CERTIFICATIONS

 To be eligible for Minority-Owned CERTIFICATIONS, your business must: 

State Level: MBE (Minority Business Enterprise)

You are a United States citizens.

Minority businesses must be at least 51% minority-owned operated and controlled. For the purposes of the certification, a minority group member is an individual who is at least 25% Asian, Black, Hispanic or Native American.**

Must be a for profit small business and physically located in the U. S. or its trust territories.

Management and daily operations must be exercised by the minority ownership member(s).

**Minority eligibility is established via a combination of screenings, interviews and site visits. Ownership, in the case of a publicly-owned business, means that at least 51% of the stock is owned by one or more minority group members.

To be eligible for Veteran-Owned CERTIFICATIONS, your business must:

Federal level: VSOB (Veteran Owned Small Business) SD/VOSB (Service Disabled)

Be at least 51% owned and controlled by veterans who are U.S. citizens

Have veteran(s) manage day-to-day operations and control management

To be eligible for the DBE CERTIFICATIONS, your business must:

State Level: Disadvantage Business Enterprise)

The firm is a for-profit business that performs or seeks to perform transportation related work.

The firm is at least 51% owned by socially & economically disadvantaged individual(s) who also controls it.

The firm’s disadvantaged owners are U.S. citizens or lawfully admitted permanent residents of the U.S.

The firm meets the Small Business Administration’s size standard and does not exceed 23.98 million in grow annual receipts for DBE ($56.42 million for ACDBEs). (Other size standard apply for ACDBE that are banks/financial institutions, car rental companies, pay telephone firms and automobile dealers.

Disadvantaged : You may be eligible if you are a member of a group of persons the Department considers as disadvantaged. The Department presumes certain groups are disadvantaged, including women, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Asian-Pacific Americans, Subcontinent Asian-Pacific Americans, or other minorities found to be disadvantaged by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

Business Size Determination : It must not have annual gross receipts over $22,410,000 in the previous three fiscal years ($52,470,000 for airport concessionaires in general with some exceptions)

To be eligible for the DBE CERTIFICATIONS, your business must:

Personal Net Worth: Only disadvantaged persons having a personal net worth of less than $1.32 million can be considered as a potential qualified DBE. Items excluded from a person's net worth calculation include an individual's ownership interest in the applicant firm and his or her equity in their primary residence.

Independence: Only an independent business may be certified as a DBE. An independent business is one the viability of which does not depend on its relationship with another firm or firms.

Control: A disadvantaged owner seeking certification must possess the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of the firm. The owner must also have an overall understanding of, and managerial and technical competence and experience directly related to, the type of business in which the firm is engaged.

Burden of Proof Allocation: Applicants carry the initial burden of proof regarding their eligibility and must demonstrate that they meet all requirements concerning group membership or individual disadvantage, business size, ownership, and control.