The overall EB-5 immigrant investor program was created by Congress via the immigration Act of 1990 with a clear purchase: to encourage foreign investors to invest significant fund in the US economy by offering lawful permanent   resident status (a green card) to serious investors whose activities resulted in the creation of jobs for US workers. The EB-5 is not the only investment-based visa option, but it is the only one that enables the investor to apply directly for permanent resident status in exchange for significant investment in the US economy. Investors could invest in 3 different ways. 1. Invest $1 million and hire ten employees anywhere in the USA 2. Invest $500,000 and hire ten employees in an area where the unemployment rate exceeds the national average unemployment rate by 150% 3. Invest into a Government designed Regional Center and avoid direct employment. (which will be discussed in another section ) The required capital investment is a very important factor in gaining approval for any EB-5 investment visa petition. Generally speaking , the required level of capital for the standard EB-5 program is minimum investment of $ 1.000,000 However, the standard program  does authorize a smaller investment of $500,000 if the investment is made and the enterprise operated in designated targeted employment area or a rural area. A targeted employment area is one that is economically disadvantaged with an unemployment rate 50 present above the national unemployment rate. In order to qualify as a rural area the area mush have a population no larger than twenty thousand inhabitants, and must not fall within a larger metropolitan statistical area. If you are willing to invest in and locate your business in one of these areas, the required investment amount drops by half to $ 500.000. The ramifications of investing in such an area, given that the investor must actively direct and develop the business in person, are that he or she must then live in or near the targeted employment area or the rural area. (One advantage of the EB-5 regional center is that the investor does not have to live anywhere near the investment business because he or she does not have to manage the business on a daily basis.)