rural investment was the introduction of priority processing for rural petitions. But “priority” is a relative term, and until recently, the industry lacked real data to quantify what it actually meant in practice.
IIUSA filled that gap by collecting and analyzing more than 5,500 I-526E cases from member regional centers, representing over 55% of all post-RIA filings. The findings provide the industry’s first statistically grounded picture of rural versus urban TEA processing times.
The headline numbers: rural cases average eight months to approval, while urban high unemployment area (HUA) cases average eleven months. But Li urged caution about treating that three-month gap at face value.
“The difference is only three months on the surface, but you need to look at how large each data sample is. For rural, we have approximately 1,200 approvals in our sample. For urban TEA, those eleven months come from only 220 approved cases. That is a much smaller sample, and it does not yet capture the many pending urban TEA cases that have been waiting over a year. When those cases eventually receive approval, that eleven-month average will definitely increase.”
— Lee Li, Director of Policy Research and Data Analytics, IIUSA
The raw approval percentages reinforce the point. Approximately 40% of rural cases filed under the RIA have already been approved. For urban HUA cases, that figure is far lower, with the majority of filings still pending. Rural priority processing is not just a marketing term; the data shows it is a meaningful and measurable advantage.
The Rural EB-5 Investment Surge: By the Numbers
To understand the scale of rural EB-5 growth since the RIA, the numbers need to be seen in historical context. Before 2022, rural EB-5 investment had accumulated slowly over the program’s entire history.
The transformation since the RIA is striking across every metric:
- Number of rural projects
6 to 7 times more rural projects are now active compared to the pre-RIA period. - Total EB-5 investment in rural areas
$354 million invested across the program’s entire pre-RIA history has grown to more than $5 billion in just three years. - Total private capital mobilized
Because EB-5 capital typically represents only a portion of a project’s capital stack, the estimated total private capital deployed in rural EB-5 projects since the RIA exceeds $13.6 billion. - Jobs created
More than 133,000 jobs have been created in rural areas through post-RIA EB-5 investment.
“In just three years after the RIA, rural EB-5 investment has increased more than fifteen times compared to everything that came before it. And with all the other capital combined, we estimate over $13.6 billion in total private capital has been invested in rural EB-5 projects. The job creation numbers are outstanding.”
— Lee Li, Director of Policy Research and Data Analytics, IIUSA
Li added that the full economic impact of rural EB-5 investment is almost certainly larger than what the data currently captures, since USCIS does not publish investment data by state or region. The figures above come entirely from IIUSA’s member-contributed dataset, and Li encouraged all regional centers to participate in expanding that dataset.
Why Rural EB-5 Impact Is Proportionally Greater
Chen noted that the significance of rural investment extends well beyond raw dollar figures. In smaller rural economies with lower populations and historically depressed wages, the downstream economic multiplier effects of concentrated investment tend to be more pronounced than in major urban markets.
“One of the longtime criticisms of EB-5 was that it wasn’t going into other areas. It was going to the same places like New York City over and over again. But now you can see where the establishment of the rural set-aside category has motivated so much investment into rural areas. In smaller rural economies that don’t see as much downstream activity as a big urban city, the economic impacts are going to be even greater.”
— Christine Chen, Chief Operating Officer, CanAm Enterprises
This dynamic makes rural EB-5 investment particularly compelling as an advocacy argument for reauthorization. Job creation in rural areas carries significant weight with members of Congress, including those from states and districts that have historically been skeptical of the program.
How the RIA Reshaped Urban TEA Investment
The RIA’s impact was not limited to rural investment. The law also changed the definition of targeted employment areas, eliminating the census tract gerrymandering that had allowed major metropolitan projects to qualify as high unemployment areas despite being located in economically strong neighborhoods.
Before the RIA, mega-cities dominated EB-5 investment. New York alone accounted for 27% of all capital invested in the program’s history. Under the old TEA rules, developers could combine non-contiguous census tracts to create qualifying zones in affluent urban areas, concentrating EB-5 capital in markets that had no shortage of other financing options.
