Kennedy's Immigration Law Report : Iowa Immigration Lawyer & Attorney : Austin Kennedy : Brick Gentry Law Firm : Green Cards, Permanent Residency

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Over the last 6 months or so I've had the good fortune of having a spate of E investor visa work.  This kind of work is easy to feel good about, not only because it is good business, but because E-1 and E-2 investors directly stimulate the American economy.  At a time when unemployment figures are higher than we'd like to see them, it makes all the sense in the world to have these investors starting companies in the U.S. and hiring employees.  For those who are unfamiliar with the program, I should explain that E-1 and E-2 visa investors have to demonstrate as preconditions for obtaining their investor visas that they have invested a substantial amount of their own money into a U.S. business and that the business will be hiring a certain number of U.S. employees.

Anyway, after having successfully obtained a number of E-2 investor visas over the last couple months, a couple of observations come to mind: 

• First, an informed and well-written business plan is essential.  If the immigrant investor isn't capable of writing a good business plan, then someone needs to be hired to do so.  The plan needs to demonstrate that the business has forecasted reasonable expectations for financial growth and for hiring. 
• Second, the investment capital must be entirely owned and controlled by the intending immigrant.  The investment capital can have been gifted to the E investor, but the capital cannot be in the form of loan proceeds that encumber any of the business property. 
• Third, consulates abroad take a long time to process these applications, so the investor needs to understand that the visa isn't going to be issued over night.  Plus, it is extremely and maddeningly difficult to communicate with the consulate regarding the application.  You can email or call through a third party private vendor service, but it will cost you approximately $25.00 per time.  Plus, and this is a real treat, emails sent through the service have to be very short in length, I believe 200 words or less.  Finally, the consulates routinely send you mysterious faxes that lack any sort of return fax number or other contact information.  So you get the fax requesting additional information or clarification, and then it becomes an expensive race to the FEDEX box. 
• Fourth, make sure the investor hires an accountant.  The investment needs to be clearly documented and explainable to the consulate, and accountants (as you might imagine) excel at such things. 
• Fourth, probably because this is a pretty unique area of the law, many consulate branches abroad seem unaware of the fact that they (ie., the Department of State) have jurisdiction to directly adjudicate the visa.  In other words, the investor does not first have to petition USCIS for their status.  All evidence and application materials can be sent directly to the consulate abroad.    So, a friendly reminder on the front end of the process of their jurisdiction and authority seems to be a helpful icebreaker. 

As you can see, E-1 and E-2 investor visas are a challenging area of immigration law, but also rewarding in a number of ways.  The investors directly stimulate the economy by infusing it with large sums of investment cash, plus they hire U.S. workers.  Makes sense, eh?