Greg is amazing! He helped me to find the right franchise in such a short time. His advice was always helpful. I enjoyed working with him and I really recommend his expertise. I couldn’t imagine a better franchise consultant!
Nourhen Haouas
Certified FocalPoint Business Coach
Nourhen found me on LinkedIn. She had visited San Diego a couple of years earlier, and she absolutely fell in love with it. She was a finance director in Germany but really loved that sunny West Coast city. For two years she had no idea how she was going to get here, but obviously she needed a visa.
She saw on LinkedIn that I was a consultant and decided right then and there to reach out to me. We had a few nice conversations and she asked, “Greg, do you have an idea how to get me to California?” I answered, “Yes indeed. I certainly do.” And this is how we did it. …
The E-2 Visa
When you’re looking at an E-2 visa, that is an investor visa. It allows foreign entrepreneurs to live and work in the U.S. through investments in a U.S. business. Spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21 may accompany investors to the U.S.
Investor visas are for treaty nationals only. There are probably more than eighty different countries that have treaties with the U.S. If you contact me, I’ll email you a link to where you can find the list. You can also go to my website franchisemaven.com and look under E-2, EB-5 visas. You will find a list of the countries that the U.S. has treaties with that allow people to come here.
What’s the minimum investment? First off, you need to make a substantial investment in a qualifying business in the U.S. In practice, if you’re looking at an E-2 visa, you need about $100,000 to have a strong E-2 visa case. A small investment may be possible depending on the nature of the business, but from what my attorneys tell me, about $100,000 makes a strong E-2 case.
Qualifying businesses include new or existing businesses. They can absolutely be new franchises. That’s what Nourhen is doing in San Diego. You must have a minimum of 50 percent of controlling ownership and any type of business can potentially qualify.
Immigration officials will want to confirm that you can generate sufficient income to provide yourself and your family with a comfortable living in the U.S. You also have to create jobs for U.S workers—usually hiring at least two employees, not including the owner. They do give you time. They give new businesses a reasonable amount of time to reach profitability and create jobs. It must be an actively operating for-profit business.
How do you apply for a visa? You can try to do it yourself, but it’s probably easier to pay an attorney to get it done. We have people who’ll take care of everything for you. Generally, it requires a visa interview. In the past, it took one to three months of processing time. It may take more than that now. With Nourhen, we’ve been working on it now for about four months. Plan on being involved in the process itself for a few months.
You can process your application within the U.S., without leaving the country if you’re already here. I worked with another gentleman, Kareem. He and his family were coming over here from the Middle East. It actually took them about a year and a half. He wasn’t quite ready, but he was getting there.
Fortunately, the franchise he was looking at held his territory for him. He got into a tutoring franchise to get the E-2 visa. There are many franchises that work with E-2 visa candidates and will hold territories for them while they’re going through the process.
The EB-5 Investment Green Card
An alternative to the E-2 visa is the EB-5 investment green card. The requirements recently changed, but it used to take about $1 million to get into the U.S. Now it takes about $1.8 million. There are different requirements if you’re looking to go into a high unemployment area. If it’s a targeted area, then about $900,000 will do—about half of that is what you need to invest to get into the U.S. on an EB-5 visa. You also need to create at least ten new full-time direct employment jobs for U.S. workers within two years.
With Nourhen, we found her a nice visa attorney who does everything, got the business plan set up, and got the visa taken care of. Nourhen is now living in sunny San Diego and running her Focal Point business coaching franchise. Look her up! She will be a great resource for helping you grow your business.