Ez8a – 8a Who is Socially Disadvantaged?

8a Socially Disadvantaged Groups

One of the largest hurdles for any business owner that would like to obtain their 8a certification is proving their Social Disadvantage Status. In order to be classified as socially disadvantageat least 25% of your heritage must come from one of the following geographic locations listed below under “Presumed Socially Disadvantaged Groups”. The greater the percentage of a person’s heritage being presumed the less evidence the SBA will require in proving the person to be Socially Disadvantaged. (Native American Indians do not have the 25% heritage requirement, instead they must be in possession of a tribal card.) Below are the lists of groups that are classified by the SBA asSocially Disadvantaged:

Presumed Socially Disadvantage Groups

Native Americans – Red Box, Persons from the contiguous 48 states who are members of an American Indian Tribe as evidenced by a tribal card.A person with at least 25% of their heritage from a Native Alaskan such as Eskimos, and Aleuts.A person with at least 25% of their heritage from Hawaii (Native Hawaiians).

Black Americans – Orange Box, Persons with heritage from the Continent of Africa.

Hispanic Americans – Green Box, Persons with heritage from Central America, South America or the Iberian Peninsula.

Asian Pacific Americans – Blue Box, Persons with heritage from Japan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, Samoa, Guam, U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands [Republic of Palau], Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Laos, Cambodia [Kampuchea], Taiwan; Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Macao, Hong Kong, Fiji, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu, or Nauru.

Subcontinent Asian – Purple Box, Persons with heritage from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives Islands or Nepal.

Non-Presumed Groups

These are persons given a strong preponderance of evidence of past discrimination, who can in many cases, successfully apply for the 8a certification.

Non Presumed Socially Disadvantaged Individuals – Yellow Box, Persons with heritage from areas outlined in Yellow are not in a SBA presumed group; however, in some cases social bias and past discrimination can be proven for these people causing them to become eligible.

Caucasian Women as well as Service Disabled Veterans with a service connected disability greater than 30%.