E-1 Visa or other options to open up a business in the USA

[Aug88 0]

Hello Everyone,

 

I am opening up this topic with the question what might be best for me to do and visa process i should follow or pursue.

 

My current situation is as following; I am a resident of The Netherlands and a business owner, I am currently in America and visited California and Colorado, now since I am a Dutch citizen I only require a ESTA to travel and can stay up to 90 days.

My business back in The Netherlands is house flipping, I renovate houses, but specialize in the replacement of windows and doors from wood, aluminum and vinyl. 

Now when I was in California i met several parties who were interested in my products and i setup a small presentation with price examples and product descriptions and we came to the conclusion these products indeed would be great for the American market.

So we made a small order for examples and such in order to give a proper demonstration of the products.

Now a friend of mine who lives in California, Himself not having much knowledge of this business  wants to setup a business with me and hope we get things rolling from there, but this requires me to travel back and forth and I know my ESTA has it's limitations

however I found a E-2 visa but that requires me to invest a great deal of money which I do not have, however my friend will cover most of the finances but needs my expertise and experience in the business.

In short, I bring in (export) a product to the USA and we want to setup a business between The Netherlands and the US, I will be a co-owner in this new business which will be setup by us both.

 

I spend a while browsing the web and the only thing that comes even remotely close to what I need is a E-1 visa because our country has a treaty for business and travel, aside from that I am clueless what to do and hope I will find some answers here

 

Best Regards

 

Lucien

[randomstairs 304]

Since you are not intending to work in the US, the E-2 visa would not be appropriate. B-1 visa is the one that should work for you. It allows you to travel and do business with your company but not to work. ESTA should cover the same range of activities but if you're planing to travel back and forth, the B-1 is probably safer. (It's my understanding that applying for B-1/2 is more difficult with ESTA countries for some reason.) 

[Aug88 0]

 

18 minutes ago, randomstairs said:

Since you are not intending to work in the US, the E-2 visa would not be appropriate. B-1 visa is the one that should work for you. It allows you to travel and do business with your company but not to work. ESTA should cover the same range of activities but if you're planing to travel back and forth, the B-1 is probably safer. (It's my understanding that applying for B-1/2 is more difficult with ESTA countries for some reason.) 

Hi Randomstairs, thank you for your replay, my apologies i forgot to mention that the ultimate goal is to be working at the business in the US, I will be a co-owner and do sales and such, or even installation when required, I do the same back in The Netherlands.

At some point I would be required to stay and make this my main office and oversee all the activities as my partner has several business in other branches for himself, I hope this clarifies my intentions more

 

Edited January 15, 2018 by Aug88
quote

[randomstairs 304]

You will not be able to do this kind of work for your company on any non-immigrant visa. You can hire US citizens, LPRs or H1Bs to do the work but you cannot do it yourself. In fact, the ownership of the company (even if partial) makes it very difficult for the company to sponsor you for H1B or L-1 (which are the types of visas you would need in order to carry out the activities you're listing).  If starting a small business were enough to get a work permit, everyone would be doing it. Now if what you do is so skillful, such an art, that the company could not find, with reasonable efforts, a US worker, you can try H1B, or even EB2-NIW. But it's a long shot. 

Best I can suggest is to grow your company, hire more people, capitalize more and then go for E-2.  Sorry if this doesn't help you much. Best luck!

 

[Boiler 45,712]

Judging from what you are planning to do the E2 seems the obvious call.

 

Will the Dutch business continue?

[Aug88 0]

12 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Judging from what you are planning to do the E2 seems the obvious call.

 

Will the Dutch business continue?

The dutch business will continue untill the American one has stabelized and generates good revenue. We even considered the option of opening up a branch of my business in the US under the same name. I agree a E2 visa is the most obvious choice but a rather expensive one at that. I've been looking over the web consulting people for a while now and it ain't easy, guess my only luck is i am in a country that has a business treaty. My goal is when we have our business running i would visit potential business clients to sell our products to, ofcourse i rather leave the other work like installation and such to employers we hire. I was merely stating the fact that as of now i take all these tasks upon my self back at home

[Boiler 45,712]

Perhaps schedule a meeting with an Immigration Lawyer to discuss your business, your plans and of there is an option.

[randomstairs 304]

15 minutes ago, Aug88 said:

The dutch business will continue untill the American one has stabelized and generates good revenue. We even considered the option of opening up a branch of my business in the US under the same name. I agree a E2 visa is the most obvious choice but a rather expensive one at that. I've been looking over the web consulting people for a while now and it ain't easy, guess my only luck is i am in a country that has a business treaty. My goal is when we have our business running i would visit potential business clients to sell our products to, ofcourse i rather leave the other work like installation and such to employers we hire. I was merely stating the fact that as of now i take all these tasks upon my self back at home

Meeting potential clients and presenting your company's products are the kind of activities covered by the B-1 visa. As long as you don't do any work (managerial or any other work for which a USC can be hired) you should be fine. If the consular officer gets too grumpy or if the PoE officers don't like it when you travel back and forth very often, you can always do the E-2. I don't know anything about the E-1 so that may be a better option... Time to invest in legal advice, as Boiler suggested?