E2 visa

[sharondl]

Hi can anyone help

Want to move from UK to Florida and have been advised to go for E2. Is it correct that we will not be issued green cards until the business is worth 1,000,000 dollors as have only 7 years before son is 21 and dont think this is acheivable (ever)

Thought foolishly america land of opportunity obviously not if from uk

after looking through info posted this looks scary.

Fight with us, but can't live with us, unless spend all cash and work backside off, employ Americans

Then they can ship your kids back when they are 21

What a nightmare not a DREAM!!!



Is it worth it please someone tell me it is better than life in the uk or have we spent years saving a nightmare



sharon

[esprit]

Not quite the way it works. If you buy a business worth 1 million or $500,000 in an area of low employment and employing a minimum of 10 Americans, you dont go in on E2 at all but on a totally different visa ( EB5) which is an investor visa that leads directly and quickly to green card. If you go in on E2, you stay on E2 and R2 doesnt lead to green card. I know someone who has been on E2 for 17 years.
True if you have a large business and in something you are quualified or specialised in, you could try and go the way of applying for labor certification from your own business and change to a work based visa and thus to green card, long hard path through. I suppose if you worked your E2 business, built it up to raise $1 million and then sold it and bought one suitable for EB5, you could always apply to change status. Bit of a long shot though.

You are talking here to one whose son is now less than 2 years off 21 not 7 years. And yes it worries me aick, He is working hard at college to eventually get a degree but will they still be issuing HIB work visas by then having cut down this yeat to a quarter of what they issued last year. I dont know of many people on E2 with kids who arnt seeking for ways to change ststus and get off it. It is just too unequitable for words. And no you are right, shoulder to shoulder doesnt tend to hold much water.

Is it worth it?? I dont know. I love living here but I hate my visa status which says I dont live here, I still live back in the UK even though I dont own one brick over there and which gives me and mine no rights whatsover. Think on.

[sharondl]

hi went to see uk immigration co who took all our details and they told us our best option was with E2

They are so vauge untill you part with your cash, made it sound like we could buy business and be able to convert E2 to green card once business establish and worth 1,000,000 only given pretty basic info when talking on way home relised that business would have to make a 100k proffit every year to enable us to get green card before our son 21 which means we would have to buy a pretty well established business that would propably cost in excess of 1,000,000 to achieve this and if we had that sort of money would get automatic green card

i think we have more chance of lottery win

[esprit]

I think what they mean is that if you build your busines up to be worth $1 miilion you could try and use it to change status to EB5. Not sure if it works, how would you prove the business was worth that much. The idea is you INVEST $1 million. E2 doesnt ever lead directly to green card, only via change of status. I know a lot of people here on E2 some who have been here for many years and I dont think any of them have built a business worth $1 million. Hard to do, business is very competitive and hard.
I think your immigration guy is giving you straws to clutch at and pretty tenuous ones as well. It COULD happen but it is actually more likely that your son would marry a yank in my opinion. Be careful of immigration experts, they tell you what you want to hear to get the business in a lot of cases.

[sharondl]

Are the US immigration companies cheaper and better than uk or do they all just want money, eyeballs, sockets and whatever else they can get to give you useless information

Is LESLEY A. SILLITTO someone who will honestly advise us on our best options and if we have no hope of ever achieving green cards without deciding the fate of a 12/13 year old so we can get over there

why is there such a difference between US and canada apart from the obivious wheather conditions or is it just that canada is so cold everyone is leaving so they are desperate to get people there

[esprit]

Yes Lesley tells it as it is. She is a little over cautious if anything not as that is a bad thing.