O1 Visa and PR Journey, getting started to end

[O1+EB5 0]

Hello all,

 

I am going to create this thread to document my entire journey from getting started to eventually getting PR for US.

 

Here is the plan right for now

• Apply for O1 Visa in next 6 months (Before April 2021 or so)
• Also apply for EB5 within 2021
• Extend O1 couple of times and hopefully get PR under EB5 by then

 

Here are some key points about my profile

• 32 year old male from India, married with a 6 year old kid
• Have B1/B2 visa for last 14 years and have been traveling regularly (couple of times a year)
• Have at least 12 years of running businesses and would be very comfortable investing $900,000 in a business that's run by employees/friends and i just oversee the operations

 

O1 Visa

I definitely think i have extra ordinary abilities in the field of business but i never bothered to document these and that's why i am going to take next 3-6 months to build a case and eventually apply for O1 Visa. Currently i have a company in US that was started last year and is very profitable business and the criteria i will try to hit for O1 are follow:

 

• Press articles in major media publications - i have cold email/call many journalists to write about my start up and my story and couple of them have already agreed, i think i should have first article in a NICHE publication by end of next week. The goal is to have at least 20 or so articles in the publications before applying for O1 Visa
• Judge an event or be on Panel - I have spent a lot of time in my industry and consider myself very knowledgeable in my field. I have a PR firm that is emailing/contacting events world wide in my industry to see if they will invite me to be a judge or on panel of such event.
• Membership in prestigious organizations - I have couple of VC firms that are already interested in investing the company but i hate to give up equity just for visa purposes. I do not need investment, i am happy to pour in my own money and just take the risk but i might have to do VC just for sake of Visa. I am also trying to contact other organizations for such memberships and should be able to get them, just not sure which ones are considered prestigious by Visa officers.

 

I do not know how i am going to handle the issue of having board of directors, since this is 100% owned by me at the moment. We will talk about it when we get there i guess. I am thinking if i do have board of directors, i might also be able to add the salary criteria making it 4 instead of 3 out of 8.

 

P.S. I am working with a very experienced O1 attorney that has a money back guarantee if the visa is not approved. Money back guarantee is not important but the fact that some of my friends worked with this attorney and got approval is good confidence booster.

 

EB5 visa

I have the money ready in my Bank accounts in India and i am trying to get some answers before i invest, here is my general take of EB5

 

• I do not want to go through a regional center, because of following reasons
  • They do not provide any return on investment. At this stage in my life i can not afford to put away a million dollars for 5 years without it making me anything.
  • I can do better with a Direct investment in all senses. Not only will i be able to generate profits, build brand and all, i might also be able to sell the business for worth alot more if i do not wish to run in after EB5 PR
  • The money is at Risk with EB5, you can lose it all and not get PR in some cases, chance of that happening are very low with direct investment, at least for me.
• Thoughts on direct investment businesses.
  • Gas station in State of Ohio - I know many owners who operates gas stations (between 1 to 25) and most of these owners are associates because of my other businesses and will be happy to help. But lately i have been learning its hard to build a gas station from scratch specially with approvals from the city/county.
  • Car wash in LA area - This is a fun one. One of my long term business associate is interested in running this project. So we are looking at building this from scratch and running it, plus this can easily hire 10 full time employees.
  • Bakery business - I was discussing EB5 with some one last night and they suggested i meet this bakery owner in central california who is running a very sucessful business for few years now with 50 or so employees. It will look something like this, i set up a company that buys the store, invest to get the business going and he runs the business. we will agree on fixed payout to me and everything else is his profit, i am guesstimating 10-20k a month
  • Franchise restaurant in ohio or california - This could be an easy option because it employs a lot of people and usually not that complicated to start. Blaze pizza comes to mind.
     
• Questions for EB5 - These are things i need to discuss with an attorney but if you guys have any answers, please suggest
  • Loan for EB5 - I Understand the money can be borrowed but does that mean i can bring lets say 500k from India and take 400k loan from US bank and it will be considered 900k at risk
  • Co signer - Since i do not have status in US, most of the banks won't be willing to lend anything to a C corporation i will be setting up but what happens if i get a co signer? Is that loan ok or are they now considered business owners and that not good for EB5.
  • Hard money - is that ok without co signer?
  • Jobs bank - If we build a business from scratch, lets say a car wash - How long does the construction jobs needs to be there to be considered as qualified 10 jobs for EB5?

 

I will continue to update this thread if and when i get updates.

 

Thank you

[Boiler 45,520]

Why do you not go for something in your area of extraordinary expertise, rather than messing with Gas Stations, Car Washes etc.

 

Sounds like you are looking to invest a minimum of $1.8m, Hotels seem popular and I anticipate many will be available.

[O1+EB5 0]

1 hour ago, Boiler said:

Why do you not go for something in your area of extraordinary expertise, rather than messing with Gas Stations, Car Washes etc.

 

Sounds like you are looking to invest a minimum of $1.8m, Hotels seem popular and I anticipate many will be available.

Things i am very good at are businesses that doesn't require a lot of employees and if they do, most of the employees are outsourced in some foreign country. I am looking to invest $900k minimum and then whatever it takes to get it going.

