Beginners Initial Advice Please

[Boiler 46,110]

The people in the business I know do not work this way, they use Contractors/SubContractors rather than a direct labour force.

 

L1 will depend on the size of your UK business amongst other things.

[Gomast 65]

6 minutes ago, eugegall said:

Thanks so much for your feedback. 

 

With the L-1A. Can we do this although we currently only work for ourselves without any form of connection to any companies in the US. 

Yes, but it’s not a DIY case. You can work for yourselves. You will need to show a business plan, you will need to show actual business starting to form within the US with a purchased land or homes that you already manage in the US, and signed agreements with subcontractors. You will need to show substantial business activity in your home country, with employees that you manage. You will  need to keep the business activity in the UK while you are on L-1. 

[igoyougoduke 1,675]

3 hours ago, eugegall said:

Hi all,

 

My wife and I have always wanted to move to the USA and we think the next few years might be the right time for us.

 

We are both UK nationals and passport holders but I was wondering where to start? 

 

It seems like a bit of a minefield and I'm totally lost as to what to do. 

 

We both own our own business together so I don't think we could get sponsorship via that route however we do have a decent amount of business related funds we can take with us if that helps.

 

What do you think our best bet would be? 

 

Literally any advice/pointers in the right direction would be massively appreciated. 

 

Cheers

EB5 works for you and i have personally done the EB5 category and now in the US with green card . There are two categories within Eb5. One is a Regional Center aka Target Employment areas (TEA)  and the other is called Direct. With Regional Center you invest about 500,000 with a company. and Direct is 1 million. There are plenty of companies you can find who do TEA category when you google them . Most of these are real estate developers who create jobs. Your investment must produce 10 jobs over the period of your conditional green card status. So you invest 500k with Regional center and they take care of creating jobs. Regional centers usually charge about 50k for their fee. So you are looking at 550k of investment. You and your spouse and children can all immigrate at the same time.

 

The second one is Direct where you start your own company and you are responsible for creating jobs. you need a business plan and lots of documentation to show how you will run business, create jobs. Here you are in charge and you need to show 10 jobs were created and sustained during your entire conditional green card status and minimum for 2 year period. This is the 1 million dollar category. 

[igoyougoduke 1,675]

54 minutes ago, eugegall said:

For sure. I love the way the US system works in relation to real estate but also I totally hear what you're saying about not meeting the minimum of 10 employee requirements which I why we think the developing business will be the best way to go. 

 

Assuming they accept the property purchase as part of the investment. 

it has to be a business that sustains investment and creates 10 jobs. The part of 10 jobs is very emphasized. Eb5 program is to create jobs otherwise all of them will just buy homes for the investment  

[igoyougoduke 1,675]

59 minutes ago, eugegall said:

Absolutely won't a problem. 

 

I read it was $1.8m. Hopefully I was wrong!

It is 500k for Regional Center and 1 million for Direct investment due to a current court case going on between Behring vs USCIS  (Behring Regional Center LLC v. Wolf (3:20-cv-09263)

[Boiler 46,110]

I would not rely on the lower figure and anyway that does not seem to be the issue.

[igoyougoduke 1,675]

56 minutes ago, eugegall said:

Thanks so much for your feedback. 

 

With the L-1A. Can we do this although we currently only work for ourselves without any form of connection to any companies in the US. 

if you are the owner of your company and you are seeking to open a branch in US or develop business, you are eligible to apply for L1 visa. once you are here you can qualify to apply green card through Eb1-c category but your visa will only be valid for 1 year under sole owner

[eugegall 0]

52 minutes ago, Boiler said:

The people in the business I know do not work this way, they use Contractors/SubContractors rather than a direct labour force.

 

L1 will depend on the size of your UK business amongst other things.

That's exactly how we do it here so very unlikely to employ 10 people directly early on. The plan would be to have our own team of trades working for us full time but in the early days this won't be possible 

49 minutes ago, Gomast said:

Yes, but it’s not a DIY case. You can work for yourselves. You will need to show a business plan, you will need to show actual business starting to form within the US with a purchased land or homes that you already manage in the US, and signed agreements with subcontractors. You will need to show substantial business activity in your home country, with employees that you manage. You will  need to keep the business activity in the UK while you are on L-1. 

Not impossible then and we're not intending on selling our UK business. It brings us in a good income which will allow us to try something new. 

