Lawyers with 1,000+ Approvals Share E2 Visa Requirements
Watch this exclusive WEBINAR with Immigration Attorneys and Partners of WR Immigration, Bernard Wolfsdorf, and Joey Barnett
Written by
Patrick Findaro
Published on
18 Mar 2022
Table of Contents:
This article is based on a video originally recorded on Vetted Biz Youtube Channel
Republic of China, Taiwan has the treaty. Pakistan has the treaty. India and China do not have treaties. So, if you are from a country that does not have a treaty, we will talk to you later about E2 visa requirements CBI, citizenship by investment. It’s an extra step, but we are doing the Turkish program right now. The Grenada program and Montenegro program are a little bit expensive. I don’t really like it. Turkish is my favorite. Grenada, my second favorite. There may be others, but if you don’t have the correct nationality, well, then get it. Common to be able to obtain a second passport through investment or through a gift. All right. So, let’s focus on the requirements for an E-2.
So, I’ve already spoken about the first point, nationality. If you don’t have the correct nationality, then you have to acquire the correct nationality if you want to do an E-2. So, you can also just Google the term E-2 countries quite easily, and I know Patrick’s got that stuff on his website as well.
E2 visa requirements: Substantial Investment
Point number two, this is the big one. You, the investor, have to make a substantial investment, and what does the word substantial mean? Well, we evaluate substantial in relation to the specific investment. So, I always use the example, I want to build supersonic aircraft. I think the investment amount would probably be about $1 billion or something. But if you were going to look at an elderly care business or one of the businesses that Patrick is, and I haven’t seen what he’s presenting today.
That will be in the second part of our presentation. But it has to be substantial in relation to that type of investment. Sometimes I will tell people: «Well, okay. Do you want to open up a small restaurant, 250? Yeah. Sure, no problem.» Actually, the thing that I like to see in addition to the investment amount is job creation.
If you're going to create one part-time job in your business plan, how does that contribute to significant economic contribution?
Now, nowhere in the E-2 do they really talk about job creation but if you jump below to the fourth point, you’ll see I’ve highlighted the word significant economic contribution. So, if you’re going to create one part-time job in your business plan, how does that contribute to significant economic contribution? Well, maybe your revenue, maybe your sales, but that phrase is absolutely critical. Now there are different roles that you can play, and we’re going to talk about that as well. I’m going to push Patrick on that because actually, that is a requirement. So, the principal investor will direct and develop. Direct and develop, what does that mean? Or you could be a manager or employee with special skills. So, one of the other nice things about an E-2 is let’s assume you come from Argentina, and you do an investment, and your best friend happens to be a CPA. You can potentially bring your best friend with you.
"Now she’s the boss"
And by the way, Joey, you’re going to have to confirm this for me as well. I just saw yesterday that spouses now of L’s and E’s are getting automatic work authorization upon the entry and it’s being notated. Did you see that email that was sent out in the office from LAX with a coding? It is an L2-S, which is a work-authorized category.
Joey:— Right.
B:— This is huge. Not only do you get the work visa, but the spouse gets the work visa and it’s automatic. Bingo. We just got two for one and they can both— But here’s the nice part about this, and I absolutely love this, but be careful with it because the spouse has unrestricted employment authorization, unrestricted. So, if the spouse, if your spouse has always wanted to flip burgers at McDonald’s, their lifelong dream job. Bingo. You get the E-2. The spouse gets to go, and work at McDonald’s, and flip burgers. I would probably choose In-N-Out Burger if I was in California, I prefer but silliness aside. That’s a very important consideration that spouses can, in fact, obtain automatic work authorization.
P:— Bernie, to add in, it’s a good time to be an employee. So, if your spouse is able to get a job and make $5k, $6k, $10k a month, while the business scales up, that’s money for the family.
B:— I don’t about you, Patrick, but what happened? I brought my wife into the company eight years ago, now she’s the boss. All right? So, there’s also a danger. I could get fired soon. I’m always wondering whether my wife—
P:— Yeah, so maybe it’s better to keep it separate.
They become automatically eligible
B:— In some ways, it could be because— a warning about bringing your spouse into the business. Better to have her go and work somewhere else but no, in our case, quite frankly, I’m joking but I’m not. My wife is the reason for the success of our company right now. She’s a smart technology person.
J:— One thing to add here, Bernie, and just to answer one of the questions that were raised is related to the nationality of the spouse. Does the nationality of the spouse need to have the same…does it need to be the same…
B:— Great question, and I love that. No, no, no. We don’t care which passport your spouse or children have. They become automatically eligible. So, we often have that situation where one spouse has the correct treaty country and the other doesn’t, but you have to be a little bit careful—
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