“The RIA changed the definition of high-unemployment areas by eliminating gerrymandering. No more combining irregularly shaped census tracts to qualify as an urban TEA. With the new definition, we can see that a lot of urban TEA projects right now are actually located in smaller cities that genuinely suffer from high unemployment. New York’s share of EB-5 investment has dropped from 27% before the RIA to around 5% now. The distribution of investment is much more equitable.”
— Lee Li, Director of Policy Research and Data Analytics, IIUSA
This shift represents exactly what Congress intended when it redesigned TEA eligibility. EB-5 capital is now reaching communities that genuinely need the investment and job creation the program was always designed to deliver.
Why This Data Matters for Reauthorization
The rural investment and job creation numbers are not just good news for current investors. They are the central argument for why the EB-5 program deserves permanent reauthorization in 2027.
Congress built rural set-asides and anti-gerrymandering provisions into the RIA with explicit goals: direct more capital to underserved communities, create jobs where they are needed most, and eliminate the program abuses that had drawn criticism for years. The data now shows those goals have been achieved, and by a significant margin.
“I think it’s incredibly important to show Congress that the intentions of the RIA have been successfully met. They’ve been met. They’re just tremendously successful. Anyone who has a regional center, or anyone who has invested in a regional center project, should contribute this data to IIUSA. It will be incredibly important as everyone continues to have meetings on the Hill and make the case that this program is doing exactly what it was set out to do.”
— Christine Chen, Chief Operating Officer, CanAm Enterprises
Chen and Li are also working toward an interactive public map that would show EB-5 project locations and economic impact data state by state, giving Congressional representatives a direct, visual tool for understanding what EB-5 has meant to their districts. That kind of evidence-based advocacy will be essential as the 2027 reauthorization debate approaches.
Conclusion: The Numbers Make the Case
The rural EB-5 story since the RIA is one of the strongest arguments for the program’s long-term future. Six to seven times more rural projects. Fifteen times more rural investment. $13.6 billion in total private capital deployed. 133,000 jobs created. These are not incremental improvements; they represent a fundamental reorientation of where and how EB-5 delivers its benefits.
For investors, the data reinforces the case for rural EB-5 projects: better processing times, reserved visa allocations that reduce backlog risk, and bipartisan political support that strengthens the program’s long-term stability.
In the final installment of this series, Part 6 examines what all of this means for EB-5 reauthorization in 2027, including IIUSA’s roadmap to permanent authorization and why the program is in its strongest political position in decades.
Ready to Invest with Confidence in a Post-RIA World?
CanAm Enterprises has been helping EB-5 investors navigate every phase of the program for over 20 years. With a 100% USCIS project approval rate across 75+ projects and 15 I-956F approvals under the RIA, our track record speaks for itself.
- $4B+ raised in EB-5 capital
- $2.5B+ returned to EB-5 investors
- 8,000+ investors served across 30+ years
- 16,900+ conditional green cards and 9,300+ permanent green cards
- Rural, urban TEA, and infrastructure projects across 30+ U.S. states
Contact our team to discuss how CanAm’s projects align with your immigration and investment goals.
Email: info@canamenterprises.com | Phone: +1 (212) 668-0690
About the Speakers
Christine Chen
Chief Operating Officer, CanAm Enterprises
Christine Chen serves as COO of CanAm Enterprises, one of the longest-operating regional centers in the EB-5 industry. She oversees operations and investor relations across a portfolio that has raised over $4 billion in EB-5 capital and facilitated more than 17,000 conditional green cards and over 3,000 I-829 approvals.
Aaron Grau
Executive Director, IIUSA
Aaron Grau is the Executive Director of Invest in the USA (IIUSA), the national trade association for the EB-5 Regional Center Program. IIUSA leads industry advocacy, education, and policy research to support continued program growth and integrity.
Lee Li
Director of Policy Research & Data Analytics, IIUSA
Lee Li is the Director of Policy Research & Data Analytics at IIUSA, where he leads the organization’s data collection and analysis efforts. His research provides the EB-5 industry with critical insights into filing trends, processing times, and program performance.