12 minutes ago, igoyougoduke said:

EB5 works for you and i have personally done the EB5 category and now in the US with green card . There are two categories within Eb5. One is a Regional Center aka Target Employment areas (TEA)  and the other is called Direct. With Regional Center you invest about 500,000 with a company. and Direct is 1 million. There are plenty of companies you can find who do TEA category when you google them . Most of these are real estate developers who create jobs. Your investment must produce 10 jobs over the period of your conditional green card status. So you invest 500k with Regional center and they take care of creating jobs. Regional centers usually charge about 50k for their fee. So you are looking at 550k of investment. You and your spouse and children can all immigrate at the same time.

 

The second one is Direct where you start your own company and you are responsible for creating jobs. you need a business plan and lots of documentation to show how you will run business, create jobs. Here you are in charge and you need to show 10 jobs were created and sustained during your entire conditional green card status and minimum for 2 year period. This is the 1 million dollar category. 

I really like the sound of this. So we can invest $500k into a regional centre and they will give us a working visa with no restrictions? So once approved we can arrive in the US and just start from there and see where we end up? That sounds like it takes a lot of the pressure away. 

 

I assume the $500k is an investment, meaning we'll get it back at some point?

10 minutes ago, igoyougoduke said:

it has to be a business that sustains investment and creates 10 jobs. The part of 10 jobs is very emphasized. Eb5 program is to create jobs otherwise all of them will just buy homes for the investment  

As mentioned above. I may struggle with this early on. 

6 minutes ago, Boiler said:

I would not rely on the lower figure and anyway that does not seem to be the issue.

Sure. Will take a cautious approach. 

3 minutes ago, igoyougoduke said:

if you are the owner of your company and you are seeking to open a branch in US or develop business, you are eligible to apply for L1 visa. once you are here you can qualify to apply green card through Eb1-c category but your visa will only be valid for 1 year under sole owner

Thanks again. All very good advice. 

[SalishSea 18,142]

2 hours ago, eugegall said:

As mentioned above. I may struggle with this early on. 

Since US job creation is the sole purpose of this class of visas, maybe it is not the best choice then.

[igoyougoduke 1,675]

7 hours ago, eugegall said:

 

I really like the sound of this. So we can invest $500k into a regional centre and they will give us a working visa with no restrictions? So once approved we can arrive in the US and just start from there and see where we end up? That sounds like it takes a lot of the pressure away. 

 

I assume the $500k is an investment, meaning we'll get it back at some point?

 

If you are abroad. you would first find a regional center to invest.

 you will invest with them 500k and they will hold on to the money until your i-829 (aka permanent green card approval. depends on your contract). your first stage would be filing I-526 petition once your money is transferred to regional center. They can use the money to build/construction aka money is put at risk. I-526 takes 1-2 years to approve. once i-526 is approved than you get a immigrant visa abroad and land in US. once you land than you are a permanent resident. your green card is mailed in 2-3 months after arrival but once you arrive you are permanent resident.

 

Initially you will receive a conditional green card for 2 years. After 1year and 9 months you will file for condition removal by filing i-829. One thing to note is right now regional center program is not renewed as it lapsed in july 2021. It is waiting for congress to renew. so there is that.  However the direction investment program is permanent and you can file 

 

yes the 500k is an investment at risk for a while and your regional center has create jobs. money at risk and 10 jobs are to be created by your regional center. so make your decision carefully where you invest. A lot of real estate construction is big areas like San Francisco, New york and Los Angeles are stable markets. However its your choice. as there are 500-1000 regional centers across the country. your money might or might not come back depending on regional center. So that is why the program is Money is at risk

 

A big emphasis is on selecting a high quality regional center.  Please read this page first to get a basic idea 

https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers/employment-based-immigration-fifth-preference-eb-5/about-the-eb-5-visa-classification

 

 

Edited November 26, 2021 by igoyougoduke

[igoyougoduke 1,675]

5 hours ago, Jorgedig said:

Since US job creation is the sole purpose of this class of visas, maybe it is not the best choice then.

also the jobs have to sustain atleast 2 years in order to meet the requirements. no idea who came up with the idea but only the folks who wrote it know about the reason

[Coco8 1,042]

L1 visa to open a branch of your UK company would be a place to start, I think. You can use it to figure out where you want to move, make contacts, maybe find a partner, do research. It would allow you to work and even start a project. Once you have that going and you know you like living here/it's going to work, you can move on to the investor green card scenario (while keeping the L1). I don't think you'd want to invest 1.8 million in one go and then realize you don't like it or your business takes too long to take off.

 

Currently, mortgage loans have very low interest rates. However, in some places there is barely anything up for sale, in other places there are shortages of people to work in construction, it can get difficult to get some materials, etc. 

 

You can get an L1 visa rather fast, like within a couple of months. You'd need to hire an immigration lawyer in the US to do the paperwork for you. It's not a DYI situation. You'd also get dependent visas for your family.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Coco8