Buying a motel is an option but i will have to add 10 jobs, the motel costing around 1.5 mil will have around 10 employees and if i buy it, getting it from 10 to 20 will be very hard.

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

The whole point of EB5 is to for them to attract investment into under-resourced (therefore riskier) areas and/or employ people. It is not intended to be a low risk, people-free investment. That’s why you get a green card as an incentive.

 

I don’t understand why you’re messing around with O1 in the meanwhile though? I know a couple of people who did EB5, it’s pretty straightforward, takes a little while to process.

Edited November 10, 2020 by SusieQQQ

[O1+EB5 0]

11 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

The whole point of EB5 is to for them to attract investment into under-resourced (therefore riskier) areas and/or employ people. It is not intended to be a low risk, people-free investment. That’s why you get a green card as an incentive.

 

I don’t understand why you’re messing around with O1 in the meanwhile though? I know a couple of people who did EB5, it’s pretty straightforward, takes a little while to process.

 

EB5 for indians takes at least 5 years, so O1 will be a bridge to live in states while waiting for EB5.

 

I do understand the point of EB5 being riskier and happy to set up a business such as a bakery or car wash or anything of that nature where the entire sum is at risk.

 

edit - grammar

Edited November 10, 2020 by O1+EB5

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

Also I’m pretty sure one of them mentioned you have to bring all the funds in from overseas, not sure if that changed with the modifications to the program. But in any case you’d want a lawyer for this so s/he could answer all those types of questions.

2 minutes ago, O1+EB5 said:

 

I do not understand the point of EB5 being riskier and happy to set up a business such as a bakery or car wash or anything of that nature where the entire sum is at risk.

I don’t understand this sentence.

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

3 minutes ago, O1+EB5 said:

 

EB5 for indians takes at least 5 years, so O1 will be a bridge to live in states while waiting for EB5.

 

 

What takes 5 years? Processing at the embassy? Because priority date wise, Eb5 is current for all countries except China.  

[O1+EB5 0]

1 minute ago, SusieQQQ said:

What takes 5 years? Processing at the embassy? Because priority date wise, Eb5 is current for all countries except China.  

average wait time for i526 processing is 3 years right now. I know so many applicants with Priority date from 2017 that are still waiting

[igoyougoduke 1,656]

what is the question here ? couldnt figure out what you are asking 

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

24 minutes ago, O1+EB5 said:

average wait time for i526 processing is 3 years right now. I know so many applicants with Priority date from 2017 that are still waiting

33-60 months according to the uscis website. Did not realize it had got that bad. Took my friends about a year from application to visa, I guess things have changed a fair bit over the last 5 years. 

[O1+EB5 0]

8 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

33-60 months according to the uscis website. Did not realize it had got that bad. Took my friends about a year from application to visa, I guess things have changed a fair bit over the last 5 years. 

if it was just a year, i could easily stay in india and come to US for 4-5 months on B1/B2, but 5 year wait just seems too much Plus you can't start anything in India when you know. you are moving out anyway.

[O1+EB5 0]

On 11/9/2020 at 4:37 PM, James120383 said:

what is the question here ? couldnt figure out what you are asking 

lol, sorry for the long wall of text and not clearly asking questions in the end. So here is what i am trying to figure out.

 

1) Is it ok to take a loan from a US bank to invest under EB5. Lets say i bring $600,000 from india and take $300,000 loan from bank to start a business, Would that be ok?

 

2) Most US Banks do not lend to non residents, would getting co signer to qualify for a loan be ok?

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

You can use loan capital, but it has to be a personal loan in your name, and you cannot use any of the EB5 assets to secure that loan. Not sure what else you would use as security in the US for that? You can certainly get a loan from your home country secured against your personal assets there, and use that.

 

https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-6-part-g-chapter-2

 

Capital includes cash, equipment, inventory, other tangible property, cash equivalents, and indebtedness secured by assets owned by the immigrant investor, provided the immigrant investor is personally and primarily liable and that the assets of the new commercial enterprise upon which the petition is based are not used to secure any of the indebtedness.

....

 

When using loan proceeds as capital, an immigrant investor must demonstrate:

- The immigrant investor is personally and primarily liable for the debt; 

- The indebtedness is secured by assets the immigrant investor owns; and

- The assets of the new commercial enterprise are not used to secure any of the indebtedness.

The immigrant investor must have primary responsibility, under the loan documents, for repaying the debt used to satisfy his or her minimum required investment amount. 

The immigrant investor must also demonstrate that his or her own collateral secures the debt, and that the value of the collateral is sufficient to secure the amount of debt that satisfies the immigrant investor’s minimum required investment amount. A loan secured by the immigrant investor’s assets qualifies as capital only up to the fair market value of the immigrant investor’s pledged assets.

[igoyougoduke 1,656]

1 hour ago, O1+EB5 said:

lol, sorry for the long wall of text and not clearly asking questions in the end. So here is what i am trying to figure out.

 

1) Is it ok to take a loan from a US bank to invest under EB5. Lets say i bring $600,000 from india and take $300,000 loan from bank to start a business, Would that be ok?

 

2) Most US Banks do not lend to non residents, would getting co signer to qualify for a loan be ok?

Yes you can use a loan